Pien Ch'üeh and Ts'ang-kung, Memoir 45

Pien Ch'üeh 扁鵲 is not a personal name, but what this physician was called in Chao (see text below and Wang Li-ch'i, 105.2213n., and Ts'ao Tung-yi 曹東義 "Pien Ch'üeh [Ch'in Yüeh-jen] li-chi k'ao" 扁鵲（秦越人）里籍考, Chung-hua yi-shih tsa-chih 中華醫史雜誌, 23.1 [1993]: 15-19). Morita Den 森田傳, Shiki Hen Shaku Sō-kō retsuden yakuchū 史記扁鵲倉公列傳譯注 (Tokyo, 1986, p. 24) speculates that ts'iak 砦 (in Chou Fa-kao's reconstruction) was a play on pien shih 砭石, the stone needle or prick (a primitive kind of scalpel) used to treat diseases (see text below) and furthermore that the magpie (ch'üeh 鵲) had a call that is very similar to ts'iak or diak.

He was also known as the Lü Physician (Lü Yi 盧醫), since his home was in Lü 盧, a statelet absorbed by Ch'i.

There are two works (no longer extant) attributed to Pien Ch'üeh: Pien Ch'üeh nei-ching 扁鵲內經 (Inner Classic of Pien Ch'üeh) in 9 chüan and a Wai-ching 外經 (Outer Classic) in 12 chüan (Han shu 漢書, 30.1776).

Hsü 徐 (Chi-chieh 集解) first noted that Cheng 鄭 should be read Mo 鄚 and is a county. Wang Li-ch'i (105.2213.) concurs and locates Mo County near modern Mo-chou Chen 鄚州鎮 in Jen-ch'iu 任丘 County in Hopei. Wang further observes that Po-hai was first made a commandery by Liu Pang under the Han and there was no such commandery in the pre-Ch'in state of Ch'i.

Wang Shao 王劭 (550-610?) is cited in So-yin 索隱 arguing that this chapter belongs near the end of the book adjacent to the chapters on the diviners (chapters 127 and 128) and has been placed between the memoirs by some later editor erroneously. Chang Shou-chieh 張守節 (Cheng-yi 正義) follows this line of thought in his claim that although this collective memoir (lei chuan 類傳) may show similarities to chapters 127 and 128, it was placed among the memoirs on early Han figures because Ch'un-yü Yi 淳于意 lived under Emperor Wen 文 of the Han. Li Ching-hsing 李景星 (1876-1934) refutes both arguments in favor of the idea that as a joint biography of someone from antiquity with someone of modern times—similar to chapter 84, Ch'ü Yüan, Chia Yi lieh-chuan 屈原·賈誼列傳—this chapter is placed exactly right.

The shih 氏 here is superfluous and indicates once again Ssu-ma Ch'ien's apparent misunderstanding of the distinction that existed between nomen 氏 (shih) and cognomen (hsing 姓) in pre-Ch'in times.

Yüeh-jen 越人 may be a title similar to Chen-jen 真人 which was often applied to early medical practitioners (cf. the entry on Li Chen-jen 李真人 curing an eye disease in the Song dynasty Yi-chia lei 醫家類 3.6a).

This line might also be read "he became an innkeeper for someone else." The So-yin edition of the Shih chi reads simply she-chang 舍長 (without jen 人).

Master Ch'ang-sang 長桑公 is mentioned several times in various early texts: in the Chen kao 真誥 (chüan 14, fol. 15b) he is said to be Chuang Tzu's master, in the Taoist collectanea Yin-chi ch'i-ch'ien 雲笈七籤 he is depicted as a recluse who went about with his hair down singing cryptic songs (chüan 110, fol. 1b), and in the Shen-hsien chuan 神仙傳 is said to have been the master of Yü Tzu 于子 (chüan 4, fol. 6a).

On why he has the epithet "mulberry," two explanations seem tenable. The first follows the association of the mulberry with the fecundity of the grove where only women worked (cf. the luxuriance of the mulberry in "Hsi sang" 隰桑 Mao #228 or "Sang jou" 桑柔 Mao #257, of the Shih ching 詩經). More likely is the second explanation that the mulberry itself is long-lived and thus symbolizes the "father" or "ancestor"—in this case of medicine—as in "Hsiao pien" 小弁 (Mao #197).

Most commentators read chien 間 as secretly (cf. Wang Li-ch'i, 110.2213n.); the Cheng-yi reads it as hsien 閑, suggesting a reading of "familiarly" or "leisurely" which seems also possible.

The So-yin cites an "old theory" that shang ch'ih shui 上池水, literally "water on the top of a pond," indicates water than has not yet reached the ground such as dew that collects on plants. The Cheng-yi suggests it might refer to dew collected in special containers. But the literal meaning or water from the top of a pool or pond may also obtain here. Nakai Riken 中井履軒 (1732-1817) explains that such pure water would be used to take the herbs.

So-yin argues that wu 物 here refers to ghosts or immortals. Another possibility might be material phenomena.

I.e., heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys. Ts'ui Shih 崔適 (1852-1924) points out that the Cheng-yi glosses both wu tsang 五臟 (five viscera) and liu fu 六府 (six bowels) suggesting that the original text read: "he could completely see the concretions and knots in the five viscera and the six bowels" (Shih chi t'an-yüan 史記探源 [Peking: Pei-ching Ta-hsüeh Ch'u-pan-she], 1986 [original preface 1909], p. 205). Cf. also the translation and discussion in Elisabeth Hsu, The Transmission of Chinese Medicine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 85.

In other words, although he could see through people, he hid this power and pretended to be merely a pulse diagnostician. Another reading for this sentence would be "[but] he solely made his name through diagnosing pulses."

See n. 2 above.

Morita (p. 30n.) suspects that this should be Duke Ting 定 from 476-475 B.C. (cf. Shih chi, 39.1685) since his dates correspond better to those of Viscount Chien (see also the following note). Although we have very little information on Duke Shao in the Shih chi (cf. 39.1684 and 14.651-4), the comments at the end of the accounts of his rein in the Shih chi (see the following note) suggest rather than Duke Chao is intended (if possibly anachronistic) here.

Shih chi, 39.1684 reads: "Duke Chao expired in his sixth year. The Six Excellencies [the heads of the Han 韓, Chao 趙, Wei 魏, Fan 范, Chung-hang 中行 and Chih 智 clans] were mighty and the ducal house was brought low" 昭公六年卒·六卿彊·公室卑 (cf. the similar passage on Shih chi, 14.654-5 and the very similar comments of Tzu-fu Hui's 子服惠 recorded in the Tso chuan (Yang, Tso, Chao 16, 526 B.C., p. 1382).

He was the son of Viscount Ch'eng 成 of Chao; his nomen was Chao and his praenomen was Yang 鞅 (after turning against Chin openly, he changed his praenomen to Chih-fu 志父; see Fang Hsüan-ch'en, pp. 571-2, #1965). For further details see Shih chi, 43.1786 and 15.687-8). Considered the founder of the state of Chao, he ruled the area that became Chao (originally a part of Chin) for the sixty-year period from 517-458 B.C. Given the length of his rule, it is unlikely he could have been more than a young boy during the reign of Duke Chao of Chin.

According to "Chao shih-chia" 趙世家 (Shih chi, 43.1787), this illness occurred in 501 B.C. (Cheng-yi claims that the chronological tables also record this, but they do not in the extant version included in the Chung-hua edition).

A parallel passage on Pien Ch'üeh's treatment of Viscount Chien's illness, virtually identical to the text here with one exception (see text and notes below), appears in the "Chao shih-chia" (Shih chi, 43.1786-7; see also Chavannes [5:25-31] translation. It is followed in the "Chao shih-chia" by a complete interpretation of the dream which is not cited here.

This refers to those grand masters who were serving the Viscount (see Morita, p. 30n.).

One of the Viscount's vassals.

T'ung Pin 童斌 (1510-1595, cited in Takigawa, 105.4) glosses chih 治 as "chih huan" 治亂 (to bring order to a chaotic situation) and our translation follows this reading. T'ang Yao 唐堯 ("Pien Ch'üeh, Ts'ang-kung lieh-chuan" 扁鵲倉公列傳 in Yi ku wen hsüan 醫古文選 Tuan Yi-shan 段逸山 ed, [Rpt. Peking: Jen-min Wei-sheng Ch'u-pan-she, 1994 (1986)], p. 41, n. 14) also reads chih as an ting 安定.

See the brief account of this dream on Shih chi, 28.1360.

Both apparently were grand masters of Ch'in. Noble Scion Chih 支 (Chih 枝 in the Tso chuan, agnomen Tzu-sang 子桑) was an advisor to Duke Mu (cf. Yang, Tso, Hsi 9 and 13, pp. 331 and 349; Fang Hsüan-ch'en, p. 184, #349). Aoki (p. 147n.) argues that Tzu-yü refers to the Tzu-ch'e 子車 Clan of Ch'in (see also Shih chi, 5.194, Grand Scribe's Records, 1:102 and the commentary on Yang, Tso, Wen 6, pp. 546-7), but this still does not make clear who this particular member of the clan was. Chavannes (5:25) believes Tzu-yü was the father of the three Tzu-yü clansmen buried with Duke Mu, but it seems safest to note that Tzu-yü (or Tzu-ch'e) was a Ch'in clan and that, as Takigawa (105.4) notes, the exact person referred to here can not be determined.

Chavannes (5:25) translates: "et m'y suis fort plu."