Library

In ancient times, if one did not hold a high position in the court, one would necessarily engage in arts such as medicine or divination. Although medicine as an art is indeed difficult, it values proficiency above all. Proficiency means first attaining the subtlety of the "Four Essentials": Pulse (Mài), Disease (Bìng), Syndrome (Zhèng), and Treatment (Zhì). As the ancients said, these four aspects are crucial. The subtleties lie in the pulse, which must not be neglected; by examining it with principle, one can know the cause of the disease; knowing the cause allows one to identify the syndrome; once the syndrome is identified, one can detail the treatment. If these four aspects are not lost, when facing illness, one can treat cold with cold (a likely textual error for treating heat with cold, or vice versa depending on context, but literally: "treat cold with cold"), drain what is excessive, and tonify what is deficient. This is called "reinforcing excess and depleting deficiency" (Shí Shí Xū Xū), damaging the insufficient and benefiting the excessive. If one does not understand this, few will avoid death; this is truly lamentable!

Yan Yonghe loved reading since the age of eight. At twelve, he studied under Master Liu Fuzhen (Mr. Kai, courtesy name Lizhi). The master uniquely valued me, teaching me face-to-face and transmitting the heart-mind method. By seventeen, scholars from all directions did not disdain my youth and shallow learning, and those seeking advice came in succession. I have now focused on medicine for over thirty years! Occasionally, during leisure time, sighing at the differences between ancient and modern worlds, the dryness and dampness of different regions, and the varying thickness or thinness of people's innate endowment, I realized that rigidly adhering to ancient prescriptions to treat contemporary diseases often results in incompatibility. Thus, relying on my own insights, considering current circumstances, I collected prescriptions usable by the ancients. I compiled those I had learned and tested for efficacy, organized their theories and treatments, categorized them into sections, and named the work *Jisheng Fang* (Prescriptions for Saving Lives). Upon completion, I dared not keep it secret, so I had it carved onto wood blocks for wide dissemination. This is not only to meet the urgent needs of those concerned with health preservation, but also to demonstrate the true intent of my daily teacher-student transmission and life-saving practice.

Preface by Yan Yonghe of Mount Lu, on the Shangsi Day of the Gui-Chou Year of Baoyou.

I have long cherished medical books and was taught the Way of Medicine early on, practicing for over fifty years. Recently, during leisure days, I discussed eighty methods of treatment and formulated four hundred prescriptions, totaling ten volumes... [Text fragment] ...so the contemporaries praised... Written respectfully by Yan Yonghe of Mount Lu in the good month of the Ding-Mao Year of Xianchun.

The Liver belongs to the Foot Jueyin Meridian, is located in the East, corresponds to the Wood element (Jia-Yi), opens into the eyes, and manifests in the left hypochondrium. Its political movement causes diseases manifesting as fright and terror... [Text ends abruptly].