Who was LI SHIZHEN? #5

Scholar Worthy of Emulation #5

The Bencao Gangmu is considered uniquely valuable for several reasons. First, it presented a huge number of diverse materials: 1,892 medicinal substances (1,094 from plants; 444 from animals, and 275 from mineral sources), including 374 new items. Many of the new items came from the far reaches of the Chinese Empire and from ships that sailed far from home to bring back foreign goods, among them, medicinal herbs. The new herbs generated considerable interest: some diseases are particularly difficult to cure or manage and doctors hope to find new therapies for such cases. Yet, in attaining this large total number of substances, Li had disposed of a number of items mentioned in Tang’s compendium, considering them to be of no value. He took care to correct errors in identification of materials presented in the earlier books and pointed out other medical errors. For example, he mentioned that the alchemical remedies made of heavy metals were quite toxic and did not prolong life, as had been recorded previously. Li particularly thought that the famous alchemist Ge Hong (281-341 A.D.) had led people astray by overly praising the value of these potentially toxic materials. So, the book both expanded and streamlined the prior medical works.

Second, and as a reflection of his interest in formulation strategies, Li collected virtually all the prescriptions that had been handed down over the centuries and then presented over 11,000 formulas: about 2,000 of these were well known from other medical works, but over 8,000 were collected by Li from contemporary doctors and rare texts. With regard to ginseng (his father’s area of special interest), he recorded 77 prescriptions that included the herb, of which only 9 were ancient ones (including Si Junzi Tang, Four Major Herbs Combination); further, he explained the principles of the formulations (6). Five of the ginseng preparations relied on the single herb; most of the others had no more than 6 herbs.

Third, as important as the breadth of the collection was its unique organization. Li was able to categorize the medicinal materials into more logical groupings than had been achieved ever before. The groupings came close to the binomial system introduced by Carl Linnaeus during the 18th Century (his main books being Genera plantarum, 1737, and Species plantarum, 1753). Charles Darwin (author of The Origin of Species, 1859), in working out his theory of evolution, is reported to have quoted from the Bencao Gangmu, which had such detailed information about the variations of plants and animals that it helped fill out the theory.

Finally, the Bencao Gangmu is appreciated as a historical record because Li quoted from 952 previous authors. In fact, he also provided an extensive bibliography, listing 277 books on medical subjects and herbs and 591 other texts, such as literary classics and historical works. Joseph Needham, the famous British historian who spent most of his adult life on the multi-volume work, Science and Civilization in China, declared that the greatest scientific achievement in the Ming Dynasty was the Bencao Gangmu (8). The Bencao Gangmu was also criticized. As relayed by Paul Unschuld, this work was aimed at correcting errors, but ended up passing on and introducing several errors. More importantly, the book was so big that it was not practical for practitioners to use as a guide. Unschuld points out (5):

Criticism of the Bencao Gangmu by subsequent Materia Medica authors was directed mainly against the size of the work. This criticism is justified when one judges the work according to its usefulness for the practicing physician. While Tao Hongjing [the last truly great materia medica author before Li Shizhen] in his work had restricted himself to the presentation of a purely medical-pharmaceutical subject, Li Shizhen created a comprehensive encyclopedia, in which he frequently went beyond the popular pharmaceutical scope. The size of the work made it expensive and unwieldy. The ballast of treatises digressing into marginal areas--of interest perhaps to Confucian medical scholars, but not to practicing physicians and pharmacists--therefore became the target of criticism.

One of the famous herb authorities who came after Li Shizhen and who was overshadowed by him was Wang Ang (ca. 1615-1700 A.D.). He commented on Li Shizhen and the Bencao Gangmu:
From antiquity to the present time [ca. 1700 A.D.], several hundred authors have written Materia Medicas. None of them, however, surpasses the Bencao Gangmu of Li Shizhen in either spirit or accuracy. The examinations and studies are both profound and extensive; information is comprehensive and clear. For this reason, I admire the attitude of this man and would like to speak in praise of his extreme perfection. However, the chapters and volumes were written in such numbers that it is difficult to study completely during the course of a lifetime. Furthermore, it is rather cumbersome to bring along when traveling by boat or carriage. It is indeed an all-embracing work, but that which is essential cannot be recognized immediately.

In a review of the history of Chinese medicine, Wong and Wu (7) note that:

In such an enormous work there are bound to be mistakes and defects. Some of the criticisms are that too many unrelated and useless articles are included which makes it very difficult for one to know what is good; the great number of recipes, some of them not well chosen, add to its cumbersomeness instead of enhancing its value, and the lack of a proper index in a work of this nature is a great drawback. It should be remembered that the tendency of the Ming writers was to produce voluminous works. It was therefore unavoidable that at times quality was sacrificed for quantity.

Nonetheless, Wong and Wu, like other observers, mainly have good things to say about the work and its author, continuing: "Li Shizhen deserves all the praise accorded him in Ming history, for a work of this magnitude requires immense resources and the undivided effort of a lifetime." Writing during the 1930’s, they noted: "Even today, it is considered one of the most popular books on medicine, being widely read both by the profession and the laity." Their overall assessment is that: "the Bencao Gangmu is undoubtedly the best work on Chinese materia medica. It is the most varied and comprehensive known."

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