Ge Hong and the Making of an Emergency Medicine Formulary

Abstract

The Zhouhou beiji fang 肘後備急方 (Emergency formulas to keep on hand) was compiled in the fourth century by the Daoist, alchemist, and scholar, Ge Hong 葛洪 (283–343) under the name Zhouhou jiucu 肘後救卒 ([Formulas for] resuscitation to keep on hand). Since its creation, the text has undergone numerous changes, updates, expansions, and revisions at the hands of Tao Hongjing 陶弘景 (456–536), Yang Yongdao 楊用道 (fl. 1144), and other unnamed editors. As the text grew and changed, it became intertwined in the vast network of formularies that exist in Chinese medicine. Over the course of fifteen hundred years the Zhouhou beiji fang, expanded and contracted until it was incorporated into the Zhengtong daozang 正統道藏 (Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong period) published in 1445, as the Ge Xianweng Zhouhou beiji fang 葛仙翁肘後備急方 (Old Immortal Ge Hong’s Emergency formulas to keep on hand) which contains nearly two thousand formulas. By tracing the history of the Zhouhou beiji fang and its relationship to other works found in the genre of medical formularies, we can better understand the development and importance of this text, but also how formularies in general, grow, change, and influence each other as they transmit medical knowledge across generations.