證類本草

Zhènglèi Běncǎo 證類本草

Classified and Verified Materia Medica (the Jīngshǐ zhènglèi bèijí běncǎo 經史證類備急本草 / Dàguān běncǎo 大觀本草 / Zhènghé běncǎo 政和本草 / Shàoxīng běncǎo 紹興本草 tradition) by 唐慎微 (Táng Shènwēi, fl. late 11th – early 12th c., 宋); the present recension is the Zhènghé (1116) refurbishment with 寇宗奭 (Kòu Zōngshí) Yǎnyì 衍義 commentary integrated by Zhāng Cúnhuì 張存惠 in 1249 (Jīsì xīnzēng 己酉新增)

About the work

The Zhènglèi běncǎo is the textual matrix of the entire Sòng-Yuán-Míng běncǎo tradition. Compiled by the Sìchuān physician Táng Shènwēi around 1082–1097 by combining the Jiāyòu bǔzhù běncǎo of 1057 (text) with the Běncǎo tújīng of 1062 (images) of 蘇頌 (KR3ec006) and adding 660 further entries from Táng’s own clinical reading of historical, geographical, and Buddhist–Daoist literature, the work was first printed c. 1108 under the title Jīngshǐ zhènglèi bèijí běncǎo 經史證類備急本草. State-sponsored editions followed: the Dàguān běncǎo 大觀本草 of 1108 under Sòng Huīzōng, edited by Ài Shēng 艾晟; the Zhènghé Xīnxiū jīngshǐ zhènglèi bèiyòng běncǎo 政和新修經史證類備用本草 of 1116, edited by Cáo Xiàozhōng 曹孝忠; the Shàoxīng zhònglèi běncǎo 紹興校定經史證類備急本草 of 1159; and finally the Jīsì xīnzēng 己酉新增 of 1249 by Zhāng Cúnhuì 張存惠, which integrated 寇宗奭’s Běncǎo yǎnyì 本草衍義 (1119, see KR3ec010) as inline commentary. This Jīsì recension is the proximate ancestor of all surviving Zhènglèi witnesses.

It is the Zhènglèi that preserves the chromatic 朱-墨 distinction (originally Táo Hóngjǐng’s 陶弘景) of Běnjīng (red) vs Biélù (black) — which is why it has been the principal source for the Qīng evidential-research reconstructions of the Shénnóng běncǎo jīng (KR3ec001). Almost every běncǎo text now classified as “reconstructed” in KR3ec — Wú Pǔ běncǎo (KR3ec002), Běncǎo jīng jízhù (KR3ec003), Xīnxiū běncǎo (KR3ec004), Hǎiyào běncǎo (KR3ec005), Běncǎo tújīng (KR3ec006), Míngyī biélù (KR3ec007), Shíliáo běncǎo (KR3ec008) — has been recovered chiefly from Zhènglèi citations.

Prefaces

The 漢學文典 transmitted text preserves the editorial apparatus of the Jīsì (1249) recension. It opens with:

1. 己酉新增衍義序例上 — Zhāng Cúnhuì’s editorial preface explaining how he has interleaved Kòu Zōngshí’s Yǎnyì commentary with each substance entry.
2. 嘉祐補註總敘 — the famous preface by 掌禹錫 (Zhǎng Yúxī) et al. (1057) tracing the textual history of Chinese pharmacology from the Běnjīng through Tóng-Jūn cǎiyào lù, Yào duì, Xīnxiū běncǎo, Kāibǎo běncǎo, and Shǔ běncǎo. This is the canonical Sòng narrative of běncǎo textual history and the immediate ancestor of every later account.
3. 本草圖經序 — Sū Sòng’s preface to the Tújīng (1062), incorporated into the Zhènglèi as a formal preface to the integrated text.
4. Plus the inherited Hán Bǎoshēng 韓保升 preface to the Shǔ běncǎo 蜀本草 of the Hòu-Shǔ Mèng Chǎng 孟昶 court (c. 938–965).

Abstract

Táng Shènwēi (唐慎微), zì Shěnyuán 審元, native of Chéngdū 成都 (Sìchuān), fl. late Northern Sòng. CBDB does not have a confident record; the conventional dates given in modern reference works are c. 1056–1136. A Sòng obscure-history figure, Táng was a practising physician who refused official appointment despite his fame; according to 馬端臨’s《文獻通考》 (citing the Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì), he was so admired that scholars seeking treatment from him brought him books as payment, which became the textual basis for his expansion of the Jiāyòu corpus.

The Zhènglèi in its various editions absorbed all prior pharmacological learning and remained the standard reference for over four hundred years — until Lǐ Shízhēn’s 李時珍 Běncǎo gāngmù (KR3ec025) gradually displaced it in the seventeenth century. The Gāngmù itself is built on the Zhènglèi (Lǐ Shízhēn states explicitly that he had the Zhènghé Zhènglèi běncǎo before him as his base text), and the Zhènglèi citations of pre-Sòng běncǎo literature are the principal vehicle by which earlier pharmacology survives at all.

The catalog frontmatter lists four persons: Táng Shènwēi as principal compiler, Ài Shēng (Dàguān edition editor), Cáo Xiàozhōng (Zhènghé edition editor), and Kòu Zōngshí (whose Yǎnyì was integrated by Zhāng Cúnhuì in 1249). The 紹興 (1159) editor 王繼先 王繼先 belongs to a parallel Shàoxīng běncǎo line (KR3ec014) that is distinct from but related to the Zhènglèi mainline.

Translations and research

• Okanishi Tameto 岡西為人. 1957. Sōizen igaku-sho kō 宋以前医学書考. Renmin weisheng (Chinese transl. 1958). — foundational study of the Zhènglèi tradition.
• Shang Zhijun 尚志鈞 (et al.). 1993. Zhèng-hé jīngshǐ zhènglèi bèiyòng běncǎo 政和經史證類備用本草 (modern collated facsimile). Renmin weisheng.
• Unschuld, Paul U. 1986. Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics, ch. 4. UCP.
• Goldschmidt, Asaf. 2009. The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Northern Song Dynasty, 960–1200. Routledge. — chapters on the imperial pharmacopoeia projects.
• Bian, He. 2020. Know Your Remedies: Pharmacy and Culture in Early Modern China. PUP. — uses the Zhènglèi as the standard pre-Gāngmù reference.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2 — refers throughout to the Dàguān / Zhèng-hé tradition.
• No complete Western-language translation.

Other points of interest

The Zhènglèi’s preservation of chromatic zhūmò 朱墨 markers (red for Běnjīng, black for later) survives the printing transition only in early woodblock editions; from the Yuán onward, surviving copies are monochrome, and the colour distinction is reconstructable only through internal evidence. This loss is the immediate reason Sūn Xīngyǎn’s KR3ec001 1799 reconstruction had to argue case-by-case for Běnjīng attribution.

Links

• Wikidata: Q11078326 (Zhènglèi běncǎo).
• Facsimile of the 1249 Jīsì edition: held by Beijing National Library; digital edition via Zhongguo Guojia Tushuguan.
• 證類本草 jicheng.tw
• Kanseki DB