Who was LI SHIZHEN? #4

Scholar Worthy of Emulation #4

The first edition of the Bencao Gangmu was eventually published in 1596 A.D., three years after Li Shizhen’s death. Hu Chenglong’s work on the project in Nanjing was done rather carelessly, and attained only limited distribution. Seven copies of the first edition made it to the modern era, but one was destroyed in Berlin during World War II. The next version, a 1603 edition, was published in Jiangxi, after the book was re-arranged. It incorporated three other works by Li Shizhen (about the meridians, not about herbs); like the Nanjing edition, it had limited distribution. Subsequent editions were in better form, though they mostly followed the arrangement of the 1603 edition.

The original illustrations, which had not been of particularly good quality (see Figures 12-14, from the 1603 edition), were revised in 1640 A.D., just prior to the Manchu invasion that brought in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). With the reorganization and new illustrations, of which there were now 1,160 carefully executed drawings, the book quickly became recognized as a masterpiece. The book was then reproduced frequently, with subsequent editions in 1658, 1684, and 1717, with at least 15 editions during the Qing Dynasty. The book was disseminated around the world, with parts of it translated into Japanese (abridged version in 1637; more complete version in 1783), Latin (1656), French (1735), English (1736 and 1741 by different British translators), Russian (1868) and German (1895). Copies of the original Chinese version are found in rare book collections in many countries of the world (see Figure 15; a copy of the 1717 edition offered at a book shop in England). The most recent English translation is an abridgement that was published in England by B.E. Reid, in 1932.

During the 20th Century, the Bencao Gangmu was finally replaced by modern Materia Medicas, the first official one sponsored by the Chinese communist government being Zhong Yao Zhi, published in 1959. The newer versions, produced since the 1980s, rely on full-color, realistic paintings of the herbs or photographs, and include the modern Latin binomials, information about chemical constituents, and other innovations. Thus, the Bencao Gangmu was the last major Materia Medica of the traditional era and is now a historical relic.

The name Bencao Gangmu is derived from the title of the book by the Song Dynasty Neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200 A.D.), who wrote the Tongjian Gangmu. Bencao simply means Materia Medica (literally: ben = plant root; cao = plant top; hence: the various parts of plants); but gangmu has special meaning. Li Shizhen called each of his herb monographs "gang" (literally: key link, essential points, subject), while the technical criteria for arranging the herb descriptions were called "mu" (literally: details, indexing, observing). The monographs contained up to 10 points of information about each medicinal material:

• • Information concerning a previously false classification;
• • Information on secondary names, including the sources of the names;
• • Collected explanations, commentaries and quotes in chronological order, including origin of the material, appearance, time of collection, medicinally useful parts, similarities with other medicinal materials;
• • Information concerning the preparation of the material;
• • Explanation of doubtful points;
• • Correction of mistakes;
• • Taste and nature;
• • Enumeration of main indications;
• • Explanation of the effects; and
• • Enumeration of prescriptions in which the material is used, including form and dosage of the prescriptions.

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