It turns out that in the cultural tradition of China, the knowledge of pharmacology is called "materialism".
With the progress of medicine, of course, drugs are gradually increasing. So there are supplementary herbal books every few years.
After getting familiar with various versions of "materialism", Li Shizhen compared them with each other, and then proved that he learned something by analogy among all kinds of drugs he came into contact with in the process of practicing medicine: he mastered the knowledge about one thing, inferred other things from the same kind, and realized many truths in medicine. On the one hand, he marveled at the hard work of his predecessors, who left a valuable medical legacy. However, after a detailed study, he also found some mistakes in herbal books of past dynasties, some of which were the same thing, some of which had different names and were mistaken for two. Some are obviously two things, but they are regarded as one thing. In addition, the description of its medicinal properties is unrealistic, exaggerated or reduced. What is more regrettable is that many drugs newly discovered and adopted since the Song Dynasty have not been recorded in a brand-new book on materia medica.
The more he studied it carefully, the more he felt sorry for it. Gradually, he wrote a new "Materia Medica" to summarize the development level of pharmacology in the ménɡ dynasty. He later remembered to name this masterpiece Compendium of Materia Medica.
He decided to travel around and increase his knowledge. He has been to Henan, Hebei, Jiangsu and many other places, and even Niushou Mountain, Tianzhu Peak and Maoshan have left his footprints.
On one occasion, Li Shizhen heard that there was a kind of fruit on Taihe Mountain in Zhou Jun (now Xunxian County, Hubei Province), which was a rare fruit. People call it fairy fruit, which can live forever after eating. Li Shizhen didn't believe this at all, so he decided to go and see for himself. On this day, Li Shizhen, who had walked for several days, came to Taihe Mountain. Climbing halfway up the mountain, there is an ancient temple in the mountain. Li Shizhen asked the old janitor where there were plum trees in the mountains. The old man pointed to a mountain not far away and said, "There are some plum trees behind that mountain." The old man spat out his tongue and said seriously, "you can't pick it!" Now, the emperor has ordered that plums can only be picked by the royal family. Others picked it and the government wanted it. "
Li Shizhen doesn't care about this. That night, the mountain wind roared, withered grass and leaves were blown all over the sky, and the cry of tigers and wolves came from the mountain with the wind, which was very scary. In the middle of the night, Li Shizhen got up and took to the mountain road. He wore a dagger around his waist and a jujube stick in his hand, as firm as iron as Song Wu who had passed Jingyanggang. He took advantage of the moonlight to walk on the mountain road that he was optimistic about during the day. After he came to that mountain peak, he finally found some plum trees. He even broke a few branches and leaves and went down the mountain overnight. After careful study at home, it was found that Prunus armeniaca is a kind of fruit of elm, and it is not a "fairy fruit" at all. It is a complete lie to say that eating it can make you live forever.
Hó n π Li Shizhen saw a book written by Tao Hong and said: There is an animal by the river called pangolin, which likes eating ants best. Ants are so small, how to eat pangolins? Li Shizhen came to the river and found a pangolin to observe carefully. It turns out that pangolins are covered with scales that can be opened and closed. When it opens all the scales, it will give off a special smell. When ants smell it, they get under the scales. The ant crawled all over the body, suddenly closed the scales, and then dived into the water to open them. After a while, the ants all floated to the surface of the water, and the pangolin could have a full meal. To further prove it, Li Shizhen specially caught a pangolin and cut its belly open. Sure enough, there are more than one liter of ants in its stomach. In this way, Li Shizhen discovered many unsolved problems in books through field observation.
Li Shizhen not only learned medical knowledge from books, but also attached great importance to learning from the people and collecting their prescriptions. He was inspired by one thing. On one occasion, Li Shizhen came home from practicing medicine in other places and stayed in an inn on the way. In the evening, he saw several drivers cooking a pink flower in the pot. He knows this kind of flower is called convolvulus, but what can he do with convolvulus? The coachman told him, "drinking this flower-boiled soup can cure the pain in bones and muscles." We run outside all day and the wind comes and goes in the rain. Bones and muscles are affected by rheumatism and are prone to illness. Being sick is unbearable, so we often cook some water spinach soup to drink. "Hearing this, Li Shizhen thought," I often treat patients with bone and muscle pain, but I haven't found any obvious effective medicine. Who knew that ordinary people have such good experience in treating diseases? It's really a pity to find iron shoes. I got them without much effort. In the future, we must ask the people more! "After this incident, Li Shizhen began to collect prescriptions from the people. He often sees a doctor free of charge, just asking others to tell him a little knowledge about prescriptions and herbs. What puffer fish (tún) has toxic eyes and liver, and sword beans can eat it without snoring. That's how he learned. He also recorded many folk proverbs (Yan), such as "Pangolin, no seeds to stay, women have long milk" (both drugs can drink milk). Li Shizhen felt that the people had an inexhaustible medical treasure house, so he earnestly studied from the people wherever he went.
Li Shizhen returned to qi zhou with specimens and prescriptions he collected from various places.
As early as Chu, he worked as a "gift" and occasionally returned to his hometown. He moved into a new house called Hongyuan Garden on the north bank of Yuhu Lake in qi zhou, and Li Shizhen named it Zunsuoge. This place is spacious and bright, which just makes him dare to study writing while reading all kinds of books and planting all kinds of herbs in the garden.
He has been traveling all over the country for many years. Although he has prepared a lot of materials and written some manuscripts, it is far from his goal: to write a brand-new herbal work that greatly surpasses his predecessors, adding more than 900 kinds of drugs and 65.438+0 million words. There is still a very difficult and far-reaching journey. He thought to himself, "In my lifetime, I must finish it and give my heart and blood to the people for the benefit." I can't rot with plants! "Because of this, when he is working in the study filled with all kinds of cursive scripts and stacks of materials, he is of course extremely nervous. Even when he squatted in the garden (pǔ) to observe the various herbs he planted, he was absorbed and worked very hard: "How to make them alive: describe them vividly. "and describe it vividly?" When he looks at the plants he planted, such as mugwort, perilla, mint, towel gourd, Bidens bipinnata, clematis, etc., he is always absorbed in meditation. How to write their forms properly and explain their efficacy is clear to people at a glance: at a glance. , memorable? At this time, the portraits of literary celebrities in past dynasties, as well as the appropriate wonderful sentences he read, came to his mind one after another. He decided to quote some famous literary sentences when necessary. He believes that only in this way can this medicine be written more beautifully and wonderfully.
At this time, Li Shizhen had four sons, followed by Jianzhong, Jianyuan, Fangjian and Jian Mu. These sons have inherited the traditional virtues of the Li family. They are honest and helpful. At the beginning of Li Shizhen's return to his hometown, when he was eager to write, they all became his right-hand men. They all know the profound significance of his father's work and are willing to help him. Some people organize (kān) data, some people draw pictures, and some people help to copy. There was a grandson who wrote beautiful regular script, and Li Shizhen specially copied it (ténɡ) so as to give it to the bookstore as a blueprint for engraving in the future. It can be said that in order to write Compendium of Materia Medica, Li Shizhen mobilized the whole family.
The work is progressing day by day, and the stack of manuscripts and atlases is getting higher and higher. In his study, there are only dozens of herbal works in past dynasties, plus various classics, history, books, books and many specimens; Together with these piles of manuscripts, it is almost like a small library.
He has worked hard all his life and has never been obese. In his later years, he became thinner.
After Li Shizhen wrote Compendium of Materia Medica, he made three large-scale revisions to make it more perfect. 1578 (the sixth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty), this masterpiece was finally completed. He started writing at the age of 34, 1552, and he has been writing for 27 years. By the time he finished, Li Shizhen was already a 6 1 year-old man with white hair.
Compendium of Materia Medica is the masterpiece of China's great achievements in pharmacology, which summarizes the achievements of China's natural history in16th century. 1. The book is huge, with 52 volumes, about1.9000 words, including 1.892 kinds of drugs,165,438+009 drawings and165,438+0.096 prescriptions, while the old version only contained. Second, the content is rich and profound, and the information received is very extensive. There are 800 kinds of books cited in Compendium of Materia Medica, with 993 kinds of * *, including 4 kinds of materia medica in past dynasties, 36 kinds of ancient and modern physicians, and 59 kinds of ancient and modern classics and history. The third is that the content is broad but not complicated and profound. In this old edition of Materia Medica, all the duplicates were deleted (shān), and more than 200 kinds were deleted, 39 kinds were added in Jin, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and 374 kinds were added by Li Shizhen himself. There are nearly 2,000 kinds of drugs in Compendium of Materia Medica, most of which have been inspected by him, clinically verified or interviewed by people with practical experience. Fourth, the establishment is reasonable. The style of Compendium of Materia Medica is more systematic and advanced than any previous herbal book. It divides 1800 drugs into 16 departments and introduces them. Each department is divided into several categories, including 60 categories. In the interpretation work, he defined the style as follows: using the column of "name interpretation" to determine the name of each drug; Use the column of "assembly solution" to explain its origin, form and collection method; Explain the process of cannon moxibustion (Ji incarnation) with the column of "cultivation"; Analyze its nature and function with the columns of "smell", "indication" and "invention"; Finally, more than 10000 prescriptions collected by it are put as appendices in the column of "Attached Prescriptions" for the reference of doctors in various countries.
Li Shizhen didn't fully realize what impact this masterpiece would have on China and the world at that time, but he was sure that it would help thousands of doctors save lives and help thousands of patients out of their misery. However, where will such a voluminous book with 1 0.9 million words and10,000 illustrations be published? A brand-new problem has arisen again.
Although qi zhou is a famous city, and some famous people regard engraving as an elegant thing to follow the fashion (máo) and become famous, most of them engrave books such as classics and history, and no one knows the great significance of such academic works as Compendium of Materia Medica. They have no enthusiasm for publishing it. People who know its value have no strength and can't help much.
Li Shizhen looked around for a publishing house, but he contacted a lot, but he hit a wall again and again. One year and two years have passed, and I have never known anything (chóu): nothing; I can't think of anything. ...
At that time, Nanjing was the political, economic and cultural center of southeast China. Li Shizhen soon went to Nanjing to find a way out. At the same time, it occurred to him that Wang Shizhen, a famous literary figure he knew, lived in Taicang, near Nanjing. Why not ask him to write a preface to make the publication of this medical book more convenient?
Wang Shizhen was a famous literary leader at that time. He used to be the governor of Shandong Province, and later served as assistant minister of punishments. He is quite knowledgeable. A famous doctor like Li Shizhen has a wide network of contacts. Seven years ago, when Wang Shizhen was appointed as the judge of Huguang, the two met.
Wang Shizhen used to know this famous doctor very well, and received him kindly, leaving him for a few days to chat with each other. At that time, they drank wine together, wrote poems, talked about classics, mountains and rivers, talked about temperament, talked about medicine, talked about gardening and talked about folk customs, which was very speculative. The bright-eyed, ruddy-faced, lanky visitor was knowledgeable and fluent, and Wang Shizhen was secretly surprised. In his life experience, few people are familiar with (ān) ancient and modern, and learn (xián) natural history. So, when Li Shizhen opened his schoolbag, took out dozens of manuscripts of Compendium of Materia Medica and asked him to make a preface, so that the book could be circulated better, he turned over page after page and was very surprised that the book was so vast and illustrated. After some hesitation, he readily agreed.
With Wang Shizhen's promise to write a preface, Li Shizhen went to a publishing bookstore with his works under his arm.
Li Shizhen made it clear: At that time, Nanjing publishing houses usually printed 50 books as "one post" and one book as "ten posts", that is, 500 books, which was a very high record. Li Shizhen melancholy: sadness; Depressed Think about it carefully: "This is too little!" How many counties can 500 instinct sell? How many provinces can it spread? This printing method can only be in the foreseeable future if this masterpiece, which has spent my life's efforts, is to be widely circulated all over the country. "But even with this amount of printing, no one wants to carve. It can also be said that booksellers are not sure to make money with only a small number of prints, let alone accept such a large book easily.
Some booksellers are knowledgeable. They said: "It is admirable that Mr. Li can independently complete such a new book on materia medica. However, this voluminous medical book was written by the imperial edict (quasi) of past dynasties, and was presided over by the appointed minister, and published and engraved by the capital. This is true of Tang materia medica and Shu materia medica, as well as Kaibao materia medica and Jiayou materia medica in Song Dynasty. It is natural that a new edition of Materia Medica like Mr. Li Can appeared in this dynasty. But without the power of the imperial court, such a great cause is difficult to achieve. "
10 years of hardships and setbacks, 10 years of disappointment and embarrassment, no one knows how Li Shizhen survived that long and painful day. The great value of his books was finally discovered by Hu Chenglong, a bookseller who knew medicine very well. Hu Chenglong was shocked by the greatness of this book and made up his mind to engrave it.
Wood blocks were gradually carved by bookstores in Hu Chenglong. At this time, it has been 10 years since Li Shizhen finished writing, and Li Shizhen is 73 years old.
Because I have been writing Compendium of Materia Medica for many years, my life is extremely tired. After writing, I was exhausted for publishing and suffered many blows. When I was seventy-five, I became weaker and thinner. He thought: If the imperial court can pay attention to it, the next imperial edict (zhào) will make the whole country surging, printed and spread. Thinking of this, he felt that this book should be presented to the court in the future. Perhaps in this way, this book, which has spent his life's efforts, can play a greater role and become popular everywhere. At this thought, he choked back his illness, got up at his desk, wrote a meditation (chanting), and rushed to write an "Playing Table".
Li Shizhen has no lingering sickbed, and he can't heal after a long illness. He died suddenly in the process of weakness. Yes 1593 (twenty-one years of Wanli), he is 76 years old.
Li Shizhen's death caused a great shock in qi zhou. His graveyard is in Turkey, on the south bank of Yuhu Lake. On the day of burial, people who were treated by him admired his kindness and respected his genius Zhu, friends, neighbors and people from all over the world came to see him off with sad feelings, throwing paper money and making sad voices.
Li Shizhen's graveyard is closely related to that of his father and mother Zhang, and his long-dead wife Wu is also buried with him.
Compendium of Materia Medica didn't get enough attention in the imperial court, but it exerted more and more influence among the people. Over the past 300 years, more than 60 different editions have been published, and the reprinted editions cannot be counted.
With the passage of time and the development of civilization, people increasingly realize that Compendium of Materia Medica is not only a masterpiece of pharmacy and medicine, but also a big dictionary of natural history. Li Shizhen is not only a medical scientist, but also a great naturalist and natural scientist. He summarized the achievements of China's splendid civilization in the16th century. As for a series of ancient natural scientists from Han Dynasty to modern times, now China's name ranks at the forefront.
Compendium of Materia Medica was introduced to Japan in the 0/7th century. The earliest version was translated by Blue Mountain in Xiao Ye and presented to the head of the shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu (then the Japanese monarch). When Tokugawa saw it, he often placed the right seat, which was called "Imperial Book". Its position in the eyes of the Japanese people can be imagined. During the more than 200 years in the Edo period, the research upsurge of Compendium of Materia Medica in Japanese academic circles has been surging, forming a special knowledge. Under its influence, Yamato Materia Medica, which specifically explains Japanese medicines, appeared.
Japan soon had an abridged version of Compendium of Materia Medica, and by 1934, it had a strict full translation.
In Asia, Compendium of Materia Medica also spread to North Korea, Ryukyu, Vietnam and other countries and regions, which had a great influence in North Korea and became an important reference book for doctors. In the existing Korean medical books, it is very common to cite the Compendium of Materia Medica as the basis.
There are11species of plants and 462 species of animals mentioned in Compendium of Materia Medica. Moreover, it has an extremely novel classification and was in the forefront of the world at that time, so it attracted the attention of many naturalists.
Darwin quoted and praised The Ancient Encyclopedia of China for more than a dozen times in his representative works Origin of Species and Variation of Animals and Plants at Home. Scientists have come to the conclusion that Darwin's "China Ancient Encyclopedia" sometimes refers to the Compendium of Materia Medica and sometimes refers to the Book of Qi Yaomin. When talking about the information of seven kinds of chickens and the variation of goldfish after domestication, he quoted other scholars' translations of Compendium of Materia Medica.
Only in this way, libraries in many countries in the world have various versions of Compendium of Materia Medica in different periods. Libraries in Japan, the United States and Germany have the earliest published Jinling edition.