The Puji Fang — The Largest Formulary Compendium

The Puji Fang (Prescriptions for Universal Relief) was compiled under the direction of the fifth son of the Ming founder, the Prince of Zhou (Zhou Ding Wang), with Professor Teng Shuo, Chief Historian Liu Chun, and others serving as the actual compilers. It was published in 1406, but the original printed edition has since been lost. Over the centuries, apart from a few fragments preserved by rare book collectors — such as 19 fascicles of the Yongle printed edition and 35 fascicles of a Ming manuscript copy — only the Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) retains the full text. The original work comprised 168 fascicles.

The Puji Fang is the largest formulary compendium in ancient China. The entire work is roughly divided into 12 sections: Fascicles 1–5 cover pulse diagnosis and formulas; Fascicles 6–12 cover circuit qi (yun qi); Fascicles 13–43 cover the zang-fu organs; Fascicles 44–86 cover the five sense organs; Fascicles 87–250 cover miscellaneous internal diseases; Fascicles 251–267 cover miscellaneous treatments; Fascicles 268–272 cover miscellaneous records and talismanic prohibitions; Fascicles 271–315 cover external medicine and traumatology; Fascicles 316–357 cover gynecology; Fascicles 358–408 cover pediatrics; Fascicles 409–424 cover acupuncture and moxibustion; and Fascicles 425–426 cover materia medica. The arrangement is clear and logical, and the content is extraordinarily rich. Among all classical formulary texts since antiquity, this book is the most complete. In addition to drawing on formularies from successive dynasties, its sources also include relevant content from historical biographies, miscellaneous writings, the Daoist Canon (Daozang), and Buddhist scriptures.

The Puji Fang is the largest formulary compendium in Chinese history, containing as many as 61,739 prescriptions.

The text was finalized and published in 1406, compiled and collected under the order of Zhu Di, the Ming emperor of Chinese history. The Puji Fang collected a vast amount of material. Apart from including various formularies from before the Ming period, it also gathered material from other sources, such as biographies and miscellaneous records, making its content extremely rich and meticulously detailed. Because the number of copies published was relatively small and the book was highly practical, many people transcribed it by hand from copy to copy. As scarcity enhances value, the Puji Fang was exceedingly precious at the time. Later, over the course of many years, the original printed edition of the Puji Fang was lost.

The Puji Fang originally comprised 168 fascicles, later reorganized into 426 fascicles, divided into 217 categories, and containing a total of 788 therapeutic methods. The entire work contains 239 illustrations. Its content includes general discourse, zang-fu organs and physical form, cold damage and miscellaneous diseases, external medicine, gynecology, pediatrics, acupuncture and moxibustion, and more. The book records therapeutic methods for many diseases, such as decoctions, massage, and acupuncture. The Puji Fang is an exceedingly practical formulary. Under each listed disease or pattern, it provides a number of formulas, so that students or physicians need only look up the formulas according to the disease and then select among the formulas provided. This book is also an extremely valuable piece of medical literature.

In 1959, the People's Medical Publishing House, using the Puji Fang as the primary source and consulting previously extant fragments and incomplete copies, collated, edited, and reprinted the entire work. This edition of the Puji Fang, published by the People's Medical Publishing House, is divided into 10 volumes. The first volume covers pulse, circuit qi, and zang-fu organs; the second volume covers the physical form; the third through sixth volumes cover various diseases; the seventh volume covers various ulcerations and swellings; the eighth volume covers women's diseases; the ninth volume covers infants and children; and the tenth volume covers acupuncture and moxibustion. This reorganization has made the original text concise and well-structured.

Synopsis of the Puji Fang

The Puji Fang is a medical formulary work. It originally comprised 168 fascicles. It was compiled by Zhu Su (the Prince of Zhou), Teng Shuo, Liu Chun, and others in the Ming dynasty, and was published in the early 15th century. It is a large-scale medical formulary compiled during the early Ming period. The book broadly collects and organizes medical texts and other related works from before the Ming dynasty in a classified format. Of the original work, only fragments remain today. When the Siku Quanshu was compiled in the early Qing dynasty, this text was reorganized into 426 fascicles. It includes sections on a general discourse on pulse and formulas, circuit qi, zang-fu organs (including visceral manifestation theory and various disease conditions of the zang-fu), physical form (including the regions pertaining to the head, face, ears, etc., and various diseases of the physical form), various diseases (including cold damage, miscellaneous diseases, ulcerations and sores, external medicine, orthopedics, and various therapeutic methods), women's diseases (including gynecology and obstetrics), infants and children, acupuncture and moxibustion, materia medica, and more — altogether over 100 categories. According to the Siku Tiyao (Synopsis of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries): “In all, there are 1,960 discourses, 2,175 categories, 778 therapeutic methods, 61,739 formulas, and 239 illustrations.” For each disease pattern discussed, there are both discourses and formulas, and the material is remarkably vast. The scope is broad, and the exposition is systematic and comprehensive. Extant editions include Ming dynasty printed editions, such as the Yongle edition, and typeset editions published after 1949.

Siku Synopsis of the Puji Fang

Puji Fang, 426 fascicles (held in the Tianyi Pavilion Library of the Fan Mao Column family, Zhejiang).

Compiled by Zhu Su, the Prince of Zhou in the Ming dynasty. Zhu Su also authored the Jiuhuang Bencao (Materia Medica for Famine Relief), which has already been catalogued. This book takes ancient and contemporary formulas and compiles them into an organized volume, with Zhu Su himself establishing the editorial guidelines. He further commissioned Professor Teng Shuo, Chief Historian Liu Chun, and others to participate in the critical examination and discussion of the work. The appended formulas in Li Shizhen's Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica) draw very extensively from this book. However, Li Shizhen referred to it as being by the Prince of Zhou Xian, attributing it to Zhu Su's son, Zhu Youdun — which is an error. The original edition contained 168 fascicles. The Mingshi · Yiwen Zhi (History of Ming: Treatise on Literature) lists it as 68 fascicles, which probably represents a textual omission of the characters for “one hundred.” In all, there are 1,960 discourses, 2,175 categories, 778 therapeutic methods, 61,739 formulas, and 239 illustrations. The collection is richly abundant, and the arrangement is detailed and analytical. Among all classical medical texts since antiquity, none is more comprehensive than this one. The book's ambition to be exhaustive in its collection inevitably leads to considerable repetition and internal contradiction. Medical practitioners have faulted it for being jumbled and heterogenous, and few have been able to master it in its entirety. Moreover, owing to the immense volume of the work, it was not printed for a very long time; enthusiasts transmitted it by copying from one another, which multiplied errors and corruptions. Thus, it has circulated only rarely in the world, and good editions are exceedingly scarce. However, of the writings of famous physicians from the Song and Yuan dynasties onward, seven or eight out of ten have now been lost and scattered. When Zhu Su compiled this work in the early Ming, many old texts were still extant. Checking the various secret formulas recorded in the Yongle Dadian (Yongle Encyclopedia) against this book reveals that in many cases they match, with occasional variations. Thus, the specialized secret arts of antiquity have indeed been preserved and transmitted through this work. Later generations can consult its variations and discrepancies, deduce its orthodox and altered forms, and by broadly collecting and sparingly selecting, apply its knowledge without limit. This is akin to smelting copper from a mountain or boiling the sea to produce salt — how, then, can one fault it for its complexity and abundance?