The Best Medicine for the ElderlyDrink and Food in Shouqin Yanglao Xinshu ( 寿亲养老新书 ) and the Transformation of Confucian yangsheng
Literature from Song to Yuan
Lijing Jiang 姜丽婧Center for Biology and Society
Arizona State University
Outline• Introduction of Shouqin Text
• Motivation and Question
• Drink and Food, Spleen-Stomach, and Confucian Thoughts in Volume 1
• Encyclopedic Approach and a Partial Syncretism in Volume 2-4
• Conclusion: Confucian yangsheng in Song-Jin-Yuan Context
Shouqin yanglao xin shu. [The new book for prolonging parents’ life and nourishing the elderly]
陈直，北宋人，生卒年不详， 1085 年前后著卷一，又名《养老奉亲书》。
邹铉，字冰壑，晚号敬直老人，泰宁人，元代人，续增三卷，命名《寿亲养老新书》， 1307 年出版。
Outline• Introduction of Shouqin Text
• Motivation and Question
• Drink and Food, Spleen-Stomach, and Confucian Thoughts in Volume 1
• Encyclopedic Approach and a Partial Syncretism in Volume 2-4
• Conclusion: Confucian yangsheng in Song-Jin-Yuan Context
Molecular Order: The Essence of Life and Immortality?
• What medical tradition or new medical thought influenced Shouqin text?
• What are the roles of the Neo-Confucianism in the Shouqin text?
Questions
A Neo-Confucianism in Yuan yangsheng
Outline• Introduction of Shouqin Text
• Motivation and Question
• Drink and Food, Spleen-Stomach, and Confucian Thoughts in Volume 1
• Encyclopedic Approach and a Partial Syncretism in Volume 2-4
• Conclusion: Confucian yangsheng in Song-Jin-Yuan Context
饮食调治第一
• 主身者神，养气者精，益精者气，资气者食。食者，生民之天，活人之本也。故饮食进则谷气充，谷气充则气血盛，气血盛则筋力强。故脾胃者，五脏之宗也。四脏之气，皆禀于脾。故四时皆以胃气为本。
Spleen-Stomach in the Northern Song Medical Landscape
• Most famously developed later by Li Gao 李杲 (1180—1251).
• Qian Yi 钱乙 (1032-1113)“ 皆脾胃病亡津液之所作也。”
• Xu Shuwei 许叔微 (1079-1154) “ 脾为中州土。”“何谓须用有胃气？缘胃受谷气，谷气生则能生血气，血气壮则荣卫不衰，荣卫不衰则病自去矣。”
Drink and Food Therapy prior to Song
• Sun Simiao 孙思邈 (581—682) “Food Cure” (Shizhi 食治 ) in his influential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold (Qianjin fang 千金方 ), published in Song 1057.
• Meng Shen 孟诜 (621–713)The Materia Medica for Food Therapy (Shiliao bencao 食疗本草 ), extensively cited in Jiayou Bencao ( 嘉佑本草 Materia medica in the time of Jiayou) published in 1060.
Other Characteristics of Drink and Food Therapy in Shouqin Volume 1
• The primacy of food therapy.缘老人之性，皆厌于药而喜于食，以食治疾胜于用药。况是老人之疾，慎于吐利，尤宜用食以治之 .
• Food should be taken according to seasonal changes春属木，主发生…春肝气王，肝属木，其味酸。木能胜土，土属脾主甘。当春之时，其饮食之味，宜减酸益甘，以养脾气 .
• Food and wuxing人取其色味冷热良毒之性归之五行，处以为药，以治诸疾 .
The Metaphor of Stomach-Spleen as Parents
Filial Piety for the Elderly’s Health
• Filial Piety “ 上合神灵，下契人理”
• To serve the elderly in the family is the goal for Confucian scholar’s medical learning.
Cheng Hao 程颢 (1032-1085)“ 事亲者，不可不知医。”
Zhang Congzheng 张从正 (1217-1222)“ 惟儒者能明辨之，而事亲者不可以不知也。”
Outline• Introduction of Shouqin Text
• Motivation and Question
• Drink and Food, Spleen-Stomach, and Confucian Thoughts in Volume 1
• Encyclopedic Approach and a Partial Syncretism in Volume 2-4
• Conclusion: Confucian yangsheng in Song-Jin-Yuan Context
An Encyclopedic Approach in Yuan yangsheng
Outline• Introduction of Shouqin Text
• Motivation and Question
• Drink and Food, Spleen-Stomach, and Confucian Thoughts in Volume 1
• Encyclopedic Approach and a Partial Syncretism in Volume 2-4
• Conclusion: Confucian yangsheng in Song-Jin-Yuan Context
Conclusion• The popularization of medical knowledge among the
Confucian scholars in the Northern Song catalyzed the generation of Confucian yangsheng literature.
• Stomach-Spleen and Food discourse was a contingent factor emerging from the medical landscape, that was caught by Confucian yangsheng. The filial piety discourse, however, was more native.
• Zou Xuan’s Encyclopedic Approach finalized a blueprint for later yangsheng literature.
Acknowledgement
• Professor Hoyt Tillman ( 田浩老师 ).
• Professors and scholars in CSHST, IHNS in CAS, and Tsinghua University.
• Center for Biology and Society, Arizona State University.
The Best Medicine for the ElderlyDrink and Food in Shouqin Yanglao Xinshu ( 寿亲养老新书 ) and the Transformation of Confucian yangsheng
Literature from Song to Yuan
Lijing Jiang 姜丽婧Center for Biology and Society
Arizona State University
