Ben Cao Gang Mu: 16th Century Chinese Encyclopedia of Materia Medica and Natural History
By Li Shizhen
Edited and translated by Paul U. Unschuld
University of California Press
This extensive collection, translated into English across nine large volumes, serves as a comprehensive encyclopedia of medical and pharmaceutical knowledge. Within its thousands of entries, readers can discover how plants and animals were utilized for medicinal purposes in pre-modern China.
It took Li Shizhen (1518 – 1593) twenty-seven years to complete the Ben Cao Gang Mu, as he was researching from hundreds of other works. What resulted is one of the most comprehensive pharmacologies made in the pre-modern era. This translation comes in 10 books (9 volumes):
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Volume I, Part A: Introduction, History, Pharmacology, Diseases and Suitable Pharmaceutical Drugs I
Volume I, Part B: Diseases and Suitable Pharmaceutical Drugs II
Volume V: Creeping Herbs, Water Herbs, Herbs Growing on Stones, Mosses, Cereals
Volume VI: Vegetables, Fruits
Volume VII: Woods
Volume VIII: Clothes, Utensils, Worms, Insects, Amphibians, Animals with Scales, Animals with Shells
Volume IX: Fowls, Domestic and Wild Animals, Human Substances
There is also a curated selection from the text in A Catalog of Benevolent Items Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Classical Chinese Knowledge
Who is this book for?
While the primary audience for this book will be those studying Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the work has so much material on the natural world that it will lead to much consultation from many other fields. We examined the volume on Fruits and Vegetables, and this has a lot to offer those studying food history.
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Editor and translator
Paul U. Unschuld is Professor and Director of the Horst-Goertz Endowment Institute for the Theory, History, and Ethics of Chinese Life Sciences at Charité-Medical University, Berlin. His research focuses on the history of Chinese medicine.
Ben Cao Gang Mu: 16th Century Chinese Encyclopedia of Materia Medica and Natural History
By Li Shizhen
Edited and translated by Paul U. Unschuld
University of California Press
This extensive collection, translated into English across nine large volumes, serves as a comprehensive encyclopedia of medical and pharmaceutical knowledge. Within its thousands of entries, readers can discover how plants and animals were utilized for medicinal purposes in pre-modern China.
It took Li Shizhen (1518 – 1593) twenty-seven years to complete the Ben Cao Gang Mu, as he was researching from hundreds of other works. What resulted is one of the most comprehensive pharmacologies made in the pre-modern era. This translation comes in 10 books (9 volumes):
Volume I, Part A: Introduction, History, Pharmacology, Diseases and Suitable Pharmaceutical Drugs I
Volume I, Part B: Diseases and Suitable Pharmaceutical Drugs II
Volume II: Waters, Fires, Soils, Metals, Jades, Stones, Minerals, Salts
Volume III: Mountain Herbs, Fragrant Herbs
Volume IV: Marshland Herbs, Poisonous Herbs
Volume V: Creeping Herbs, Water Herbs, Herbs Growing on Stones, Mosses, Cereals
Volume VI: Vegetables, Fruits
Volume VII: Woods
Volume VIII: Clothes, Utensils, Worms, Insects, Amphibians, Animals with Scales, Animals with Shells
Volume IX: Fowls, Domestic and Wild Animals, Human Substances
There is also a curated selection from the text in A Catalog of Benevolent Items
Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Classical Chinese Knowledge
Who is this book for?
While the primary audience for this book will be those studying Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the work has so much material on the natural world that it will lead to much consultation from many other fields. We examined the volume on Fruits and Vegetables, and this has a lot to offer those studying food history.
Editor and translator
Paul U. Unschuld is Professor and Director of the Horst-Goertz Endowment Institute for the Theory, History, and Ethics of Chinese Life Sciences at Charité-Medical University, Berlin. His research focuses on the history of Chinese medicine.
See also this profile on Unschuld in the New York Times: An Expert on Chinese Medicine, but No New Age Healer
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website
You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
You can buy A Catalog of Benevolent Items: Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Classical Chinese Knowledge on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
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