Xīnxiū Běncǎo 新修本草
The Newly Revised Materia Medica (also known as Táng běncǎo 唐本草) by 蘇敬 (Sū Jìng, fl. 7th c., 唐) — 主修; under imperial commission led by 李勣 (Lǐ Jì, 594–669, 唐 founding general / 司空) and 長孫無忌 (Zhǎngsūn Wújì, c. 594–659); with twenty-two co-compilers including 許孝崇 (Xǔ Xiàochóng) and the prefator 孔志約 (Kǒng Zhìyuē)
About the work
The Xīnxiū běncǎo is the world’s first state-promulgated pharmacopoeia. Compiled by imperial decree of Táng Gāozōng 高宗 between 657 and 659 and promulgated in the latter year (Xiǎnqìng 4), it superseded Táo Hóngjǐng’s 陶弘景 Běncǎo jīng jízhù (KR3ec003) as the official reference and remained authoritative for nearly four centuries — through the Kāibǎo běncǎo of 973–974 and into the Northern Sòng. The work expands Táo’s 730 substances to 850 by adding 114 xīnfù 新附 (“newly attached”) items reflecting contact with Sogdian, Tukharan, Indian, and South-East Asian pharmaceuticals along the Silk Road and the maritime routes. Crucially, the Xīnxiū běncǎo was the first běncǎo to include illustrated yàotú 藥圖 (drug illustrations, 25 juǎn) and accompanying tújīng 圖經 (illustrated commentary, 7 juǎn) — a tradition continued by Sū Sòng’s 蘇頌 Běncǎo tújīng (KR3ec006) of 1062.
Prefaces
The text opens with two prefaces, both preserved here:
(1) 孔志約 序. Kǒng Zhìyuē, a member of the editorial committee, frames the work as a thoroughgoing correction of Táo Hóngjǐng’s errors. He catalogues Táo’s specific mistakes — confusing fángjǐ 防己 from Jiànpíng with the local kind, abandoning hànxià 半夏 from Huáilǐ, misidentifying jīngzǐ 荊子 between mǔjīng 牡荊 and mànjīng 蔓荊, confusing fánlǚ 繁蔞 with jīcháng 雞腸, conflating fángkuí 防葵 with lángdú 狼毒, gōuwěn 鉤吻 with huángjīng 黃精 — and explains the imperial mandate: under Gāozōng’s command, Sū Jìng petitioned for the revision and was approved; the project was placed under the supervision of Tàiwèi Yángzhōu dūdū Zhǎngsūn Wújì, with Xǔ Xiàochóng of the imperial pharmacy and twenty-two others as committee. The court commanded provincial authorities to “search out medicinal substances from every quarter” and to submit drug specimens. The result, Kǒng writes, was a 54-juǎn work “intended to encompass past and present, to clear ear and eye, to exhaust the marvels of medical formulation, and to rescue the lives of living beings.”
(2) 陶隱居 序 (= Táo Hóngjǐng’s original preface, here retained from the Jízhù). The editors quote Táo’s preface entire as a touchstone, then mark their own additions with 〔謹案〕 (“respectfully noted”) to distinguish revision from inherited text — an editorial convention that became standard for all subsequent state pharmacopoeias.
Abstract
Sū Jìng (蘇敬, also recorded as 蘇恭 in Sòng sources because of a name taboo against Sòng Tàizǔ Zhào Kuāngyìn 趙匡胤’s father), the proposing scholar, was an Ōuyángfǔ chángshǐ qídūwèi 朝議郎行右監門府長史騎都尉 with extensive experience in pharmaceuticals. His petition argued that Táo’s text was reliable for the Liáng south but ignorant of northern and western drug-source areas, and that the state should organise a national inventory. Gāozōng agreed; the supervisory titles went to senior court officers (Lǐ Jì and Zhǎngsūn Wújì were both grandfather-class founding statesmen), and the actual editorial work fell to Sū Jìng and a committee of physicians, including Xǔ Xiàochóng (尚藥奉御 Imperial Physician). The book was complete in two years (659).
The original 54-juǎn work was lost in China after the Sòng but survived in Japan in a Kanmu-era manuscript (early Heian, c. 8th–9th c.), of which 10 juǎn (juǎn 4, 5, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20) plus fragments are preserved at the Ninnaji 仁和寺 in Kyōto and the Imperial Household Library; this is the famous Renpō honzō / Tenpō-bon Honzō 天平本草 manuscript. The 漢學文典 transmitted text combines the Renpō manuscript with the citations preserved in the Zhènglèi běncǎo (KR3ec009) tradition to reconstitute an approximation of the original. For the persons listed in frontmatter, see their individual notes; the catalog assigns principal authorship to Sū Jìng, with Lǐ Jì as the senior supervising officer (Lǐ Jì was the famous Táng founding general 李世勣, born 594, died 669).
Translations and research
- Okanishi Tameto 岡西為人. 1974. Honzō gaisetsu 本草概說 (Shanghai kexue jishu Chinese ed. 1992, Běncǎo gàishuō). — classical survey including a chapter on the Renpō manuscript.
- Shang Zhijun 尚志鈞 (coll.). 1981. Tāng xinxiu běncǎo 唐 新修本草 (collated reconstruction). Anhui kexue jishu. — the standard modern critical edition combining Renpō manuscript and citation evidence.
- Karow, Otto. 1955. Die Illustrationen des Arzneibuches der Periode Shao-hsing. Acta Asiatica 9. — locates Xīnxiū illustrative tradition.
- Nakao Manzō 中尾萬三. 1924. Shinshū honzō no kenkyū 新修本草の研究. Tōkyō: Iwanami. — foundational Japanese study.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2 — places Xīnxiū běncǎo in the lineage from Běnjīng to Gāngmù.
- No complete Western-language translation.
Other points of interest
The work’s official imperial status meant that copies were distributed to every provincial 州 and 縣 school of medicine. Its 850 substances and inclusion of foreign drugs (e.g. yùjīn 鬱金 from Kashmir, àndùn xiāng 安息香 from Sogdiana) made it a key channel for the diffusion of Indian and Iranian pharmacology into East Asia. The Japanese Renpō manuscript was the proximate basis for the Daidō ruijuhō 大同類聚方 (808) and the Yōrō-era state pharmaceutical curriculum.
Links
- Wikidata: Q859828 (Tang Materia Medica / Xinxiu bencao).
- Digital facsimile of the Ninnaji manuscript: Kyōto University rare materials portal.
- 新修本草 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB