Yīzōng jīnjiàn · Shānbǔ míngyī fānglùn 醫宗金鑑·刪補名醫方論
Yīzōng jīn-jiàn — Edited Discussions on the Prescriptions of Famous Physicians by 吳謙 (奉敕撰) and 劉裕鐸 (奉敕撰), under imperial commission
About the work
The Shānbǔ míngyī fānglùn 刪補名醫方論 (8 juàn) is the imperial formulary-and-discussion volume of the Qīng Yīzōng jīnjiàn (KR3e0090 / KR3eu016). It presents the imperial editors’ selection from the prescription literature of Zhāng Zhòngjǐng, the Sòng Héjì júfāng, the four JīnYuán great masters (Liú Wánsù, Zhāng Cóngzhèng, Lǐ Gǎo, Zhū Dānxī) and the major Míng physicians (Xuē Jǐ, Wáng Kěntáng, Zhāng Jièbīn, Lǐ Zhōngzǐ etc.), accompanied by editorial fānglùn (prescription-discussions) drawn from the Yīfāng kǎo 醫方考 tradition of 吳崑 Wú Kūn (1584) and 汪昂 Wāng Áng’s Yīfāng jíjiě 醫方集解 (1682).
Abstract
The Sìkù tíyào (KR3e0090) describes the editorial method: “those who collect prescriptions often only label ‘such-and-such pill or powder treats such-and-such disease’, not realising that diseases with similar symptoms often have very different roots. The ancients adjusted by symptom: jūnchénzuǒshǐ (sovereign-minister-assistant-courier) had its proper arrangement; attack-or-tonification-fast-or-slow had its sequence … Therefore prescription-and-discussion are presented together.” The principle is therefore not a bare formulary but an analytical formulary explaining the fāngyì 方義 (prescription-rationale) of each formula. The work is one of the principal pedagogical texts of the Qīng imperial-academy curriculum and one of the most influential fānglùn-type works in any Chinese medical compendium.
Composition window 1742–1749. For the parent compendium see KR3e0090; cf. duplicate entry KR3eu030.
Translations and research
- Scheid, Volker, Dan Bensky, Andrew Ellis, and Randall Barolet. 2009. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas and Strategies (2nd ed.). Seattle: Eastland Press — draws extensively on the Shān-bǔ míng-yī fāng-lùn tradition in its fāng-lùn explanations for each formula.
- Bensky, Dan, Steven Clavey, Erich Stöger, and Andrew Gamble. 2004. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica (3rd ed.). Seattle: Eastland Press.
- Wāng Áng 汪昂. Yī-fāng jí-jiě 醫方集解, modern critical editions — the proximate Qīng forerunner.