Precious Remedies for Saving the World

Precious Remedies for Saving the World is a Ming dynasty manuscript of Chinese medicine, compiled by Wang Yong, styled Taipu Shanren, and collated by Shen Zhen, styled Zhuozhai; it is now held in the library of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. The book is not divided into juan; its contents center on health preservation, conception and fertility, and care during pregnancy and childbirth, and it consists mainly of two parts: the Ming physician Yu Qiao's Essential Discourses on Extending Progeny and a text of unknown compilation titled Divine Formulas of Kan and Li for Conception. The volume opens with three health-preservation songs—"Song of Hygiene by the True Immortal of the Western Mountains," "Secret Formula for Postnatal Health," and "Song of Preserving Health and Warding Off Illness"—which discuss diet and daily life, moderation of the emotions, and seasonal regimen, forming the book's introductory section. The Essential Discourses on Extending Progeny comprises, in order, the original preface, a general discourse, a key discourse on regulating essence and blood, a discourse pointing directly at true primordial qi, and a discourse on medication for men and women, followed by four diagrams—"Solid yang can enter weak yin," "Solid yin cannot receive yang," "Faint yang cannot project into yin," and "Weak yin cannot retain yang"—illustrating the different pathologies of thin male essence and weak female blood that cause infertility, and then by sections on regulating the primordial, regulating menstruation, calming the fetus, facilitating childbirth, auspicious and inauspicious days for intercourse, and methods for turning a female fetus into a male, with appended formulas and supplementary formulas for extending progeny, together with discussions of the five prohibitions for pregnant women, the five suitabilities for children, and the foremost formula for prolonging life. The Divine Formulas of Kan and Li for Conception includes a preface, a discourse on the way of yin and yang in reproduction, methods of pulse diagnosis for conception, a discourse on medication for men to regulate the primordial, a discourse on the Innate Unity Decoction, a discourse on the Acquired Transformation Pill, a discourse on making male or female, methods of moxibustion at acupoints for childless men and women, a discourse on seeking progeny from Heaven, and five keys to protecting the fetus; the book ends with appended formulas: the Prolonging-Life Conception Formula, the Safe-Childbirth Without Worry Formula, and the Horse-Fodder Bean Immortal Formula. Yu Qiao served as a judge of the Imperial Medical Academy of the Ming; he drew widely on the surviving writings of Liu Wansu, Zhang Jiegu, Li Dongyuan, and other masters, and his discussions are precise and his modifications of formulas detailed, making this an important source for the study of Ming theories of conception and obstetrics.