Běncǎo Tōngxuán 本草通玄
Penetrating the Mystery of the Materia Medica by 李中梓 (Lǐ Zhōngzǐ, zì Shìcái 士材, 1588–1655, 明)
About the work
The Běncǎo tōngxuán is one of Lǐ Zhōngzǐ’s principal pharmacological works, complementing his shorter Běncǎo zhēngyào (KR3ec027) and the processing-oriented Léi Gōng páozhì yàoxìng jiě (KR3ec029). The work in 2 juǎn gives substantive theoretical treatment of drug qìwèi, guījīng, and bǔxiè application, in the Shìcái xuépài clinical-tonification framework. It is part of the corpus of Lǐ Zhōngzǐ’s yīzōng (medical-lineage) pedagogy. The title invokes the Lǎozǐ’s “xuán zhī yòu xuán, zhòng miào zhī mén” — pharmacology as a “mysterious gateway” to the structure of the body.
Prefaces
The local repository contains the basic substance entries; the title of each entry is preceded by Lǐ’s qìwèi summary followed by his theoretical exposition. No separate authorial preface is preserved in the local file. The work is dated, by analogy with Lǐ Zhōngzǐ’s other writings, to the 1620s–1640s.
Abstract
For Lǐ Zhōngzǐ’s biographical background see KR3ec027. The Tōngxuán is the most theoretically articulated of his three pharmacological works, and is the principal source for understanding the Shìcái xuépài approach to drug-property analysis. It works through over 200 substances in 2 juǎn, with each entry developing a distinctive doctrinal point — typically the placement of the drug within the bǔ pí shèn (tonify spleen-and-kidney) framework that Lǐ inherited from his teacher Yáng Yīxù.
The work was widely studied in the late-Míng / Qīng through its inclusion in the Lǐ Shìcái xiānshēng sān shū 李士材先生三書 collection — alongside Zhēngyào (KR3ec027) and the Léi Gōng páozhì yàoxìng jiě (KR3ec029). Through this combined dissemination it was a principal pharmacological textbook for early-Qīng medical students.
Translations and research
- Wú Zhōngdōng 武忠東. 2007. Lǐ Zhōngzǐ yīxué quánshū 李中梓醫學全書. Renmin weisheng.
- No Western-language translation.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 本草通玄 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB