Compendium of Materia Medica * * has 52 volumes, including 1892 kinds of drugs, including 374 kinds of new drugs, and collected prescriptions 1 1096 pieces. The book also draws L 1 1 exquisite illustrations, which is one of the medical treasures in China. Its achievements, first of all, changed the original classification of drugs in the upper, middle and lower categories, and adopted the scientific classification of "analysis of ethnic groups, analysis of categories, vibration categories and sub-orders". It divides drugs into mineral drugs, plant drugs and animal drugs. Mineral medicine is also divided into four parts: gold part, jade part, stone part and halogen part. According to the performance, morphology and growth environment of plants, plant medicines are divided into five parts: grass part, valley part, vegetable part, fruit part and wood part. The bark is divided into small categories, such as mountain grass, vanilla, waking grass, poisonous grass, aquatic grass, creeping grass and stony grass. A class of animals, according to the order of evolution from low to high, is divided into six parts: insects, mesons, vectors, birds, animals and people. And service departments. Compendium of Materia Medica is divided into 62 categories 16. This classification has been transferred to a naturally evolved system. From inorganic to organic, from simple to complex, from low to high, this classification was very advanced at that time. In particular, the scientific classification of plants is 200 years earlier than the Swedish taxonomist Linnaeus.

Compendium of Materia Medica has not only made great achievements in pharmacology, but also made outstanding contributions in chemistry, geology and astronomy. In the history of chemistry, it recorded a series of chemical reactions of pure metals, metals, metal chlorides and sulfides earlier. At the same time, some operation methods used in modern chemistry, such as distillation, crystallization, sublimation, precipitation and drying, are also recorded. Li Shizhen also pointed out that the moon, like the earth, is a celestial body with mountains and rivers. "It is said that the moon is a ghost and dancing is the shadow of mountains and rivers." . Compendium of Materia Medica is not only a masterpiece of pharmacology by China, but also an encyclopedia of ancient China. As Li Jianyuan pointed out in Compendium of Materia Medica: "If there is any connection from the grave to the legend, it will not be accepted. Although you ordered a medical book, it should be in kind. "