Further Reading

• Bates, Ann, and Alan W. Bates. 2007. “Lãn Ông (Lê Hữu Trác, 1720–91) and the Medical Tradition.” Journal of Medical Biography 15 (3): 158–64. [PubMed: 17641789]
• Marr, David G. 1987. “Vietnamese Attitudes Regarding Illness and Healing.” In Death and Disease in Southeast Asia: Explorations in Social, Medical, and Demographical History, ed. Norman G. Owen, 162–86. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
• McHale, Shawn. 2007. “Vietnamese Print Culture Under French Colonial Rule: The Emergence of a Public Sphere.” In Books in Numbers, ed. Wilt Idema, 377–415. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• Monnais, Laurence, C. Michele Thompson, and Ayo Wahlberg, eds. 2012. Southern Medicine for Southern People: Vietnamese Medicine in the Making. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.

Preface to Understandings of Hải Thượng’s Medical Lineage¹³

I, the monk who proofread and printed [the text], am a man from Thanh Lâm in Hải Dương.¹⁴ In my youth, I was impetuous. By chance, I drifted into Zen (thiền) Buddhism, and set my steps in Jetavana.¹⁵ I let my heart wander on the Vulture Peak.¹⁶ I often told myself that restraining desires would foster primordial qi,¹⁷ and fasting the heart would nourish inner nature and mental agility. From morning to evening, I recited [the sūtras] to prolong my natural life span.¹⁸ But what could I do? The bones of immortality¹⁹ had not been transformed yet, and the bones of disease were still being produced! A sour pain in my flanks came and went from time to time. I remembered that we Buddhists have the Bhaiṣajyaguru Sūtra, which says, “without doctors and medicines,” sickness is suffering.²⁰ Thereafter, I invited [medical] masters and requested medicines. But this ailment remained. So I knew that if one plainly does not understand medicine, one makes mistakes all the time. Consequently, I broadly studied medical texts, determined to cure the illness by myself.

Suddenly, Mr. Vũ from Đường My²¹ offered me to read a set of [Understandings of] Hải Thượng’s [Medical Lineage] in fifty-one books, and he further advised its publication. I leisurely read it. Mr. Lazy was originally from the same prefecture [as I am]. He devoted his life to study. Although he was outstanding,²² his initial ambitions were not rewarded. Afterward, he lived in seclusion on Fragrant Mountain in his mother’s native Hà Tĩnh. He devoted himself to medicine and set his mind on saving people, with the idea of “if you cannot be a good minister, be a good doctor.”²³ Mr. Lazy lived in the region and was careful when considering his treatment. Hence, the words he put down in writing have such a profound meaning. In his differentiations of “ Water and Fire” and “yin and yang,” and in his discussions of “surface and interior” and “depletion and repletion,” he synthesized the great achievements of various masters. He discovered what his predecessors did not yet discover. With a benevolence equaling that of ancient history, he was clearly an eminent doctor of the Southern Country.²⁴ His ethics and literary works were deeply immersed in the realm of the High Tang dynasty [China].²⁵

It is most regrettable that many texts are dispersed because of dramatic changes²⁶ in this world. If I do not send [Understandings of Hải Thượng’s Medical Lineage] to press, it will surely end up in broken fragments, and what benefit would [this text], which came into my awareness, then have? At that time, I often wished to publish it throughout the country. I only worried that my strength would be insufficient and my efforts in vain. Furthermore, the Pagoda had many complicated duties. The printing of Buddhist texts was not completed yet. I had to refrain for ten years. In the thirtieth year of Tự Đức [1877], a large number of notables urged me to print. One after the other, they contributed additional money for printing. Thereupon, I entrusted specialists to search for lost manuscripts, and I obtained another four books. The compilation gradually reached its end.

In the thirty-first year [1878], I happened to meet his Excellency Nguyễn, first-place candidate of the Provincial Exams and vice associate military superintendent of the north, from Cách Bi.²⁷ In his leisure time, he traveled, looking for old friends. When I talked to him about this [project], he had admiration [for it]. On behalf of my cause, he wrote a letter to urge wide financial support. Thereafter, notables gathered and contributed financial support for the publication. In the thirty-second year [1879], after I widely convened scholar-physicians and consulted them for revision, the text went off to print. The printing lasted until this first year of Hàm Nghi [1885] before being finally completed. For the first time, I found some comfort in my heart. Furthermore, I knew that “when one has good intentions, Heaven must follow.”²⁸ All of the expenditure mostly depended on powerful gentlemen. What could [I], a pure Buddhist monk, have [contributed]?

My only fear was that the various drafts would contain mistakes. When words are copied several times, it is easy to make mistakes.²⁹ The proofread prints of this new publication leave many questions unresolved. If there are shortcomings, I sincerely hope that those who are better qualified will soon correct the mistakes and avoid passing them on to posterity. This is my earnest wish. As a foreword, I first explained the whole story. How would I dare to call this a preface!

Respectfully, [I submit this essay] as a preface. The proofreader and printer, Abbot Thích Thanh Cao of the Đồng Nhân Pagoda, Đại Tráng community, Võ Giàng County, Từ Sơn Prefecture, Bắc Ninh Province, on the first day of the fourth month of the first year of Hàm Nghi [1885].

NOTES

1

Hải Thượng Y tông tâm lĩnh. On the history of manuscripts and printing in Vietnam, see Pasquel-Rageau 1986 and Nguyen 1989: 82–83. On printing and preservation of texts, including the role of Buddhist monasteries in Vietnamese history prior to the 1920s, see McHale 2007: 377–84. On the import of Chinese texts versus the local printing of texts in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Vietnam, see Li 2011. For a catalogue of preserved medical works in Vietnam, see Lâm Giang 2009. For a discussion on the medical works (written in various scripts) preserved in the Institute of Hán-Nôm Studies in Hanoi, see Thompson 2006. For an excellent overview of the contents of medical texts in the Institute of Han-Nôm Studies in Japanese, see Mayanagi 2012–2015, and for the texts in the National Library of Vietnam, see Mayanagi 2006 and his addenda of 2011.

2

Other prefaces are Vũ Xuân Hiên’s preface to his collection of remaining sections of Understandings of Hải Thượng’s Medical Lineage of 1866 and Lê Hữu Trác’s original author’s preface of 1770.

3

Nguyễn Ngọc Thạch 2006.

4

The Đồng Nhân hexagram is also one of the so-called returning souls hexagrams. See Nielsen 2003: 96.

5

I could not verify these inscriptions yet, but see Nguyễn Quang Khải 2015.

6

For a general overview on the relation between Buddhism and manuscripts and printing, see Galambos 2015.

7

See, e.g., McHale 2007: 380, and Pasquel-Rageau 1986: 258.

8

In the year 1761, the monk Bán Lai printed the remaining parts of Tuệ Tĩnh’s pharmacopeia at the Hồng Phúc Pagoda. See Chu 2002: 265.

9

Nguyễn Ngọc Thạch 2006; Nguyễn Quang Khải 2015.

10

See, e.g., Marr 1981 and Bianco 2001.

11

Hải Thượng refers to Thượng Hồng in Hải Dương Province, his father’s native region. See Ruan, Du, and Wang 2013.

12

Lê Hữu Trác witnessed the end of the Lê dynasty (1428–1788) and de facto rule of the Trịnh Lords (1545–1787) in the northern part of what is now Vietnam. On the turbulent changes ignited by the Tây Sơn revolution at the end of the eighteenth century, see Dutton 2006. For Nguyễn Trần Huân’s introduction and a French translation of Account of a Journey to the Capital, see Lãn Ông 1972.

13

Preface to Le Huu Trac’s Tân thuyên Hải Thượng y tông tâm lĩnh toàn trật (q.thủ), by Thích Thanh Cao, 1885: 10a–12a. http://hannom​.nlv.gov​.vn/hannom/cgi-bin/hannom?a​=d&d​=CdjlbdgGlMEngTjg1885​.1.5&e=——-vi-20–1—txt-txIN%7ctxME, last accessed 30 June 2015.

14

Thanh Lâm is an old name for Nam Sách County, which is now of part of Hải Du’o’ng city, the capital of Hải Dương Province.

15

Here, Jevatana (Kỳ viên) refers to Buddhist monasteries in general. Hence, “settings steps in Jetavana” means that Thích Thanh Cao became a Buddhist monk.

16

He found plea sure in Buddhism. Vulture Peak (Gijjhakuta) was one of the Buddha’s most important retreats in Rājagaha.

17

Nguyên khí.

18

Literally, “Heavenly years,” or the years given by Heaven.

19

Tiên cốt (Ch. xian gu) is another name for the sacrum. The sacrum is an important locus in Daoist inner alchemical practices.

20

Thích Thanh Cao alludes to the seventh great vow in the Bhaiṣajyaguru Sūtra (see chapter 25).

21

My Thứ village in Đường An County, Hải Du’o’ng Province.

22

Literally, “lift and uncover” (hiên yết). This refers to the expression “lifting heaven and uncovering earth” (hiên thiên yết địa).

23

This expression is attributed to the famous Han dynasty physician Zhang Zhongjing.

24

The country south of China, meaning present-day Vietnam.

25

The High Tang refers to eighth-century China. This was the high period of cultural splendor during the Tang dynasty (618–906).

26

Literally, “mulberry blue.” This is an abbreviation of the proverb “mulberry plantation changing into the blue sea,” which has its origins in Ge Hong’s (283–343) Biographies of Divine Transcendents (Shenxian zhuan).

27

Nguyễn Cao (1837–1887).

28

This is a Buddhist expression.

29

Thích Thanh Cao refers to a proverb: “When you copy a character three times, ‘crow’ (ô) and ‘ there’ (yên) become ‘horse’ (mã).” These three words (pronounced ô, yên, and mã in Sino-Vietnamese) have a similar orthography in Chinese, and are easily mistaken.