Verified Prescriptions Ancient and Modern

Verified Prescriptions Ancient and Modern is a formulary compiled by the Tang dynasty physician Zhen Liyan. The original work comprised fifty volumes and was lost after the Song dynasty; its prescriptions and discussions survive mainly through citations in Tang and Song medical works such as Waitai Miyao, Ishinpo, and Qianjin Fang. In the twentieth century, the medical historian and textual scholar Fan Xingzhun searched more than ten medical works, including Waitai Miyao, Ishinpo, Zhenglei Bencao, and Qianjin Yaofang, extracted the surviving fragments item by item, reorganized them by disease category into a ten-volume reconstructed manuscript, cross-checked them against related formularies, deleted and supplemented according to the Song Xiting edition, and added collation notes. This edition, edited by Liang Jun and included in the series Compilation of Reconstructed Formularies from the Han, Three Kingdoms, Six Dynasties, Tang, and Song, is a photocopied and edited version; the manuscript retains much content but lacks volume titles, and the contents of the volumes are similar to one another. The reconstructed manuscript includes numerous proven prescriptions from important pre-Tang formularies such as Shanfan Fang, Xiaopin Fang, Jiyan Fang, and Zhouhou Fang, as well as from the Tang Qianjin Fang, covering such specialties and conditions as cold damage, seasonal febrile diseases, wind-stroke, consumptive exhaustion, wasting-thirst, dysphagia, accumulations, gynecology, pediatrics, the five sense organs, and sores and ulcers, with additional content on compounding medicines, identifying drugs, and acupuncture and moxibustion. Because the original work was lost early, this reconstructed edition, though incomplete, is an important document for studying the transmission of pre-Tang formularies, prescription composition, and clinical diagnosis and treatment, and holds considerable value for medical history, textual scholarship, and clinical reference.