Shi's Prescription Studies

Shi's Prescription Studies is a formulary work of traditional Chinese medicine compiled by the modern physician Shi Yiren (1896–1966), one volume of the Shi's Medical Book Series. The book consists of an introduction and a classified section. The introduction briefly traces the development of prescriptions, their organizing principles and methods of classification, discusses incompatibilities in Chinese herbal compounding, and examines the differences between ancient formulas and modern dosages, reminding students to note the conversion between ancient weights and measures and present-day amounts. The classified section groups formulas by therapeutic method across sixteen chapters, containing 256 prescriptions—diaphoretics, emetics, laxatives, harmonizing formulas, cooling formulas, and so on—each category further divided by specific method; diaphoretics, for example, fall into ten methods: warming with pungency, cooling with pungency, assisting yang, nourishing yin, regulating qi, stanching blood, transforming fluids, dispelling dampness, clearing summerheat, and resolving toxicity. Each prescription lists composition, usage, indications, explanation of meaning, and modifications, with a formulary verse before some entries to aid memorization. The author advocated organizing traditional formulas with a scientific eye and re-examining ancient prescriptions, introducing contemporary Western physiological and pharmacological knowledge into his discussions to explain how formulas act—an expression of the era's convergence of Chinese and Western medicine. First used in teaching as Lectures on Chinese Prescription Studies and later expanded into a book, it is an important reference for the study of modern Chinese formulary education and prescribing thought. This entry is based on the 1958 new edition from Shanghai Scientific and Technical Publishers.