中国古代的医药学巨著——《本草纲目》
Compendium of Materia Medica or Bencao Gangmu came out in 1596, during China’s Ming Dynasty. It’s an important book in medicine that helps people stay healthy.
Long ago, people used different things from nature to treat sickness, like plants, animals, and rocks. They mostly used roots and leaves from plants. In ancient Chinese, “Ben” meant “root,” so “Bencao” meant medicine from plants. “Gang” was the main rope of a fishing net, and “Mu” was the mesh (网眼). Holding the main rope could control the net. This idea was used in writing books, making an “Outline Style.” This style puts big ideas first and then adds details later. So, “Compendium of Materia Medica” means a medicine book written this way.
To make sure the book was correct and trustworthy, the author, Li Shizhen, did a lot of work. He traveled far, read many old books (over 800), and fixed mistakes. There are 1,892 kinds of medicines, with more than 1,000 pictures and 10,000 prescriptions (处方) in the book. After it was published, the book was translated into lots of languages like Latin, Japanese, French, German, Italian, English, Russian, Korean, and others. Even Darwin called it the “Encyclopedia of Ancient China.”
The book has 52 parts. The first two parts explain how medicines work and how to use them, mixing old ideas with new ones. The next two parts talk about diseases and how to treat them using special methods. Medicines are grouped by what they do, helping doctors pick the right ones for each problem. This shows how important it is to treat each person differently. The last 48 parts (from volumes 5 to 52) introduce 1892 different medicines one by one.
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