Who wrote the Classic of Materia Medica?

Shennong Materia Medica Classic, also known as Shennong Materia Medica, is the earliest existing pharmaceutical monograph in China. In ancient China, most medicines were plant medicines, so Materia Medica became synonymous with them, and this book was named after Materia Medica.

In order to improve the status of this book, we borrowed the well-known legend that Shennong tasted herbs all over the world and found drugs, and put Shennong at the front of the title. From ancient times to the present, there have been different textual researches on the age of the book, either for the Qin and Han Dynasties or for the Warring States Period. It is generally accepted in the history of medicine that it was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty, not by one person, but by many medical scientists in the Qin and Han Dynasties who collected, sorted out and summarized the experience and achievements of pharmacology at that time. Gu You Ji in Qing Dynasty is the closest to the original appearance of the book, so it is the most widely circulated.

Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica is the first book in China that systematically summarizes the experience of early clinical medication, and is known as a classic book of traditional Chinese medicine. Shennong's herbal classics are ingenious in conception. This book is divided into three (or four) volumes. In order to correspond to 365 days a year, the book contains 365 kinds of drugs, which are divided into three categories: upper, middle and lower, to meet the needs of heaven, earth and people, and to reflect the ancient idea of the unity of man and nature. The book contains 252 kinds of plant medicines, 67 kinds of animal medicines and 46 kinds of mineral medicines. Top grade 120 species is monarch, non-toxic, mainly for nourishing life, and will not hurt people if taken for a long time, such as ginseng and ganoderma lucidum; 120 kinds of China products, such as Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi and Calculus Bovis, are minister, non-toxic or toxic, nourishing and have the function of nourishing and treating diseases; The inferior 125 is an adjuvant, which is toxic and cannot be taken for a long time. Most of them are drugs for dispelling cold and heat, such as croton and rhubarb.

The historical position of Shennong Herbal Classic cannot be underestimated. It systematically summarizes the scattered pharmaceutical knowledge before the Eastern Han Dynasty, and contains many contents with scientific value, which is regarded as a treasure by doctors in past dynasties. And it has long been used as a compilation style of pharmaceutical works. As the first pharmacological monograph in China, Shennong Herbal Classic has far-reaching influence.