Notes

Introduction

1. 1. Scholars have rendered Shen’s given name alternately as “Kuo” and “Gua” (“Kua” was used in Wade-Giles romanization, which has been replaced by the People’s Republic of China’s pinyin system).

2. 2. Su Shen neihan liangfang, 5.714. The basic format of medical formulas in imperial China is a list of disorders it could treat and of ingredients followed by detailed instructions for preparing the ingredients and administering remedies.

3. 3. For further comparison between the Western notion of experience and the Chinese concept of jingyan (experience) in philosophical terms, see Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 14–18.

4. 4. Shapin and Schaffer, Leviathan, 25–26. Their book has challenged the conventional understanding of the Scientific Revolution by showing that scientific knowledge claims were not internally produced by an esoteric scientific community but instead shaped by social dynamics involving a wide range of actors who operated outside of it.

5. 5. Patricia Ebrey and Peter Bol used the term “middle period China” in 2014 at the Conference on Middle Period China, 800–1400. The term provides a time frame that is broader than a dynasty, is “less Eurocentric than ‘medieval,’ and does not carry associations of decline from a classical era.” Ebrey and Huang, Visual and Material Cultures, 1.

6. 6. Hinrichs, “Governance through Medical Texts”; and Shamans, Witchcraft, and Quarantine. I am immensely grateful to Prof. Hinrichs for sharing her manuscript with me.

7. 7. For more on the contrasts between printing cultures in early modern China and Europe, see Brokaw, “On the History of the Book.”

8. 8. For recent studies on the impacts of printing technology in middle-period China, see Chia and De Weerdt, eds., Knowledge and Text Production.

9. 9. Fried, “Song Dynasty Classicism.”

10. 10. On recent statistics of medical imprints in the Song, see Chen Ruth Yun-ju, “Songdai shidafu canyu difang yishu kanyin xintan.”

11. 11. Cherniack, “Book Culture”; Wang Yugen, Ten Thousand Scrolls. Other significant studies on this transformation that informed this book are cited in later chapters.

12. 12. McDermott, Social History, 43–82.

13. 13. On the importance of being initiated by a master into the art of healing in early China, see Sivin, “Text and Experience,” 177–88; and Li Jianmin, “Zhongguo gudai jinfang kaolun.”

14. 14. Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 55–67; Chin, Zhongguo gudai de yixue, yishi, yu zhengzhi, 86–98, and “Chutu gudai yiliao xiangguan wenben de shuxie yu bianci”; Brown, Art of Medicine.

15. 15. Fan, “Weijinnanbeichao Sui Tang shiqi de yixue,” 162–69; Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhiyi, 87–161; Dolly Yang, “Prescribing ‘Guiding and Pulling.’”

16. 16. On Tang officials’ practice of collecting and circulating medical formulas, see Fan, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe, 153–85.

17. 17. For the formulation see, Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine, 199. For English-language scholarship adopting this formulation, for instance, see, Sivin, Health Care.

18. 18. Sivin, “Text and Experience,” 190–95.

19. 19. The shift in the criteria that qualify empirical evidence as reliable discussed in this book helps reveal changes in, as some historians put it, “cultures of reasoning” in imperial China. Cultures of reasoning exist through “inter-subjectively accepted mechanisms for claiming and assessing the validity of textual evidence, empirical observations, and argumentative strategies.” For studies of cultures of reasoning in imperial China, but with a focus on the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, see Hofmann, Kurtz, and Levine, eds., Powerful Arguments.

20. 20. Medical case narratives in imperial China generally included basic information about the sick (such as social position, gender, age, disease history, and name), diagnoses, and treatments.

21. 21. Studies of “medical case statements” in imperial China have analyzed their epistemic function, the socio-intellectual contexts surrounding their emergence and popularity, and the healing practices they reveal. The studies are too numerous to cite exhaustively here. For seminal studies that investigate the popularity of this new genre against the prevailing “style of thinking” in late imperial China, see Furth, Zeitlin, and Hsiung, eds., Thinking with Cases. Recent studies, such as Marta Hanson’s Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine, examine the practice of documenting authors’ personal experience in other medical literature of late imperial China.

22. 22. Sima, Shiji, 105.3381, 3400.

23. 23. For a careful analysis of medical cases in Chunyu Yi’s biography and the bodily experience involved in such cases, see Hsu, Pulse Diagnosis. Scholarly opinions have been divided on the authorship of the twenty-five medical cases. For a recent review of these opinions, see Brown, Art of Medicine, 77–86.

24. 24. Furth, “Producing Medical Knowledge,” 131–51; Cullen, “Yi’an (Case Statements),” 309–21.

25. 25. Andrews, “From Case Records.” On the competition between Chinese medicine and Western medicine during this period, see, for instance, Lei, Neither Donkey nor Horse.

26. 26. Hanson and Pomata, “Medicinal Formulas.”

27. 27. On the birth and development of observationes, see Pomata, “Sharing Cases.”

28. 28. Pomata, “Medical Case Narrative.”

29. 29. One exception is He Bian’s recent article, which suggests that physicians and elite patients were both invested in the production of medical cases. See Bian, “Documenting Medications.”

30. 30. Furth, “Producing Medical Knowledge,” 126–31; Cullen, “Yi’an (Case Statements),” 309. One exception that challenges this view is Ninety Discussions on Cold Damage Disorders (Shanghan jiushi lun), a single-author medical case collection attributed to a Song author. Whether Ninety Discussions was a Song-dynasty work is still, however, open to scholarly dispute. In chapter 3, I discuss this dispute and explain why Ninety Discussions was in all likelihood not completed during the Song. On the translation and analysis of Ninety Discussions, see Goldschmidt, Medical Practice.

31. 31. Burke, What Is the History.

32. 32. For recent English-language studies on the popularity of composing notebooks, travel literature, and inventories of things in the Song era, see, De Pee, “Notebooks (biji) and Shifting Boundaries”; Hargett, Jade Mountains, 90–121; Mai, “Double Life”; and Siebert, “Consuming and Possessing Things” and “Animal as Text.”

33. 33. On the expanding scope of civil service examinations in the Song era, see Chaffee, Thorny Gates of Learning.

34. 34. Studies of the Tang-Song transition of ruling elites originated in what scholars call the “Naitō hypothesis.” Naitō Torajirō (1866–1934) proposed this hypothesis, provoking a large body of English-language, Japanese, and Chinese-language studies that examine and expand on it. For a summary of the hypothesis, see Miyakawa, “Outline of the Naitō Hypothesis.”

35. 35. For classic studies on the shift in the definition of cultural elites in the Song era, see Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen; Bol, This Culture of Ours; and Bossler, Powerful Relations.

36. 36. On Song notebooks as examples of an informal prose style, see Hargett, “Sketches.”

37. 37. On the difficulties involved in defining biji, see Bol, “Literati Miscellany,” 124–27. For modern scholars’ definitions of notebooks, see, among others, Liu Yeqiu, Lidai biji gaishu, 5; and Fu, “Flourishing of Biji.”

38. 38. On the 155 figures, see Zhang Hui, Songdai biji yanjiu, 31. On the 1,103 figures, see Gu, Liang Song biji yanjiu, 12–15.

39. 39. Ellen Cong Zhang, “To Be ‘Erudite in Miscellaneous Knowledge.’”

40. 40. De Weerdt, Information, Territory, and Networks, 285–86.

41. 41. For a study on the application of these methods in the Song era, see, among others, Inglis, Hong Mai’s Record. For oral anecdotes as an important information source for notebook authors in the same period, see Ellen Cong Zhang, “Of Revelers”; and Hymes, “Gossip as History.”

42. 42. Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 172.

43. 43. Inglis, Hong Mai’s Record, 123–25; Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 175–85, 228–35.

44. 44. Ban, Han shu, 30.1776–80.

45. 45. As noted by many historians of Chinese medicine, the term yi in ancient and imperial China covers a much wider spectrum of concepts and practices than modern biomedicine does, as the former pertains both to healing practices and techniques for promoting vitality and achieving longevity. On the rich array of such practices and techniques, see Hinrichs and Barnes, eds., Chinese Medicine and Healing.

46. 46. A similar methodology is adopted in the study of empiricism in early modern Europe. See Crisciani, “Histories, Stories, Exempla, and Anecdotes,” 298.

47. 47. Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 17–18. While both Zuo’s monograph and this book address empiricism in the Song era, the research for the two studies was carried out in distinct time periods and applies distinct approaches to this topic. Zuo’s monograph discusses features of empiricism in the context of learning between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, covering the intellectual history of empiricism in Song China. This book explores specific historical contexts from which the empirical strategy arose and traces this strategy back to the ninth century, revealing the social and cultural history of empiricism in late Tang and Song China.

ONE    New Criteria for “Good” Medical Formulas

1. 1. Lo, “Han Period,” 40.

2. 2. In comparison, in her study of Middle English medical formulas, Claire Jones identified a group of Latin phrases that were appended at the ends of those formulas to promote their effects. She argued that those Latin phrases served to indicate that the formulas originated in ancient theoretical texts rather than providing empirical proof. See Jones, “Formula and Formulation.”

3. 3. Apart from building credibility, another relevant interpretation of the significance of accompanying a formula with its applicants’ official positions and surnames views the inclusion of such information as a selling point. Brown used the latter interpretation in her analysis of a medical formula that contains the phrase “a formula of General Geng of Jianwei” in its main text. The formula is dated to the first century CE and was discovered on the Wuwei frontier (in Gansu) in 1972. See Brown, Art of Medicine, 84.

4. 4. For Sun Simiao’s innovation in the production of medical knowledge and the analysis of the twenty-five cases, see Yan Liu, Healing with Poisons, 105–24. For a translation and brief discussion of some of the twenty-five cases, see Sivin, “Seventh- Century.”

5. 5. For Cui Zhiti’s medical learning, see Chen Hao, Ji zhi cheng shang, 256–62.

6. 6. Waitai miyao fang, 3.44.

7. 7. Waitai miyao fang, 33.662–63. For an investigation into Mr. Cui’s author and an analysis of Tanluan’s story about assisting with a newborn delivery, see Lee Jen-der, “Han Tang zhijian yishu zhongde shengchan zhi dao.” For the English translation of this story, see Lee Jen-der, “Gender and Medicine in Tang China.”

8. 8. On the case histories in Mr. Cui and Essential Formulas and on the intellectual contexts in which those case histories emerged, see Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijiande yizhe zhi yi, 177–82. In that book Chen also proposes that, in the Tang dynasty, the practice of narrating a healing event using a first-person pronoun appears in scholar-officials’ formularies more frequently than in others’ formularies. Nevertheless, considering the paucity of Tang formularies that have come down to us, it is difficult in my view for historians to confirm that phenomenon.

9. 9. Wang Tao, of the Institute for Extending Literature (Hongwen Guan), taking advantage of his access as an official to the imperial library, collected a considerable number of medical formulas from the library and brought them together to create The Imperial Library Formulary in 752.

10. 10. Tamba Yasuyori, a physician in the Japanese court in the Heian period (ca. 794–1194), selected and transcribed Chinese medical writings up to the Tang era and then compiled them into Formulas at the Heart of Medicine. Two hundred and four Chinese medical works are cited in it, according to Ma Jixing, Zhongyi wenxian xue, 207.

11. 11. Genette, Paratexts, 79–89.

12. 12. Hanson, “From under the Elbow.” Hanson uses the thematic/rhematic method to demonstrate how metaphors in book titles served to convey the contents, material forms, and textual innovations of medical “handbooks” in middle-period China. Indebted to her research, I use the method to disclose how authors featured reliability and empirical evidence in book titles from the same period.

13. 13. Wei, Sui shu, 34.1042.

14. 14. Liu Yuxi quanji biannian jiaozhu, 1037–38. Fan examined sources of information about the formulas in Passing on Trustworthy Formulas in the context of Tang officials’ emphasis on the value of formulas that were known to be effective. Fan, Dayi jingcheng, 147–68. Received parts of Liu’s formulary are collected and edited in Feng Hanyong, Gu fangshu jiyi, 105–20.

15. 15. Boji fang, 1.

16. 16. Shen Kuo quanji, 28.178. My translation is based on Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 198.

17. 17. For example, Sivin, based on this quotation, argued that “Shen’s most characteristic contribution was undoubtedly his emphasis on his own experience.” Sivin, “Shen Kua,” 30. For a recent review of a considerable number of studies on Shen Kuo and his oeuvre, see Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 8–27.

18. 18. Shen Kuo quanji, 28.177–78.

19. 19. Shen Kuo quanji, 28.178. My translation is based on Boyanton, “Treatise on Cold Damage,” 76.

20. 20. One revealing contrast with Shen Kuo’s silence is that, sometime between 1227 and 1248, the Song physician Chen Yan, when writing down his reflections on Shen’s preface, used “ways of medicine” (yidao) to refer to the ineffable profoundness that Shen evokes. Baoqing bencao zhezhong, 2.458.

21. 21. Sima Guang ji, 27.678.

22. 22. Shen Kuo quanji, 28.178.

23. 23. Shen Kuo quanji, 28.178–79.

24. 24. Fan, “Ge Xianweng zhouhou beijifang”; Stanley-Baker, “JY146 Ge Xianweng zhouhou beiji fang.”

25. 25. The printed version bears the title Newly Carved Immortal Sun’s Formulary Worth a Thousand in Gold (Xindiao Sun zhenren qianjin fang). For an investigation into the printing date and publishers of this version, see Zeng, “Xindiao Sun zhenren qianjin fang kanke niandai kao” and “Xindiao Sun zhenren qianjin fang kezhe kao.”

26. 26. On the circulation of Essential Formulas as hand-copied manuscripts and printed texts in the Song era, see Chen Hao, “Zai xieben yu yinben zhijian de fangshu.”

27. 27. A similar expression of the concept that no formula had universal effects appears in a later Song-era formulary, Shi Zaizhi’s Formulary (Shi Zaizhi fang). Its author, Shi Kan (fl. 1086–1102), was famous for his medical expertise and obtained the advanced-scholar degree sometime between 1111 and 1118. In a section on diarrhea, Shi argues that physicians should modify treatments in accordance with specific subtypes of diarrhea, declaring that “this is why I think what formularies recorded were not formulas of inevitable effects.” Shi Zaizhi fang, xia, 93.

28. 28. Beiji qianjin yaofang, 1.1–13.

29. 29. For a close analysis of Su’s and Shen’s Formulas, see Yi, “Songdai de shiren yu yifang.”

30. 30. Junzhai dushuzhi jiaozheng, 15.730.

31. 31. For a survey of the editions and circulation of Good Formulas and Su’s and Shen’s Formulas, see Hu, “Su Shen neihan liangfang Chu Shu pan,” 196–97; Zhizhai shulu jieti, 13.388; and Suichutang shumu, 494.

32. 32. Hu, “Su Shen neihan liangfang chu shu pan,” 87–112. The total of 252 items is based on the item numbers that Hu Daojing gave to each of the entries in Su’s and Shen’s Formulas. The figure 172 indicating how many items Shen Kuo wrote is based on existing studies and my analysis of Su’s and Shen’s Formulas. Hu identified 172 items that Shen wrote. Li Shuhui showed that items no. 132 and no. 225, the author of which Hu did not identify, were written by Shen. Li argued meanwhile that it was Su Shi who composed items no. 49 and no. 179a, two that Hu identified as Shen’s. Because Li did not give concrete evidence of Su Shi as the author of item no. 49, however, I regard its authorship as unknown. See Li Shuhui, “Su Shen liangfang zuozhe qufen xinkao” and “Su Shen liangfang zuozhe qufen xinkao (xuwan).”

33. 33. Yi Sumei noticed the contrast as well but did not explain why it occurred. Yi, “Songdai de shiren yu yifang,” 89.

34. 34. Hu, “Su Shen neihan liangfang Chu Shu pan,” 197–99. Items 039, 058B, 063, 086, 090, 118, 121, 138, 146, 153, 167, 174, 178, and 192. The number of individual items in Good Formulas agrees with the “general number” (zonghao) that Hu Daojing gave to Bao Tingbo’s (1728–1814) edition of Su’s and Shen’s Formulas. Bao’s edition is an edited and reprinted version that Cheng Yongpei printed in 1794.

35. 35. Items 059, 079, 088, 106, 161, 186, 188, 190, 205, and 214.

36. 36. Items 050, 058B, 071, 072B, 093, 113, 119, 158, 167, 174, 177, 202, and 209.

37. 37. Items 058A, 058B, 068, 071, 075, 078, 082, 083, 085, 091, 108, 110, 113, 138, 145, 148, 151, 152, 161, 170, 180, 196, 206, 215, 216, 218, 227, and 231.

38. 38. Items 063, 084, 090, 175, 176, 179b, 193, 195, 203, 213, and 224.

39. 39. Items 051, 060, 072A, 073–075, 077, 078, 082, 087, 092, 093, 096, 097, 099–101, 106, 107, 109, 110, 115–17, 120, 132, 138, 145–47, 149, 154–56, 163, 164, 168, 171, 183, 191, 192, 200, 204, 209, 211, 212, 216, 220, 222, 224, 226, and 234h.

40. 40. Item 205.

41. 41. Items 234a–234g.

42. 42. Shen Kuo quanji, 66.681.

43. 43. Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 283.6936–37.

44. 44. Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 283.6933.

45. 45. On hearsay as an important source of information in Brush Talks, see Egan, “Shen Kuo Chats.”

46. 46. The scope of the term “witness” (mudu) in Shen’s preface encompassed both his personal experience and others’ observations, a scope that contrasts sharply with our common understanding of witnessing (i.e., personally seeing something). To prevent confusion about this divergent meaning, throughout this book, whenever I refer to Shen Kuo’s phrase mudu in his preface, I use “witness” or a cognate of it in quotation marks.

47. 47. For a thorough study of Shen Kuo’s interests and achievements in scientific fields, see Sivin, “Shen Kua.”

48. 48. For a list of examples of how Shen Kuo is received in contemporary China, see Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 1–4.

49. 49. Xinjiaozheng mengxi bitan, 7.78. For a discussion of the relationship between the intricate number and degree and of the relationship between particular things and deep orders in Brush Talks, see Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 76–98.

50. 50. Xinjiaozheng mengxi bitan, 7.85–86.

51. 51. For a discussion of Shen’s activities in these projects, see Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empricism, 56–75.

52. 52. Shen Kuo quanji, 28.179.

53. 53. For a survey of textual techniques that were used to facilitate the retrieval of information in formularies before and during the Song era, see Ruth Yun-ju Chen, “Quest for Efficiency.”

54. 54. For an overview of medical innovations in the Song, see Miyashita Saburō, “Sō Gen no iryō”; and Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine.

55. 55. For the formation of the premise that governance was based on benevolence in the Song era, see Hartman, Making of Song Dynasty History, 248–73.

56. 56. Hinrichs, “Song and Jin Periods”; Smith, Forgotten Disease, 67–84.

57. 57. Li Jingwei, “Bei Song huangdi yu yixue.” The body of scholarship on Song emperors’ interest in medicine is too vast to be comprehensively cited here. In this scholarship, Li Jingwei’s important pioneering study lists 284 edicts pertaining to medicine that the Northern Song emperors issued.

58. 58. The estimation of five formularies is drawn from Hinrichs, “Governance through Medical Texts,” 218. The estimation of twenty-five in the Song era is drawn from Ruth Yun-ju Chen, “Songdai shidafu canyu difang yishu kanyin xintan.” To be more specific, of the twenty-five medical texts, ten were completed before the Song dynasty but were edited by the Song court, two were formularies first privately written by Song officials and then submitted to the court, and thirteen were compiled by the Song court itself.

59. 59. For more on medical governance as an innovation in Song medicine, see Hinrichs, “Medical Transforming of Governance,” “Governance through Medical Texts,” and Shamans, Witchcraft, and Quarantine. For statistics of printed editions of medical literature during the Song dynasty, see Ruth Yun-ju Chen, “Songdai shidafu canyu difang yishu kanyin xintan.” Of course, in addition to medicine, religious therapies were popular among the general public and scholar-officials in the Song era; see Sivin, Health Care, 93–182.

60. 60. Kurz has suggested that the projects designed to compile encyclopedic works that Emperor Taizong ordered served as a means of integrating cultural elites from recently conquered southern regions into the new Song regime. Kurz, “Politics of Collecting Knowledge.”

61. 61. For more on the differences between The Imperial Grace Formulary and The Formulary for Magnificent Healing and Universal Relief in terms of their compilation purposes and transmission, see Fan, Bei Song jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 35–57.

62. 62. Hinrichs and Hong, “Unwritten Life (and Death)”; Han, Songdai yixue fangshu de xingcheng yu chuanbo yingyong yanjiu, 83–156.

63. 63. For a detailed English-language discussion of the early Northern Song’s effort to reunite China, see Lorge, Reunification of China.

64. 64. On scholar-officials interested in medicine during the Song period, see Chen Yuan-peng, Liang Song de “shangyi shiren” yu “ruyi.”

65. 65. For more on changes in the availability of the directorate’s medical imprints in the Northern Song period see Fan, Bei Song jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 191–200.

66. 66. Cherniack, “Book Culture,” 43–45.

67. 67. On the growing number of self-taught medical learners since the twelfth century, see Leung, “Medical Learning,” 374–98.

68. 68. On tactile perception and pulse diagnosis in early China, see Hsu, Pulse Diagnosis.

69. 69. Chen Yuan-peng, “Songdai ruyi,” 278–80.

70. 70. Dong, Lüshe beiyao fang, 2.

71. 71. For a thorough analysis of the remedies in The Formulary for Travel Houses, see Wu, “Daoting tushuo zhihou.”

72. 72. Chaffee, Thorny Gates of Learning, 35.

73. 73. For an articulation of why the notions “professional” and “specialist” fail to describe Song physicians as an occupation, see Sivin, Health Care, 76–77.

74. 74. On being self-taught as a new model of medical transmission owing to the popularization of printing, see Leung, “Medical Learning,” 391–93.

75. 75. On how the abundance of books (in both print and manuscript form) changed reading cultures and the composition of poems and historiographies in the late Northern Song era, see Egan, “To Count Grains,” 33–52; and Yugen Wang, Ten Thousand Scrolls, 174–94.

76. 76. Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 186.4487.

77. 77. Fan Ka Wai analyzed this memorandum in detail, arguing that Han Qi’s suggestion was part of his long-term effort to increase the availability of medical resources for residents and soldiers who lived in the northwestern frontier of Song China. Fan, Bei Song jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 15–17.

78. 78. For a study of the correlation between the period when the bureau was established between 1057 and 1069 and the spike in recorded epidemics between 1041 and 1060, see Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine, 77–95. Fan Ka Wai has challenged Goldschimidt’s observation. See Fan, “Songdai yixue fazhan de waiyuan yinsu.”

79. 79. For an English-language discussion of the bureau’s founding and history as well as its influence on the development of Song medicine, see Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine.

80. 80. Ban, Han shu, 30.1701. For a discussion of the significance of Seven Catalogs in terms of early Chinese historiographies that recorded healers, see Brown, Art of Medicine in Early China, 89–109.

81. 81. “Academies and institutes” refer collectively to institutes in the central government that were dedicated to storing and editing books. Those included the Institute for the Glorification of Literature (Zhaowen Guan), the Historiography Institute (Shi Guan), and the Academy of Scholarly Worthies (Jixian Guan).

82. 82. For an analysis of how and why the eleventh-century court-officials’ advocacy of assigning officials from academies and institutes to lead text-compilation projects, see Fan, Bei Song jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 22–34.

83. 83. For examples of the procedure, see Fan, Bei Song jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 95–163.

84. 84. Qian, Song ben Shanghan lun wenxian shilun, 5.

85. 85. Su weigong wenji, 65.999.

86. 86. Gao Baoheng, “Jiaoding Beiji qianjin yaofang houxu,” in Beiji qianjin yaofang, 7.

87. 87. Su weigong wenji, 65.999.

88. 88. Qian, Song ben Shanghan lun wenxian shilun, 5.

89. 89. Sun Zhao, “Jiaozheng Waitai miyao fang xu,” in Waitai miyao fang, 1.

90. 90. The foregoing analysis of the four prefaces that officials in the bureau wrote to Essential Formulas does not mean that they always shared the same criteria for the quality of medical treatises. For the heterogeneity among the officials in the bureau, especially in terms of their medical background and bureaucratic positions, see Fan, Bei Song jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 67–94.

91. 91. Shen Kuo quanji, 66.678. Shen Kuo knew that the bureau had edited The Imperial Library Formulary, given that he mentioned the Yellow Dragon Decoction formula that came from the bureau edition.

92. 92. In the Song era, imprints that the Directorate of Education issued were criticized by many scholar-officials, including for the “typographical” errors they found in the imprints. See Cherniack, “Book Culture and Textual Transmission in Sung China,” 57–67. Yi Sumei compared the dosages of ingredients in Shen’s formulas that Su’s and Shen’s Formulas collected with those in formulas that listed the same ingredients but were collected in formularies that the Song court compiled or edited. The comparison shows a divergence of dosages between the two. This, Yi proposed, suggests that Shen did not trust the court-commissioned versions of formulas. See Yi, “Songdai de shiren yu yifang,” 90–91.

93. 93. Dean-Jones, “Autopsia, Historia,” 42.

94. 94. Pomata, “Word of the Empirics.”

95. 95. Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 229.

96. 96. Scholarship on the history of science and medicine revealed how modes of reasoning were firmly situated in the political, social, and institutional contexts of a given culture. For instance, for scholarship on this topic in ancient China and Greece, see Lloyd and Sivin, Way and the Word; for scholarship on early modern Europe, see Shapin and Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air-Pump.

TWO    Textual Claims and Local Investigations

1. 1. See, for example, Métailié, “Lun Songdai bencao yu bowuxue zhuzuo zhongde lixue ‘gewu’ guan,” 295–97. In this chapter, I argue that the trend toward documenting authors’ local investigations and medical policies during Emperor Huizong’s regime played a more significant role than the neo-Confucian concept did in the production of Elucidating the Meaning. Paul Unschuld has said only that empirical verification was a feature of Elucidating the Meaning. He was more interested in examining the manual as a watershed in the history of pharmacology in China, because for the first time there was a source that integrated pragmatic use of drugs into systematic theories of cosmological correspondence. See Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics, 100. Georges Métailié has compared pre-sixteenth-century Chinese pharmacological texts, including Elucidating the Meaning, to pre-sixteenth-century European pharmacological texts. See Métailié, Science and Civilisation in China, 116–17.

2. 2. Junzhai dushuzhi jiaozheng, 9.384.

3. 3. Bencao yanyi, 4.21; 5.35; 6.38, 41; 7.50; 12.72; 13.79, 81; 15.95; 17.125; 20.147. Kou served as an “official in charge of documents in the county office” (zhubu) in Wucheng County in En Prefecture (Hebei) in 1077. See Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 283.6930.

4. 4. For acclaimed English-language scholarship on Tao’s life, see Strickmann, “On the Alchemy.”

5. 5. For important textual sources for the compilation of Jiayou Materia Medica and Illustrated Materia Medica, see Fan, Bei Song jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 120–43.

6. 6. Pharmacological encyclopedias lost state patronage under the Ming and Qing dynasties. On this shift, see Bian, Know Your Remedies.

7. 7. Bencao yanyi, 1.2.

8. 8. Bencao shiyi jishi, 9.408.

9. 9. For statistics regarding sources of information in Tao’s work, see Chen Yuan-peng, “Bencaojing jizhu suozai ‘Tao zhu.’”

10. 10. Okanishi, Honzō gaisetsu, 151. Okanishi also noticed the informal style of Elucidating the Meaning. In this chapter, in addition to noting the informality of its style, I explain why Kou Zongshi chose it.

11. 11. Bencao yanyi, 16.104.

12. 12. A style name is a name gave to an individual upon reaching adulthood as an addition to, rather than a replacement for, one’s given name. Adults of the same generation would use style names, instead of given names, to refer to one another.

13. 13. Bencao yanyi, 16.113. Translation is adapted from Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics, 100–101.

14. 14. Bencaojing jizhu, 6.449.

15. 15. On medical subgenres with distinct epistemic orientations, see Pomata, “Medical Case Narrative.” On genre-blending in Ming pharmacological texts, see Bian, Know Your Remedies, 40–44.

16. 16. Miyashita (“Sō Gen no iryō,” 186) suggested this possible scenario.

17. 17. Over the past five decades, English-speaking scholars have long debated translations of li in Chinese thought, especially in neo-Confucianism, rendering it as “reason,” “law,” “principle,” “pattern,” and “coherence,” in addition to several other choices. For a recent and critical review of these translations, see Ziporyn, “Form, Principle, Pattern, or Coherence?” Peterson rendered li as “coherence” to suggest that it is “the quality or characteristic of sticking together.” Adopting his translation, Bol indicates that in many instances in neo-Confucianism, li was used as a descriptive term referring to how things worked and also as a normative term “for identifying how things should work.” I shall compare differences between Kou’s understanding of li and the Northern Song neo-Confucianists’ other claims regarding li later in the next section. See Peterson, “Another Look at Li”; Bol, Neo-Confucianism in History, 162–63.

18. 18. Kaibao bencao (jifu ben), 3.103. Actually, the relationship between “jade spring water” and “jade-thick fluid” had already been addressed in Kaibao Materia Medica, which was completed by the Song court in 974 but remains only in scattered and fragmented entries. Kaibao Materia Medica remarked that Thirty-Six Methods of Water (Sanshiliu shuifa) of The Transcendent Canon (Xianjing) used “jade spring water” in reference to a “jade-thick fluid” that was transformed from jade.

19. 19. Bencao yanyi, 8.53.

20. 20. Bencao yanyi, 16.107.

21. 21. Bencao yanyi, 6.40–41.

22. 22. For an excellent new study of how authors of pharmacological works in China between the fifth and seventh centuries discussed pronunciation and flavors of medicinal substances, see Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhiyi, 303–46. As shown in Chen Hao’s study, authors’ sensory perceptions of the taste of a given substance by no means served as the only factor determining its “flavors”; textual records about substances that were drawn from earlier classics sometimes played more significant roles in those authors’ determinations.

23. 23. For further analysis of the format in which Illustrated Materia Medica presented information, see Chen Yuan-peng, “Zhongyaocai niuhuang de shengchanlishi jiqi bencaoyaotu suosheji de zhishijiegou.”

24. 24. Bencao yanyi, 1.14.

25. 25. Er Cheng ji, “Yishu,” 18.188, 193; 22. 277; Graham, Two Chinese Philosophers; Bol, “Reconceptualizing the Order,” 716–20. On Northern Song thinkers’ varying opinions of the meaning of the terms “investigating things” (gewu) and “attaining knowledge” (zhizhi) and on the relationships between the two terms, see Le, Zhuzi gewu zhizhilun yanjiu, 9–35.

26. 26. Despite the fact that the li Kou mentioned did not link to the ultimate and unitary coherence of the universe, I still choose to translate it as “coherence” to highlight his emphasis on the perfect match between an object or affair and its linguistic expression.

27. 27. Furth, “Physician as Philosopher.”

28. 28. For recent studies of the trend toward accounting for authors’ empirical verification in notebooks completed in the Song, see Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism; and Ellen Cong Zhang, “To Be ‘Erudite.’” The appearance of botanical treatises in the eleventh century that described horticulture and the connoisseurship of floral beauty reflects another indication of Song scholar-officials’ growing attention to hands-on knowledge. See Egan, Problem of Beauty, 109–61. On the travel accounts in the Song, see Hargett, Jade Mountains, 90–121. For authors’ empirical observation of objects in inventories of things, see Siebert, “Animals as Text”; and Mai, “Double Life.”

29. 29. I elaborate on the trend below with the caveat that not every work discussed in this section was composed with the singular goal of verifying regional phenomena, nor did their authors share the same perceptions of the relationship between the substances or affairs they investigated and li (coherence).

30. 30. This combination of book learning and empirical investigations is reminiscent of what scholars have called “learned empiricism” in early modern Europe. For more on learned empiricism, see Pomata and Siraisi, “Introduction,” 17–28.

31. 31. Yu Xin and Zhong Wumou have pointed out this trend. In addition to sharing their observations, in this chapter I shall take their findings a step further by placing this trend in the context of the long-term development of the empirical strategy in middle-period China. See Yu and Zhong, “Bowuxue de zhongwan Tang tujing,” 333–35. For the classic study on the Tang understanding of the south, see Schafer, Vermilion Bird.

32. 32. Jiu Tang shu, 38.1384.

33. 33. Jiu Tang shu, 40.1598, 1601.

34. 34. For shifts in geographical areas that the term “Lingnan” covered, see Ma Lei, “Lingnan, Wuling kao.”

35. 35. Erya, zhong, 133.

36. 36. Erya shu, 47.

37. 37. On places in Lingnan where Duan lived, see Suzuki, “Dan Kōro sen Hokutoroku ni tsuite.”

38. 38. Beihu lu, 1.523, 525–30; 2.534, 536–38, 543–44.

39. 39. On the basis of the titles of books in this literature that those later works cited, twenty-two known titles that included “records of exceptional things” existed between the Han and Tang dynasties. For the list, see Wang Jingbo, “Han Tang jian yiyi Yiwu zhi kaoshu.” Wang Jingbo (in “Cong dili bowu zaji dao zhiguai chuanqi”) suggested that entries in the corpus before the Tang era are based in part on authors’ observations. On my reading of his article, however, he seems to count any description of local affairs as more or less an example of an author’s witness. In the same article, Wang also proposed that, from a modern perspective, works in the literature of Tang China eventually paid more attention to literary entertainment, such as accounts of extraordinary events, than to factual information on specific regions, such as descriptions of local plants.

40. 40. On the “records of exceptional things” literature as part of the development of local writing between the third and seventh centuries, see Chittick, “Development of Local Writing.”

41. 41. Beihu lu, 1.523.

42. 42. Beihu lu, 1.524.

43. 43. For examples of authors’ firsthand experience in Liu Xun’s and Fang Qianli’s works, see Yu and Zhong, “Bowuxue de zhongwan Tang tujing,” 335–36. Liu lived in Guang Prefecture (in Guangdong) sometime between 896 and 904. On Fang Qianli’s official career and his work, see Wang Chengwen, “Tangdai Fang Qianli ji qi Touhuang zalu kaozheng.”

44. 44. For an English-language discussion of Miscellaneous Morsels, especially Duan Chengshi’s personal element and first-person narratives in the work, see Reed, “Motivation and Meaning.”

45. 45. Youyang zazu jiaojian, 17.1241.

46. 46. Youyang zazu jiaojian, 17.1249.

47. 47. Zou, Tang Wudai biji yanjiu. Zou Fuqing has found only three notebooks (including Northward-Facing Doors) in the Tang and Five Dynasties eras whose authors asked others to write prefaces.

48. 48. See Lu Xisheng, “Beihu lu xu,” in Beihu lu, 519.

49. 49. For a discussion of two hundred texts that Duan Gonglu cited in Northward- Facing Doors, see Yu and Zhong, “Bowuxue de zhongwan Tang tujing,” 315–24.

50. 50. For recent studies on the popularity of tales in the late Tang period, see Allen, Shifting Stories.

51. 51. The translation is from Allen, Shifting Stories, 1.

52. 52. Lu Xisheng, “Beihu lu xu,” in Beihu lu, 519.

53. 53. In the primary sources I have encountered, the term bowu referred before the Song era to intellectual practices associated with knowing things broadly rather than to the discipline that we know today as natural history. For a discussion of how practices changed within natural history in late imperial China, see Elman, On Their Own Terms, 43–46.

54. 54. Pomata, “Observation Rising.”

55. 55. Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 193–95, 229–30.

56. 56. Fang Rui, Sun Guangxian yu Beimeng suoyan yanjiu, 134–38; Beimeng suoyan, 256. Fang indicated that the accounts of Sun Guangxian’s personal experience occupied a substantial portion of Northern Dreams.

57. 57. Taiping guangji, 479.3945.

58. 58. While both Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang and Brush Talks exhibited an empirical approach to received information, Fu’s research has insightfully noted that Shen Kuo in Brush Talks adapted entries on divine marvels and strange occurrences from Miscellaneous Morsels and reformulated them into more secular terms. See Fu, “Contextual and Taxonomic Study.”

59. 59. Xinjiaozheng mengxi bitan, 20.197; 21.209, 219.

60. 60. Xinjiaozheng mengxi bitan, 16.166.

61. 61. Aoyama has indicated that the Song era witnessed the popular practice in which scholar-officials critically examined and verified information in the “map guide” (tujing) genre. See Aoyama, Tō Sō Jidai No KōTsū to Chishi Chizu No Kenkyū, 490–91.

62. 62. Mingdao zazhi, 18. The translation is based on Bol’s translation (“Literati Miscellany,” 148–49).

63. 63. For a full translation of this account and its groundbreaking role in the development of travel accounts, see Hargett, “Travel Records,” 388–91. On Su Shi’s other innovations in travel literature, see Hargett, “What Need Is There.”

64. 64. Su Shi wenji, 11.371.

65. 65. For Song scholar-officials’ view of travel as a means of pursuing knowledge and improving their scholarship, see Ellen Cong Zhang, Transformative Journeys, 162–67. For travel cultures in Song China, see Ihara, Sōdai Chūgoku o tabisuru.

66. 66. Hargett, “Song Dynasty Local Gazetteers,” 417–24.

67. 67. On the flourishing of notebooks as the primary mode of a new literati culture under the Song, for example, see Bol, “Literati Miscellany.”

68. 68. Xinjiaozheng mengxi bitan, 26.262–71.

69. 69. Zuo’s recent monograph on Brush Talks demonstrates that this notebook was Shen’s last intellectual expression of his view of an ideal way of learning. See Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism.

70. 70. According to Liu’s monograph, Approaching Correctness is the most frequently cited title among Tang pharmacological texts. See Liu Yan, Healing with Poisons, 95. On botanical knowledge in Approaching Correctness, see Métailié, Science and Civilisation, 48–56.

71. 71. Bencao yanyi, 7.47–49; 9.59–60; 11.71; 13.82; Xinjiaozheng mengxi bitan, 26.267, 270–71.

72. 72. Bencao yanyi, 9.59; 11.71; Xinjiaozheng mengxi bitan, 26.270–71.

73. 73. My understanding of features and li in Brush Talks relies to a great extent on Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism, 169–200.

74. 74. Song huiyao jigao, 8290–91.

75. 75. Wang Jiakui, “Yanzhi jingyi,” 69–70.

76. 76. On the general translation of the opening section of Elucidating the Meaning, see Unschuld, Medicine in China, 86–89.

77. 77. Bencao yanyi, 1.2.

78. 78. Bencao yanyi, 1.2.

79. 79. Huizong had been regarded as a decadent ruler who was chiefly responsible for the fall of Northern Song China, the most advanced state in the twelfth-century world. Recent studies have modified this view, recasting him as a ruler of great ambition who aspired to launch numerous political reforms, cultural projects, and social welfare programs. For more on this new view, see seminal essays collected in Ebrey and Bickford eds., Emperor Huizong; and Ebrey, Emperor Huizong.

80. 80. Song huiyao jigao, 2793.

81. 81. In addition to running medical academies, the Song court also operated other technical schools, such as military academies. On the development of technical schools under the directorate in the Song, see Thomas H. C. Lee, Government Education, 91–103.

82. 82. On the emergence and development of “scholar-physicians” in the Song and Yuan dynasties, see, for instance, Hymes, “Not Quite Gentlemen?”; Chen Yuan-peng, Liang Song de “shangyi shiren” yu “ruyi”; and Chu, “Song-Ming zhiji de yishi yu ‘ruyi.’”

83. 83. Song shi, 21.394.

84. 84. Bencao yanyi, 1.2.

85. 85. Song huiyao jigao, 2801–2. Between 1103 and 1120, the medical academy in the capital was abolished and reestablished three times. On detailed discussion of medical policies under Huizong’s reign, see Goldschmidt, “Huizong’s Impact on Medicine”; and Fan, Bei Song jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 259–306.

86. 86. I will discuss Zhu’s formulary at greater length in chapter 3.

87. 87. On Zhu Gong’s submission and return to officialdom, see Fan, Bei Song jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 304–6.

88. 88. Song da zhaoling ji, 219.843.

89. 89. On the legal weight of “imperial brush hand-drafted edicts” under the Song, see Tokunaga, “Sōdai no gyohitsu shushō.” Fang Chengfeng’s recent research argues against an earlier view that the imperial brush during Huizong’s reign bypassed the bureaucratic process that produced and promulgated general edicts, such as ministerial consultation. See Fang Chengfeng, “Yubi, yubi shouzhao, yu Bei Song Huizong chao de tongzhi fangshi.”

90. 90. For a full translation of this edict and compilation process of Jiayou Materia Medica and Illustrated Materia Medica, see Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine, 111–15.

91. 91. Song huiyao jigao, 2793.

92. 92. Bencao yanyi, 1.2.

93. 93. Bencao yanyi. 1.2. I added the numbers for convenience to inform the discussion that follows.

94. 94. Bencao yanyi, 1.3.

95. 95. See “Fu Kou Zongshi zha,” in Bencao yanyi, appendix, 153. On the establishment of the Institution for Collecting and Purchasing Drugs, see Chen Cheng, “Jin biao,” in Zengguang taiping huimin hejiju jufang, 3.

96. 96. The number and scope of the texts cited in Validated and Classified is based on Zhou, Zhenglei bencao yu Songdai xueshu wenhua yanjiu, 76, 208–23.

97. 97. On the compilation of Validated and Classified, see Shang, “Tang Shenwei Zhenglei bencao yange,” 3–4.

98. 98. Zhou, Zhenglei bencao yu Songdai xueshu wenhua yanjiu, 38–54. Before 1108, Validated and Classified had already been printed privately. The textual history of this collection has been the subject of intensive scholarly debate. For a classic Japanese- language study on this topic, see Watanabe, “Tō Shinbi no Kēshi shōrui bikyū honzō no kētō to sono hanpon.” Reviewing and revising earlier Japanese- and Chinese- language studies, Zhou provided a new history. My understanding of the textual history is based on Zhou’s research.

99. 99. Fan, Bei Song jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 264–65. As the historian Fan Ka Wai has observed, this assignment conflicted with a conventional policy in which the Northern Song court commissioned “Confucian officials” (ruchen) to lead the project of editing medical treatises, even though Cao Xiaozhong claimed that his editing methods followed those they set up.

100. 100. Beijing Tushuguan, ed., Zhongguo banke tulu, vol. 1, 30.

101. 101. Okanishi, Song yiqian yiji kao, 1224.

102. 102. On further information about this integrated version, see Chen Xiaolan, “Xinbian leiyao tuzhu bencao jiqi chuankeben kaocha.”

103. 103. On the book printing in Jianyang in imperial China, see Chia, Printing for Profit.

104. 104. Xinbian furen daquan liangfang, 20.13b, 14a. It should be noted that its author, Chen Ziming, attributed this medical case and formula to a famous Southern Song physician, Chen Yan. For other examples, see Yishuo, 9.31b.

105. 105. See, for instance, Yungu zaji, 1.16; and Yan fanlu xuji, 5.221.

106. 106. Zhizhai shulu jieti, 13.386.

107. 107. Bian, “Ever-Expanding Pharmacy,” 311–13.

THREE    Demonstration of Medical Virtuosity

In this chapter, my translations of Xu Shuwei’s cold damage disorder cases are all based on Goldschmidt, Medical Practice in Twelfth-Century China, which provides full translations and thorough annotations of the medical cases in Ninety Discussions, a work attributed to Xu. Note that rhubarb is an ingredient in the decoction Xu wanted to administerin the opening case narrative.

1. 1. For a comparison of the various versions of the story, see Ruth Yun-ju Chen, “Songdai shidafu canyu difang yishu kanyin xintan.” The versions discussed in Chen’s article meanwhile also include several versions of the notion that Xu Shuwei’s father also practiced medicine. The most reliable source of information about Xu’s father is Xu Shuwei’s own preface to The Formulary with Explanatory Historical Context. The preface, on my reading, implies that his father was not a physician.

2. 2. Puji benshifang, 83.

3. 3. Hong Mai, Yijian zhi, jia zhi, 5.38.

4. 4. Lee Jen-der, “Han Tang zhijian jiating zhongde jiankang zhaogu yu xingbie,” 29–32; Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhiyi, 87–130.

5. 5. Chen Yuan-peng, Liang Song de “shangyi shiren” yu “ruyi,” 45–112; Yu Xinzhong, “‘Liangyi liangxiang.’”

6. 6. Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine, 19–41. Differing from Goldschmidt’s claim, Fan Ka Wai’s observation indicates that the imperial patronage already appeared in the Tang. See Fan, Dayi jingcheng, 73–125.

7. 7. Hymes, “Not Quite Gentlemen?” Cases that Hymes cited about classically educated men practicing medicine as an occupation mostly occur during the Yuan dynasty, when the Mongol court closed down the civil service examination over fifty years but valued medicine as practical knowledge. Chen Yuan-peng found more instances in the Song era in which candidates who repeatedly failed turned to healing people to maintain their livelihood. See Chen Yuan-peng, “Songdai ruyi.”

8. 8. On Zhen Prefecture as a transfer port in the Song, see Liang, “Cong nanbei dao dongxi.”

9. 9. On Zhang Yu’s activities, see Huang Kuan-chung, Nan Song shidai kang Jin de yijun, 88.

10. 10. Zhang Yan, “Puji benshifang xu,” in Xuxiu Siku quanshu shanghan lei yizhu jicheng, vol. 1, 602.

11. 11. Baoqing bencao zhezhong, 3.468.

12. 12. Song huiyao jigao, 20.5637.

13. 13. See Zhang Yan, “Puji benshifang xu,” in Xuxiu Siku quanshu shanghan lei yizhu jicheng, vol. 1, 602.

14. 14. Yunzhuang ji, 4.105–6. Historians disagree on the year when Xu was the academician of the Hanlin Academy. Li Zhizhong proposed the year 1135. However, Zhang Haipeng’s research notes that, according to Zeng Xie’s 1173 preface to Xu’s Formulary with Explanatory Historical Context, Xu was only a staff member assisting the magistrate of Hui Prefecture in 1136. Considering that the rank of assistant staff member was much lower than the rank of academician of the Hanlin Academy, Zhang proposed that it was likely that Xu served as an assistant staff member before being appointed academician. If that were the case, Zhang indicates, the year when Xu was the academician would have been later than 1136. See Li Zhizhong, “Yuan kan Xu Shuwei Shanghan baizheng ge yu Shanghan fawei lun”; Zhang Haipeng, “Xu Shuwei yizhu zai Nan Song de kanke yu liuchuan,” 307.

15. 15. For further details of Xu’s life, see Goldschmidt, Medical Practice, 12–16. Goldschmidt, without citing concrete evidence, suggests that Xu retired over his disagreement with the death sentence that the court imposed on Yue Fei, the powerful general and loyal supporter of the Song empire.

16. 16. These six treatise titles can be found in the preface to the Yuan-dynasty edition of Shanghan baizheng ge, which is kept in the National Central Library in Taiwan. It has no page numbers.

17. 17. The date is based on the latest date recorded in Xu’s cases in this treatise.

18. 18. Lou Yue ji, 50.945.

19. 19. Baoqing bencao zhezhong, 3.468.

20. 20. Han and Yu, “Nan Song Xu Shuwei yian yu linchuang jibing zheliao chutan,” 1. Other studies that consider Xu Shuwei to be the author of Ninety Discussions, for instance, include, Ye, Shanghan xueshu shi, 295; Goldschmidt, “Reasoning with Cases” and Medical Practice; and Lu, Songdai shanghan xueshu yu wenxian kaolun, 200.

21. 21. Yongle dadian, 3614.2176, 2179.

22. 22. Puji benshifang, 8.144.

23. 23. Shanghan jiushi lun, 58. Goldschmidt noticed this difference but did not use it to question the authorship of Ninety Discussions. See Goldschmidt, Medical Practice, 39.

24. 24. Nan shi, 57.1420.

25. 25. Nan shi, 6.168. On the eight companions of the prince of the Jingling, see Tian, Beacon Fire, 19–20.

26. 26. Lu, Songdai shanghan xueshu yu wenxian kaolun, 202–4.

27. 27. For the recent study of the printing of The Formulary with Explanatory Historical Contexts, see Ruth Yun-ju Chen, “Songdai shidafu canyu difang yishu kanyin xintan,” 450–52, 484–86, 490.

28. 28. Puji benshifang, 7.137.

29. 29. Puji benshifang, preface, 83.

30. 30. For a recent study of Meng Qi and his Poems with Explanatory Historical Contexts, see Liu Ning, “‘Shihua’ yu ‘benshi’ zaitan”; and Yu Cailin, Tangshi benshi yanjiu.

31. 31. On the composition and circulation of Lyrics with Explanatory Historical Contexts, see Zhu, “Shixian benshi quzi ji xin kaoding.”

32. 32. Goldschmidt noticed that the formulary title is based on Poems with Explanatory Historical Contexts as well, but he concluded that “the meaning is not parallel.” Goldschmidt, Medical Practice, 18.

33. 33. Benshi shi, 4.

34. 34. Benshi shi, 4.

35. 35. Puji benshifang, preface, 83.

36. 36. Benshi shi, 4.

37. 37. Xiaoer yaozheng zhijue, preface, 3.

38. 38. Hsiung, “Facts in the Tale.”

39. 39. The number of such medical treatises completed before the Song dynasty is based on Ye, Shanghan xueshu shi, 288–91. The number of Song medical treatises comes from Lu, Songdai shanghan xueshu yu wenxian kaolun.

40. 40. Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine, 69–102.

41. 41. Fan, “Songdai yixue fazhan de waiyuan yinsu,” 332. For other explanations, see Despeux, “System”; and Fan, Bei Song Jiaozheng yishuju xintan, 68–80.

42. 42. Shanghan lun, preface, 5.

43. 43. Qian, “Shanghan lun” wenxian xinkao, 9–12. For instance, some studies have proposed that the term jian’an in the preface was mistranscribed from the term jianning, as severe epidemics took place during the Jianning reign (168–172).

44. 44. For a recent review of and discussion about the authorship and accuracy of the preface, Zhang Ji’s life and career, and changes in Zhang’s persona from the third to the thirteenth centuries, see Brown, Art of Medicine, 110–29.

45. 45. This received view can be seen in Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Ideas, 168–69; Ye, Shanghan xueshushi, 5; and Sivin, Health Care, 56, 63.

46. 46. Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine, 137–72.

47. 47. Boyanton, “Treatise on Cold Damage,” 19–54. Boyanton additionally has observed that in the eleventh century, the dissemination of Treatise on Cold Damage encouraged a new phenomenon, that is, when medical authors discussed cold damage medicine, they focused on Zhang Ji’s works. Boyanton called this phenomenon the “narrowing of vision” of cold damage medicine and the “broadening of discourse” on Zhang’s texts.

48. 48. Ma Jixing, Zhongyi wenxian xue, 117–23; Qian, “Shanghan lun” wenxian tongkao, 123, and “Shanghan lun” wenxian xinkao, 255–56.

49. 49. Qian, “Shanghan lun” wenxian xinkao, 91.

50. 50. Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 335.8084–85.

51. 51. Lu, Songdai shanghan xueshu yu wenxian kaolun, 252–53.

52. 52. Nanyang huoren shu, 5.

53. 53. Nanyang huoren shu, 5; Li Bao, “Ti Beishan jiujing hou,” in Beishan jiujing, 834.

54. 54. Quan Song wen, 2970.229–30.

55. 55. Nanyang huoren shu, preface, 6.

56. 56. Nanyang huoren shu, 7; Yifang leiju, 32.136.

57. 57. Nanyang huoren shu, 7.

58. 58. Yijing zhengbenshu, 358.

59. 59. Lu, Songdai shanghan xueshu yu wenxian kaolun, 29–51.

60. 60. Brown, Art of Medicine, 125.

61. 61. Goldschmidt, “Reasoning with Cases.”

62. 62. Lu, Songdai shanghan xueshu yu wenxian kaolun, 54–57.

63. 63. The term xue is translated as “blood.” However, this term means more than the red liquid flowing through the bodies of humans and animals in the modern Western sense. Xue in classical Chinese medicine additionally meant the yin vitalities of the body, as a counterpart to the yang vitalities of the qi of the body.

64. 64. Puji benshifang, 8.144.

65. 65. Puji benshifang, 9.152–53. The translation is based on Goldschmidt, Medical Practice, 287–89.

66. 66. Unschuld suggests that some sources in the extant Inner Canon could date from the Han era. Keegan regards the extant Inner Canon as having been included in a series of compilations within the Yellow Emperor medical tradition during the Han and Tang dynasties. Other studies point out that the Northern Song court edited Inner Canon extensively in 1026/1027 and 1067. See Sivin, “Huang ti nei ching”; Unschuld, Huang di nei jing Suwen, 3–5; and Keegan, “Huang-ti nei-ching.”

67. 67. Boyanton has likewise suspected that Xu’s debates with physicians on his cases “were embellished or invented by Xu to suit his purposes,” which, in Boyanton’s reading, include “self-promotion, instruction, doctrinal polemics, clinical innovation, or even exegesis.” Boyanton, “Hermeneutics.”

68. 68. Puji benshifang, 8.143.

69. 69. Nanyang huoren shu, 6.

70. 70. Puji benshifang, 9.152.

71. 71. Puji benshifang, 9.153.

72. 72. Puji benshifang, 8.146.

73. 73. Puji benshifang, 8.147.

74. 74. Lee Jen-der, “Juejing de lishi yanjiu,” 206–7.

FOUR    Search for Therapies in the Far South

1. 1. This formulary is recorded under an alternative name, Treatise on Zhang [Miasma] (Zhanglun), in the standard history History of the Song Dynasty. In its extant version, it is entitled Zhangnüe lun. Song shi, 207.5315.

2. 2. For the classic study on disorders in Lingnan in middle-period China, see Hsiao, “Han Song jian wenxian suojian gudai Zhongguo nanfang de dilihuangjing.”

3. 3. For this observation on the appearance of the character for zhang, see Zuo Peng, “Han-Tang shiqi de zhang yu zhang yixiang,” 258.

4. 4. Hou Han shu, 24.846.

5. 5. Hou Han shu, 24.840.

6. 6. Hou Han shu, 48.1598.

7. 7. Zhang Kefeng, “Cong zhang dao zhang.” Zhang Kefeng explains in part why people since the Han era had so often used the character for zhang (miasma) in reference to the various disorders correlated with the southern environment. He suggests that this character, which is pronounced in the same way as zhang (obstacles), connotes that those disorders functioned as barriers to northern immigration to the south and to Chinese exploitation of the southern frontiers.

8. 8. Gong, “2000 nian lai Zhongguo zhang bing fenbu bianqian de chubu yanjiu”; Zhang Kefeng, “Cong zhang dao zhang”; Fan, Liuchao Sui Tang yixue zhi chuancheng yu zenghe, 141–44.

9. 9. Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 10.336.

10. 10. On the development of the concept of disorders in Lingnan in late imperial China, see Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics, 69–90. On how local doctors in Lingnan in the late imperial era challenged the long-standing image of Lingnan as a disorder- inducing place, see Bretelle-Establet, “Worst Environment.”

11. 11. For an example in which zhang is translated as “malaria,” see Miyashita, “Malaria (yao) in Chinese Medicine.” Studies that do not use the conventional translations include Bin Yang, “Zhang on Chinese Southern Frontiers”; and Ellen Cong Zhang, “Between Life and Death.”

12. 12. On further differences between the natural-realist approach and the historicalist- conceptualist approach, see Wilson, “On the History.” For examples of applying the latter approach to the history of diseases in imperial China, see Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics; and Smith, Forgotten Disease.

13. 13. Song shi, 377.11654–55. Other places where Li Qiu had been an official before his time in Ying Prefecture included Chen Prefecture (in Henan) and Fang Prefecture (in Hubei).

14. 14. Jianyan yilai xinian yaolu, 127.2059, 150.2412.

15. 15. Song shi, 207.5315.

16. 16. Yingguo Aboding daxue tushuguan cang “Yongle dadian,” 11907.5a.

17. 17. Jianyan yilai xinian yaolu, 136.2189; Song shi, 376.11627–28.

18. 18. Feng, Gu fangshu jiyi, 125–26.

19. 19. Jiu Tang shu, 89.2896–97.

20. 20. For historical contexts in which those Tang formularies appeared, see Fan, Dayi jingcheng, 147–68. For fragmented contents of some of those Tang formularies, see Feng, Gu fangshu jiyi, 125–33.

21. 21. For studies of the government’s campaigns against those customs and expansion of scholarly medicine in the south during the Song period, see Hinrichs, “Medical Transforming of Governance,” “Governance through Medical Texts,” and “Catchy Epidemic.” For the activities of spirit mediums in the Song era, including their healing practices, see Lin, “‘Jiusu’ yu ‘xinfeng’”; and Wong, “Wenming tuijin zhongde xianshi yu xiangxiang.”

22. 22. Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 12.271.

23. 23. Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 16.349. In most cases, the verb used in reference to the action of distributing medical texts makes it difficult to discern whether the government disseminated the texts in manuscript or printed form.

24. 24. Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 33.736.

25. 25. Song shi, 284.9584.

26. 26. Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 43.914.

27. 27. Song shi, 7.131.

28. 28. Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 92.2122.

29. 29. Waitai miyao fang, 838.

30. 30. Xu zizhi tongjian changbian, 237.5776.

31. 31. Daoxiang ji, 11.256.

32. 32. For the contents of these stelae, see Huang and Tang, “Guilin shike ‘yangqi tangfang’ kao.”

33. 33. Di Qing, “Lun yu nanman zou,” in Yuexi wenzai, 4.486.

34. 34. For the late Northern Song government’s management of Guangxi, see Huang Kuan-chung, “Bei Song wanqi dui Guangxi de jinglüe.”

35. 35. Li Qiu did recommend one decoction recorded in Shen Kuo’s Good Formulas, yet he did not endorse Shen’s formulary as a reliable medical treatise for treating far-southern disorders.

36. 36. For a thorough study of the development of foot qi as a disease category from fourth-century China to modern East Asia, see Smith, Forgotten Disease.

37. 37. The character du in imperial Chinese medicine could refer to either poison (or toxicity) or potency, depending on the context. On du in connection with poison and potency in Chinese knowledge about drugs, see Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics, 165–66, 286; and Yan Liu, Healing with Poisons.

38. 38. Taiping shenghui fang, 56.1733.

39. 39. Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 151–53. Gu-poisoning has attracted considerable attention from historians and anthropologists. The scholarship on it in imperial China is too vast to be cited exhaustively here. For a pioneering English- language study on gu-poisoning, see Feng and Shryock, “Black Magic in China.” For a recent review of studies on gu-poisoning in imperial China, see Chen Hsiu-fen, “Shiwu, yaoshu, yu gudu” ; and Yan Liu, Healing with Poisons, 69–80.

40. 40. Yu Gengzhe, Tangdai jibing yiliao shi chutan, 171–99.

41. 41. Song huiyao jigao, 8296.

42. 42. Zhouhou beijifang, 3.77.

43. 43. Smith, Forgotten Disease, 35.

44. 44. For example, Zhouhou beijifang, 3.77–78; and Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 13.413–22.

45. 45. Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 13.413.

46. 46. Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 13.416.

47. 47. Taiping shenghui fang, 45.1385.

48. 48. Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 11.355; Taiping shenghui fang, 52.1604.

49. 49. Earlier scholarship has often identified zhang (miasma) and nüe (intermittent fevers) as malaria because both disorders have symptoms of intermittent chills and fever. Nevertheless, historians are increasingly hesitant to endorse this equivalence, as it risks anachronism and ignores other symptoms associated with zhang and nüe in imperial China.

50. 50. Fan, Dayi jingcheng, 244–52. For example, Fan describes how members of the Tang population prevented or treated nüe (intermittent fevers) through Buddhist or Daoist rituals.

51. 51. Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 10.336–37.

52. 52. The phrase yanfang in the Tang and Song literature usually referred to the south (but not to Lingnan only). However, neither Tang nor Song authors explained the explicit use of this term in reference to the south. It is therefore difficult for us to infer whether its use indicated that the south was frequently regarded as a direction of the fire phase in terms of five-phase (wuxing) theories or because the southern land was considered to be hot, or for other reasons.

53. 53. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 1–2.

54. 54. It is relatively difficult to discern this emphasis in Wang Fei’s extant formulary, as he more often discussed general principles for treating various types of zhang disorders than individuals’ symptomatic and bodily particularities.

55. 55. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 2.

56. 56. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 2–3.

57. 57. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 3.

58. 58. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 4–5.

59. 59. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 10.

60. 60. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 4.

61. 61. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 11–12.

62. 62. Lingbiao luyi jiaobu, 22–23.

63. 63. The expanding presence of this practice among Southern Song local gazetteers went hand in hand with the broadened functions that they could provide in this era. See Hargett, “Historiography in Southern Sung.”

64. 64. Bencaojing jizhu, 7.510.

65. 65. Some Song literati attributed the idea that drinking alcohol prevented zhang not only to the alcohol itself but also to the raw materials from which the drinks were made. For example, Su Shi said that he drank alcohol made from cinnamon (gui) to prevent zhang. He also cited the opinion of Tao Hongjing and Sun Simiao that cinnamon could nourish and lighten the body if one consumed it over a long period of time. Su Shi wenji, 20.593–94.

66. 66. Lingnan weisheng fang, zhong, 30–31.

67. 67. As Hargett indicates, the multifaceted content of Cinnamon Sea and Fan’s personal voice in this treatise together distinguish it from “classified books” (leishu) and local gazetteers; Cinnamon Sea is better understood as a compilation of notebook writings. Following Hargett’s insight, I also view Vicarious Replies as notebook corpora. See Hargett, Treatises of the Supervisor, xxxi–xxxix.

68. 68. My translation is based on Hargett, Treatises of the Supervisor, 133–34.

69. 69. Helin yulu, 1.338.

70. 70. For information about Zhou Qufei’s life and career, see Yang Wuquan, “Jiaozhu qianyan,” 1–6.

71. 71. Lingwai daida jiaozhu, preface, 1.

72. 72. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 8–9.

73. 73. Lingwai daida jiaozhu, 4.152.

74. 74. Ellen Cong Zhang, “To Be ‘Erudite.’”

75. 75. Lingwai daida jiaozhu, preface, 1.

76. 76. On the idea that being an active contributor of conversational material to scholar-officials’ gatherings was a valued quality of successful elite men at that time, see Ellen Cong Zhang, “Things Heard.”

77. 77. For classical studies of the promotion system in the Song officialdom, see Deng, Songdai wenguan xuanren zhidu zhucengmian (xiuding ben).

78. 78. Tung, “Confronting the Job Shortage.”

79. 79. I am deeply indebted to Hinrichs’s forthcoming monograph on the phenomenon of the new intertextual space that was emerging in which physicians, literati, and officials discussed medical knowledge and practices in the Southern Song era. See Hinrichs, Shamans, Witchcraft, and Quarantine. In addition to the application of cold damage medicines in Lingnan, another topic discussed in the Song intertextual space was enchantment disorders. On that, see Cheng, Divine, Demonic, and Disordered.

80. 80. On the integration of southern deviance into the spatially synthesized cosmology of early China, see Lewis, Construction of Space, 189–244. On the Song government’s medical campaign in the south, see Hinrichs, Shamans, Witchcraft, and Quarantine.

81. 81. Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 10.336–37.

82. 82. Hanson provides an English translation and discusses this in detail with other entries about the five directions in Basic Questions. Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics, 30–35.

83. 83. Shanghan zongbing lun, 1.151–52.

84. 84. The same claim that cold damage disorders did not exist in the south appears later in Vietnam, in the eighteenth century. For a recent discussion of this claim in Vietnamese history, see Leung, “‘South’ Imagined and Lived.”

85. 85. Extant records regarding Pang Anshi, such as his biography in Song shi (462.13520–22) and Su Shi’s letters to him, pertain mainly to his activities in Hubei and Anhui and did not show that he had been to the far south in person.

86. 86. Junzhai dushuzhi jiaozheng, 15.708.

87. 87. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 6.

88. 88. Leung notes the increasing importance of the northwest-southeast/north-south axes in Yuan, Ming, and Qing medicine and ascribes it to the long-term political division between the Southern Song and Jin governments. The analysis of “Ten Talks” here provides a more specific explanation of how this political division affected the increasingly prominent role of the north-south axis in medicine; that is, northern physicians’ ineffective treatments of zhang disorders in Lingnan stimulated medical authors there to use the long-existing axis in medical writings to explain those physicians’ failures. Leung, “Jibing yu fangtu zhi guanxi,” 170–71.

89. 89. Guihai yuheng zhi, 130.

90. 90. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 22–23.

91. 91. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 23.

92. 92. Lingnan weisheng fang, shang, 23.

93. 93. Lingwai daida jiaozhu, 4.152–53.

Conclusion

1. 1. On the author and circulation of Lüchan Rocks and the location of Ciyun Mountain, see Zheng, “Lü chanyan bencao jiaozhu houji.” On the boom of writings on West Lake, see Duan, Rise of West Lake, 79–104.

2. 2. Wang Jie, Lüchanyan bencao, shang, 10.

3. 3. Hongshi jiyan fang kaozhu, 4.57.

4. 4. Hongshi jiyan fang kaozhu, 2.17.

5. 5. For detailed analysis of information sources collected in Mr. Hong’s Collection of Effective Formulas, see Qian Chaochen, “Hou ji,” in Hongshi jiyan fang kaozhu, 93–105.

6. 6. Yeshi luyan fang, postscript, 249.

7. 7. Weishi jiacang fang, preface, 3.

8. 8. Yijian zhi, 185.

9. 9. Baoqing bencao zhezhong, 3.470.

10. 10. The same priority of authoritative medical texts over empirical practices can also been seen in records of “breast abscesses” (ruyong) in imperial medical literature. See Chin, “Zhongguo chuantong yiji zhongde ruyong.”

11. 11. See, for example, Renzhai zhizhi fanglun, 25.316.

12. 12. Huoren shizheng fang houji, table of contents (mulu), 507.

13. 13. Yijian fang jiumiu, 1.253–57.

14. 14. The Northern and Southern Song courts revised, expanded, renamed, and printed The Imperial Pharmacy’s Formulary several times. On the bibliographic information that accompanied this formulary, see Goldschmidt, “Commercializing Medicine”; and Liu Shu-fen, “Tang Song shiqi sengren, guojia, han yiliao de guanxi.”

15. 15. Goldschmidt, “Commercializing Medicine,” 344–45; Smith, Forgotten Disease, 76–84.

16. 16. Leung, “Medical Instruction and Popularization”; Chao, Medicine and Society.

17. 17. Grant, Chinese Physician, 55–60.

18. 18. For analyses of the literary styles applied in yi’an books, see, for instance, Zeitlin, “Literary Fashioning”; and Kirk, “Rhetoric, Treatment and Authority.”

19. 19. To be sure, in addition to the yi’an genre, other medical subgenres in the Ming era also presented case narratives. See, for example, Chang, “Aishen nianzhong” and “Yiqie jiewang.” Existing scholarship has not yet, however, reached consensus over the most salient features of the case narratives in those subgenres. To maintain a clear focus for this comparative analysis, I therefore do not discuss such cases in this study.

20. 20. Furth, “Introduction,” 3.

21. 21. Hanshi yitong, shang, 2–3.

22. 22. Maiyu, xia, 193.

23. 23. Hanshi yitong, shang, 2–3.

24. 24. Weishi jiacang fang, preface, 3.

25. 25. Ye Linzhi, preface, in Huoren shizheng fang, 19.

26. 26. Cullen, “Yi’an (Case Statements),” 314–16.

27. 27. Cheng Lu, preface, in Shishan yi’an, 3.

28. 28. Maiyu, xia, 193.

29. 29. Cullen, “Yi’an (Case Statements),” 314–16; Furth, “Introduction,” 5–13.

30. 30. My understanding of the development of medical case narratives in premodern and early modern Europe draws heavily on Pomata, “Sharing Cases” and “Medical Case Narrative.”

31. 31. On interpersonal familiarity as the basis of trust in premodern England, see Shapin, Social History of Truth.

32. 32. Leong and Rankin, “Testing Drugs.”

33. 33. Andrews, Making of Modern Chinese Medicine; Lei, Neither Donkey nor Horse.

34. 34. Lei, “How Did Chinese Medicine Become Experiential?”