Shíwù Běncǎo 食物本草
Foodstuffs as Materia Medica attributed to 薛己 (Xuē Jǐ, zì Xīnfǔ 新甫, hào Lìzhāi 立齋, 1487–1559, 明)
About the work
The Shíwù běncǎo is a major mid-Míng dietetic pharmacopoeia in 22 juǎn, organising foodstuffs into 8 categories (水 / 谷 / 菜 / 果 / 禽 / 獸 / 魚 / 味). Each entry gives the food’s qìwèi, primary effects, contraindications, and processing methods. The work was widely reprinted in the late Míng / Qīng with hand-coloured illustrations (notably the Wànlì-era Shíwù běncǎo printing of c. 1620), making it one of the most lavishly illustrated dietetic works in Chinese tradition. The catalog attributes it to Xuē Jǐ (薛己), although a competing tradition assigns authorship to Lǔ Hé 盧和 or to an anonymous Míng compiler. The Xuē Jǐ attribution may reflect a Xuē-school publishing brand applied to a compilation produced in his lineage rather than autograph authorship.
Prefaces
The local repository preserves only a header file. The standard preface (in major Míng editions) is dated to the Lóngqìng-Wànlì era (mid-16th c.) and is signed under the Xuē publishing imprint.
Abstract
Xuē Jǐ (薛己, 1487–1559) — for biographical detail see his existing person note. The Shíwù běncǎo belongs to the Xuē-school pharmacological-medical publishing programme that also produced the Běncǎo yuē yán (KR3ec036) and the Běncǎo xiángjié (KR3ec035); these are conventionally attributed to Xuē but probably arose in the Xuē family medical workshop, with disciples and family members contributing to the compilation. The frontmatter date range 1525–1571 reflects the plausible composition window in Xuē’s lifetime extended through his post-mortem editorial heirs.
The work’s principal significance is as the leading Míng dietetic pharmacopoeia and as the proximate ancestor of the Sòng Lǐ Lóng (沈李龍) Shíwù běncǎo huì zuǎn (KR3ec037) of the Qīng. Its illustrations are of high artistic quality and have been the subject of art-historical attention.
Translations and research
- Engelhardt, Ute. 2000. “Dietetics in Tang China.” In Hsu (ed.), Innovation. CUP. — for context of the dietetic tradition.
- Bian, He. 2020. Know Your Remedies. PUP. — on Xuē-school publishing.
- No complete Western-language translation.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 食物本草 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB