Name

The title, translated as "Materia Medica, Arranged according to Drug Descriptions and Technical Aspects", uses two Chinese compounds. Bencao ("roots and herbs; based on herbs, pharmacopeia, materia medica") combines ben (lang=zh本 'origin, basis') and cao (lang=zh草 'grass, plant, herb'). Gangmu (Kang-mu; 'detailed outline; table of contents') combines gang (kang; lang=zh綱 'main rope, hawser; main threads, essential principles') and mu (lang=zh目 'eye, look; category, division').

The characters lang=zh綱 and lang=zh目 were later used as 'class' and 'order', respectively, in biological classification.

History

The text was written by Li Shizhen, who borrowed from the existing writings of Chinese medical scholars at the time. He wrote the first draft of the text in 1578, after conducting readings of 800 other medical reference books and carrying out 30 years of field study. But the final version was only published after he died. At the time, the Ming dynasty emperor did not pay much attention to it.

Content

The text consists of 1,892 entries, each entry with its own name called a gang. The mu in the title refers to the synonyms of each name.

The Compendium of Materia Medica has 53 volumes in total:

• At the very beginning is the table of contents, containing a list of entries included and 1,160 hand drawn diagrams to serve as illustrations.

• Volume 1 to 4 – an index (序例) and a comprehensive list of herbs that would treat the most common sickness (百病主治藥).

• Volume 5 to 53 – the main content of the text, containing 1,892 distinct herbs, of which 374 were added by Li Shizhen himself. There are 11,096 side prescriptions to treat common illness (8,160 of which is compiled in the text).

The text is written in almost 2 million Chinese characters, classified into 16 divisions and 60 orders. For every herb there are entries on their names, a detailed description of their appearance and odor, nature, medical function, side effects, recipes, etc.

Evaluation

The Ming emperor did not pay much attention to the work at the time it was published. It was only published after Li Shizhen died.

The British historian Joseph Needham writes about the Compendium in his Science and Civilisation in China.

With the publication of Compendium of Materia Medica provided classification of how traditional medicine was compiled and formatted, as well as biology classification of both plants and animals.

The compendium corrected some mistakes in the knowledge of herbs and diseases at the time. Several new herbs and more details from experiments were also included. It also has notes and records on general medical data and medical history.

Compendium of Materia Medica includes information on pharmaceutics, biology, chemistry, geography, mineralogy, geology, history, and even mining and astronomy.

Gallery

題解

李時珍花費27年時間完成《本草綱目》，歷經三次改寫，至萬曆六年（1578年）定本。為了編纂《本草綱目》，李時珍參考800多種書籍，多次去各地實地考察，採集樣本，耗費大量心血。

《本草綱目》以宋朝唐慎微的《証類本草》為資料趙學敏撰《本草綱目拾遺》，用意在拾遺補正《本草綱目》，其中新增716種藥材，補充161種藥物內容，糾舉錯誤34條。

體例

《本草綱目》共52卷，載藥1892種（其中李時珍新增藥物374種。）書中附有藥物圖1109幅，方劑11096首（其中8000餘首是李時珍自己收集和擬定的），約190萬字，分為16部（水、火、土、金石、草、穀、菜、果、木、服器、蟲、鱗、介、禽、獸、人）60類。每種藥物分列釋名（確定名稱）、集解（敘產地）、正誤（更正過去文獻的錯誤）、修治（炮製方法）、氣味、主治、發明（前三項指分析藥物的功能）、附方（收集民間流傳的藥方）等項。全書收錄植物藥有881種，附錄61種，共942種，再加上具名未用植物153種，共計1095種，佔全部藥物總數的58%。李時珍把植物分為草部、穀部、菜部、果部、木部五部，又把草部分為山草、芳草、溼草、毒草、蔓草、水草、石草、苔草、雜草等九類。

影響

《本草綱目》改進了中國傳統的分類方法，格式比較統一，敍述也比較有條理和精密，例如：把廣義的「蟲」藥擴充到106種，其中昆蟲藥為73種，分為「卵生」、「化生」和「濕生」三類。對動植物分類學的發展有很大意義。

《本草綱目》糾正了前人許多錯誤之處，如南星與虎掌，本是同一種藥物，過去卻誤認為是兩種藥物；以前葳蕤、女萎認為是同藥，李氏經過鑑別則確認為不同藥物；蘇頌在《圖經本草》將天花、括樓分為兩處，其實是同一種植物；前人誤認「馬精入地變為鎖陽」、「草子可以變魚」，李時珍亦一一予以糾正之。並且在本書中還加入了許多新藥物。李時珍還通過自己經驗補充某些藥物的療效。本書還載敘大量寶貴的醫學資料，除大量附方、驗方及治驗病案外，還有醫學史料。另外李時珍駁斥陳藏器的《本草拾遺》，認為吃人肉療羸瘵有誤。

《本草綱目》也存在一些缺點和不足，如對於藥物的形態、產地等部分的記載還很簡單，繪圖也較粗糙。甚至記錄「寡婦床頭塵土」、「孝子衫」等都能治病，是不正確的。又說魚網「可治魚骨哽喉，用其覆頸，或者煮汁飲之，或者燒灰水服，魚骨自下。」又說不孕的夫妻於上元節「盜取富家燈盞，置于床下，可令人有子。」。書中記載螢火蟲是從腐草化生，這是沿續《禮記.月令》以降二千多年來的謬論。書中又取唐人段成式在《酉陽雜俎》說法：「日縊死繩主顛狂。」主張上吊死後的繩子拿來燒成灰，水服能治狂癲。對此，李時珍還表示：「觀此則古書所載冷僻之物，無不可用者，在遇圓機之士耳。」這些說法在科學上都是站不住腳的。

該書不僅是一部藥物學著作，還是一部影響世界的博物學著作，書中內容極為廣泛，在生物、化學、天文、地理、地質、採礦乃至於歷史方面都有一定貢獻。

傳播

《本草綱目》版本眾多，有「一祖三系」之稱。一祖即最早的金陵本，日後又有江西本、錢本、張本三個系統。《本草綱目》先後流傳到日本（1606年）、朝鮮、越南等地，1656年，波蘭人卜彌格（P. Michael Boym，1612年－1659年）將《本草綱目》譯成拉丁文本，書名《中國植物誌》（Flora sinensis），在歐洲維也納出版。1676年米蘭出版了意大利文譯本，1735年以後又被翻譯成法文、德文、英文、俄文等多種文字。