Igaku Keigo: Preface

古訓医伝序。

記に曰く、文武の政、布きて方策に在り。其の人存すれば則ち其の政擧がり、其の人亡すれば則ち其の政息む。医術も亦た然り。

医籍有りと雖も、苟くも其の人無ければ、則ち其の術息むに幾し。世の病に罹る者は、殆ど横夭を免れず。蓋し其の書廣博にして適從する所無ければなるか。

近世、英傑輩出し、五行を點じて其の藩を毀ち、廢して其の道を更へ、以て世の耳目を新たにす。特に長沙氏の書を掲げて、以て適從する所を知らしむ。其の功偉なりと謂ふべし。

然れども陰陽を辨ぜず、虚実を詳らかにせず、但だ毒を以て攻むと謂ふ。攻むるも亦た矯めて直を過ぐる者なり。其の弊遂に攻撃に偏するに至るなり。此れ未だ以て其の術を得たりと為さず。

彼の温補者流と互ひに仇視して相容れずと、医術の振はざる、実に此の極に至るなり。亦た哀しからずや。

Preface to Kokun Iden.

The Book of Rites says that the government of Kings Wen and Wu of Zhou is fully recorded in books and records. When there are people fit to carry it out, that government flourishes; when they are gone, it declines. Medicine is likewise.

No matter how many medical books remain, without people who can put them to use, the medical art is nearly lost. Consequently, people who become ill can scarcely escape untimely death. Might this be because medical books are so extensive and numerous that people cannot determine which to follow?

Recently, outstanding figures have appeared in succession, rejecting the five-phase theory and dismantling its barriers, discarding old methods for a new path and transforming what people see and hear. In particular, they raised Zhang Zhongjing's writings as their banner and clearly showed what to rely on. Their achievement may be called great.

Yet they fail to distinguish yin from yang or examine deficiency and excess closely, merely proclaiming that all illness is toxin to be attacked. Such attacking treatment is excessive, as though straightening a bend beyond the point of straightness. Its harmful tendency ultimately becomes an exclusive reliance on attack. This cannot yet be called mastery of medicine's essence.

Followers of ancient formulas and proponents of warming supplementation regard each other as enemies and refuse to accept one another. The decline of medicine has indeed reached this extreme. Is this not lamentable?