Jūnpǔ 菌譜
Treatise on Mushrooms by 陳仁玉 (Chén Rényù, 撰)
About the work
The world’s first systematic monograph on mushrooms (jūn 菌) — a substantive treatise predating European mycological monographs by nearly four centuries. A one-juàn mid-Southern-Sòng work by Chén Rényù 陳仁玉 of Xiānjū 仙居 in Tāizhōu (Zhèjiāng), self-styled Shānrén (Mountain Man). Dated by self-preface to Chúnyòu 5 (yǐsì / 1245). The work catalogs eleven mushroom species from the Tāizhōu region — primarily edible species, with a concluding section on antidotes to mushroom-poisoning.
The work also offers an important taxonomic-philological proposition: that jūn 菌, xùn 蕈, èr 䓴 (= mùěr 木耳, the tree-ear fungus), and yúzǐ 萮茈 — all refer to the same class of organisms (fungi), with jūn the ground-growing and xùn / èr the tree-growing varieties. This proposition unifies fungal nomenclature in Chinese; it is the first explicit Chinese statement of the unity of the fungal kingdom.
Tiyao
The combined tíyào covering this work is in KR3i0041. The portion concerning Jūnpǔ (translated): We submit that the Jūnpǔ is by Chén Rényù of the Sòng. Rényù’s career-and-origin is not seen in other books. This compilation has a Chúnyòu yǐsì (1245) preface; he self-styles Shānrén (Mountain Man); the preface says “Xiānjū lies between the great Tāikuò ranges, entering the immortal-spirit’s palace, where strange mushrooms grow” — so Rényù was a Xiānjū person. Investigating: the shuō (General Discussion) says ” jūn is the ground-fungus; xùn is the mulberry èr*;* èr is the wood-ear ( mùěr*); one also says* yúzǐ*. Those on the ground are called* jūn*; those on the tree are called* xùn or èr*. The names differ but the species is one — all may serve as edible products.”*
The Southern Sòng established its capital at Línān, hence what was produced in Tāizhōu was especially prized at the time. The book records in all eleven species, with appended methods of antidote-against-poisoning. As to the petty matter of mouth-and-stomach material, it is not properly worth narrating — but the Tàipíng yùlǎn vegetable-class has no jūn category, and the Quánfāng beìzǔ records only two entries; the previous classical-anecdotes are very few. Hence we record it for the use of those composing poetry-on-objects, as a resource for classical-citation. Submitted Qiánlóng 46 month 3 (1781).
Abstract
The work is the foundational document of Chinese mycology and the principal pre-modern source on edible mushrooms in the WúYuè / Zhèjiāng region. The eleven species documented are:
- Héjūn 合菌 (clustered mushroom);
- Mìjūn 稷菌;
- Méijūn 麋菌;
- Sōngjūn 松菌 (pine mushroom — perhaps Tricholoma matsutake);
- Zhújūn 竹菌 (bamboo mushroom — perhaps Dictyophora indusiata);
- Màijūn 麥菌;
- Yùyánjūn 玉菌;
- Zǐjūn 紫菌;
- Tiānhuā 天花;
- Xíngjūn 杏菌 (apricot mushroom);
- Niúgān 牛肝 (cow-liver — likely a Boletus species).
For each species the work gives: appearance (color, form, size), habitat, harvest-season, taste, and culinary preparation. The work is the first surviving Chinese text to systematically catalogue mushrooms; previous mycological references are scattered through běncǎo (materia medica) and bǐjì (notebook) literature without systematic treatment.
The concluding section on mushroom-poisoning antidotes is significant: it lists the standard Chinese antidotes (gāncǎo 甘草 licorice decoction, dìxiāng 地漿 earth-juice extraction, lǜdòu 綠豆 mung-bean infusion) and the symptoms of zhōngdú (poisoning) to watch for. This makes the work a practical food-safety manual as well as a botanical-mycological treatise.
The composition date is firmly fixed by the self-preface to 1245. The location — Xiānjū in Tāizhōu — was during the Southern Sòng a satellite of the imperial capital Línān (Hángzhōu), and its mushroom-products were particularly favored at court. Chén Rényù’s work positions Tāizhōu mycology at the cultural-political centre of Southern-Sòng food culture.
Translations and research
- Bonsdorff, Tina von et al. 2009. “Jūn-pǔ: an Early Chinese Treatise on Edible Mushrooms”. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 124.
- Yáng Xīn 楊新 (ed.). 1994. Zhōng-guó shí-yòng jūn yǎng-zhí yǔ kàng-bìng wén-huà-shǐ 中國食用菌養殖與抗病文化史. Běijīng: Zhōng-guó nóng-yè chū-bǎn-shè.
- Hu, Shiu-ying. 1980. Food Plants of China. Hong Kong: Chinese UP. Treats Chinese mycology including Jūn-pǔ.
Other points of interest
The work occupies a unique position as the earliest dedicated mushroom-monograph in any language — Western mycology began with Carl Linnaeus’s 1753 Species Plantarum and Élie Magnus Fries’s Systema Mycologicum (1821–1832), some five-to-six centuries after Chén Rényù. Modern Chinese mycology recognises Chén’s work as a foundational document of the field, and the Jūnpǔ has been the subject of significant philological reconstruction-and-identification work to map his Sòng-period species names to modern Latin taxa.