Běncǎo gāngmù 本草綱目
The Principles-and-Categories of the Materia Medica by 李時珍 (Lǐ Shízhēn, zì Dōngbì, hào Bīnhú shānrén, 1518–1593, 明)
About the work
The most comprehensive Chinese pharmacopoeia and one of the most influential natural-history works in any culture before modern times. In 52 juan, organizing 1,892 medicinal substances into 16 部 (great divisions: water, fire, earth, metals-and-stones, grass, grain, vegetable, fruit, tree, fúqì, beast, bird, fish, scaled, shelled, human) and 60 categories. Each substance receives a structured entry: Zhèng míng 正名 (correct name) as the principal heading (gāng 綱); Shì míng 釋名 (explanation of names) as sub-heading (mù 目); followed by Jí jiě 集解 (collected interpretations), Biàn yí 辨疑 (clarification of doubts), Zhèng wù 正誤 (correction of errors), Qì wèi 氣味 (energetic and flavor properties), Zhǔ zhì 主治 (principal treatments), and Fù fāng 附方 (associated prescriptions). The work also includes 3 juan of illustrations (Tú 圖), 2 juan of Xù lì 序例 (preface and methodological discussion), and 2 juan of Bǎi bìng zhǔzhì yào 百病主治藥 (medicines categorized by disease they treat). The categorical-organizational principle moves from inanimate (water → fire → earth → metals-and-stones) through plant kingdoms (grass → grain → vegetable → fruit → tree) to animal kingdoms (worm → scaled → shelled → bird → beast) and culminates in human — a careful philosophical-natural-historical hierarchy. Of the 1,892 substances, 1,518 were inherited from earlier běncǎo and 374 are new additions by Lǐ Shízhēn — substantially expanding the Chinese pharmacopoeia. The work was the first Chinese natural-historical text to enter European scientific consciousness, with partial translations beginning in the 17th century; Charles Darwin cites it in the Origin of Species (1859) as evidence for animal domestication and selective breeding in pre-modern China.
Tiyao
[Sub-classification: 子部十四 醫家類二. Edition: 大學士于敏中家藏本.] — drawn from Kyoto Zinbun (entry 0213201).
By Lǐ Shízhēn of the Míng. Shízhēn’s zì was Dōngbì, of Qízhōu, holding the office of Court Sacrificial Director at the Princely Establishment of Chu (楚王府奉祠正). His career is in the Míng shǐ Fāngjì zhuàn. The compilation takes the Shén-nóng-and-after various authorities’ běncǎo and gathers them into a book. Duplications eliminated, lacunae supplemented, errors corrected. In all: 26 部 [recte 16 部], 62 类 [recte 60 categories], 1,882 [recte 1,892] substances.
For each medicine, the standard name is established as gāng (the principal heading); the explanatory names are mù (sub-heading); next the Jí jiě (collected interpretations), Biàn yí (clarification of doubts), Zhèng wù (correction of errors); next the Qì wèi (energetic and flavor properties), Zhǔ zhì (principal treatments), Fù fāng (associated prescriptions). The categorical division begins with water and fire, then earth, then metals-and-stones, then grass-grain-vegetable-fruit-tree, then fúqì (clothing-and-implements), then worm-scaled-shelled-bird-beast, ending with human. At the head are 3 juan of illustrations, 2 juan of Xù lì, and 2 juan of Bǎi bìng zhǔzhì yào. On the yīnyáng, principal-and-foundation, jūnchénzuǒshǐ doctrines, the analysis is most detailed.
Examining the various authorities’ běncǎo: previously there were 1,518 substances; Shízhēn’s additions number 374. He gathered from the various texts — threading through the hundred schools — by his own account “spent thirty years, consulted over eight hundred works, three drafts, and only then completed” — these are not idle words.
The work was first printed in the Wànlì period; Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞 wrote the preface. His son [Lǐ] Jiànyuán further presented it to the throne, with a presentation-memorial that crowns the volume. Under our Imperial Dynasty (Qīng), in the Shùnzhì period, Wú Yùchāng 吳毓昌 of Qiántáng re-edited and published it. From this point, those who practice medicine all have a copy. The Míng shǐ Fāngjì zhuàn extols it: “the great-completion of the materia medica — beyond this, none.”
(Respectfully verified, [no specific month/day]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1552–1590, bracketing the start of Lǐ Shízhēn’s compilation (he reports beginning around age 35) and the first printing (Wànlì gēngyín = 1590) at Jīnlíng. The work was completed in manuscript by Wànlì wùyín (1578) but circulated in manuscript only until Wáng Shìzhēn agreed to write the preface (Wànlì sānnián = 1590) and the work was printed.
The work’s significance:
(a) The most comprehensive Chinese pharmacopoeia: at 1,892 substances in 60 categories across 16 great divisions, the Běncǎo gāngmù is the most thorough pharmacopoeia in any pre-modern culture. The 374 new substances added by Lǐ Shízhēn substantially expand the Chinese materia medica beyond the Sòng Zhènglèi běncǎo tradition.
(b) The categorical organization principle: Lǐ’s progressive ordering from inanimate to animate to human — from water and fire through metal-and-stone to plant to animal to human — is one of the most philosophically sophisticated pre-modern natural-history classifications. The principle anticipates the post-Linnaean hierarchical classification.
(c) The structured per-substance entry: Lǐ’s standardized entry-format (gāng / mù / jíjiě / biànyí / zhèngwù / qìwèi / zhǔzhì / fùfāng) is one of the more sophisticated pre-modern pharmacopoeial formats, providing systematic comparison across substances.
(d) The Western reception: the Běncǎo gāngmù entered European scientific consciousness through partial translations (the Jesuit translation in the Mémoires sur les Chinois, 1739; later partial translations into German and English). Darwin cites it in the Origin of Species (1859) for evidence of pre-modern Chinese animal-husbandry selection. Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China devotes substantial attention to the work.
(e) The 30-year / 800-source / 3-draft composition: Lǐ Shízhēn’s reported 30-year composition span, consultation of over 800 prior works, and three full drafts — preserved in his own preface and the Tíyào — represents one of the most ambitious pre-modern scholarly projects in any tradition.
The catalog meta dynasty 明 is correct; lifedates 1518–1593 also correct.
Translations and research
- Luo Xiwen, trans. Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu), 6 vols., Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2003. The first complete English translation. Now superseded for scholarly use by:
- Paul U. Unschuld, trans. Ben Cao Gang Mu: 16th Century Chinese Encyclopedia of Materia Medica and Natural History — The Complete Chinese-English Translation, 8 vols. (projected), Berkeley: University of California Press, 2021–. The standard scholarly English translation; in progress.
- Joseph Needham (with Lu Gwei-Djen and Huang Hsing-tsung), Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6 (Biology and Biological Technology), part 1 (Botany), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Treats the Běncǎo gāngmù extensively.
- Métailié, Georges. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6, part 4 (Traditional Botany: An Ethnobotanical Approach), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Detailed botanical analysis.
- Nappi, Carla. The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. The principal English-language scholarly study of Lǐ Shízhēn’s natural-historical method.
- Unschuld, Paul U. Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
- Shàng Zhì-jūn 尚志鈞, Lǐ Shízhēn yǔ běncǎo gāngmù 李時珍與本草綱目, Beijing: Zhōng-yī-yào Kējì Chūbǎnshè, 1996.
Other points of interest
The “one work that beats all others” assessment quoted by the SKQS tíyào from the Míng shǐ — “the great-completion of the materia medica, beyond this none” — is one of the few unqualified superlatives in mid-Qīng official-historical assessment of any work. The judgment has been broadly upheld by the global scientific community: the Běncǎo gāngmù is on UNESCO’s Memory of the World register (2011) alongside other foundational documents of human civilization.
The 374 substances newly added by Lǐ Shízhēn include important materia medica drawn from regional Chinese pharmacological knowledge previously not in the canonical běncǎo, plus new observations on animal and plant species not previously documented. Among the most influential additions are several substances of New World origin — including American pepper (xiāngpèizǐ 蕃茄, tomato; though the identification is contested), corn (yùshǔshū 玉蜀黍), and tobacco (yāncǎo 煙草, in early form) — making the Běncǎo gāngmù one of the earlier Eurasian witnesses to the Columbian Exchange.