Compendium of Materia Medica

Introduction to Compendium of Materia Medica

Compendium of Materia Medica is the crystallization of more than 30 years' painstaking efforts by Li Shizhen, a doctor of Amin Dynasty. The book * * *1.9000 words, recorded drugs 1.892 kinds, divided into 60 categories. Among them, Li Shizhen added 374 new drugs. There are more than 1 100 drawings and more than 1 1000 prescriptions. It is a summary of China's pharmacology for thousands of years. This Pharmacopoeia, no matter from its strict scientific classification, or from the number of drugs it contains and the fluent and vivid writing, far exceeds any ancient herbal works.

In this book, Li Shizhen pointed out the real functions of many drugs, such as Changshan can cure malaria and Yanhusuo can relieve pain. He also cited examples of poisoning in daily life, such as using tin as a container for wine, because toxins can be dissolved in wine, and over time, people who drink will be chronically poisoned. When he encountered difficulties in writing, he went to the field to observe. As seen in old herbs, pangolins devour ants to trap them through scales. He felt strange and thought seeing was believing. He got a live pangolin, carefully observed its life rules and found that it ate ants with its tongue. He dissected the stomach pouch of pangolin and found that there were as many as one liter of ants in it, so he wrote this record.

In this way, Li Shizhen painstakingly and meticulously wrote his masterpiece Compendium of Materia Medica. In his book, he criticized that mercury is "nontoxic", "immortal" and "immortal" for a long time. At that time, all the emperors and ministers believed in Taoist mercury alchemy, so the big booksellers were afraid to publish this book until his death in 1596. Immediately after publication, it caused great repercussions. People spread it around, reprinted it and became essential books for doctors. Since17th century, Compendium of Materia Medica has been translated into Japanese, German, English, French and Russian. People's Republic of China (PRC) Pharmacopoeia published in 1953 contains 53 1 kinds of modern drugs and preparations; There are 100 kinds of drugs and preparations in Compendium of Materia Medica.

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. "

After Compendium of Materia Medica is compiled, Li Shizhen hopes to publish it as soon as possible. In order to solve the publishing problem of Compendium of Materia Medica, Li Shizhen, who was over 70 years old, came from Wuchang to Nanjing, the publishing center at that time, hoping to solve it through private business. Due to years of hard work, Li Shizhen finally fell ill in bed and told his children that he would dedicate the Compendium of Materia Medica to the court in the future and spread it around the world with the help of the court. Unfortunately, Li Shizhen died before he saw the publication of Compendium of Materia Medica. This year (1593), he just turned 76.

Soon, Zhu Chengzu of Ming Dynasty, in order to enrich the national stacks, ordered all parts of the country to present books to the court, and the son of Li Shizhen presented the Compendium of Materia Medica to the court. The imperial court approved the words "books are for reading, but the Ministry of rites knows", so it put the Compendium of Materia Medica aside. Later, Compendium of Materia Medica was published in the third year after Li Shizhen's death (1596) under the seal of Hu Chenglong, a private engraver in Nanjing. 1603, Jiangxi reprint of Compendium of Materia Medica. Since then, it has been widely circulated in China. According to incomplete statistics, Compendium of Materia Medica has more than 30 printed versions in China.

In A.D. 1606, Compendium of Materia Medica was first introduced to Japan. 1647, Migo of Poland came to China to translate Compendium of Materia Medica into Latin and spread it to Europe, and later it was translated into Japanese, Korean, French, German, English, Russian and other languages.

Li Shizhen and Compendium of Materia Medica (Ⅰ)

Li Shizhen, whose name is Dongbi, is near the lake. He was born on 15 18 in washaoba (now qi zhou town, Qichun county, Hubei province) outside the east gate of qi zhou, Hubei province. Before the Ming Dynasty, this was the junction of Yuhu Lake and Shilian Lake, and people along the lake often suffered from the disaster of rising water level. Since the Ming dynasty, in order to prevent the lake from rising, a dam was built here, which was later called the tile nitrate dam. There is a rainy lake with a circumference of twenty or thirty miles near Washaw Dam, which is a scenic spot in qi zhou. To the east of Waxiaoba, there are Daquan Mountain, Longpan Mountain and Pingdingshan. In addition to flowers, trees and bamboo forests, Shan Ye is a good place with abundant natural medicinal materials.

Li Shizhen was born in a family where three generations are doctors. His grandfather is a doctor, and his father, Li Yanwen, also known as Li Yuechi, is also a famous local doctor. He used to be "too many doctors". He not only has rich clinical experience, but also has considerable attainments in medical theory. Later, Li Shizhen praised his father's knowledge in diagnosing diseases as "the essence, and superficial knowledge failed to catch a glimpse". According to records, Li Yanwen has heard of the inventions of Four Diagnoses, Chuan of Folium Artemisiae Argyi, Chuan of Ginseng and Diagnosis and Treatment of Acne Rash. Li Shizhen was nurtured in this environment since he was a child.

In feudal society, doctors' status was very low, and they were often compared with fortune tellers and fortune tellers, and sometimes they were bullied by bureaucrats, landlords and gentry. This power was even worse in the Ming Dynasty, when it was stipulated that "medical households" could not change their professions. This social atmosphere of despising doctors prompted Li Yanwen to change the status of doctors and decided to let Li Shizhen take the imperial examination, so that he could get an official position and worship his ancestors. Therefore, Li Shizhen was asked to recite the Four Books and Five Classics every day to prepare for the imperial examination.

Li Shizhen loved reading since he was a child. 14-year-old Jinshi, and then participated in the provincial examination. He failed three times. One year, in qi zhou, the river rose and flooded fields and streets. The farmland is barren, the epidemic situation is serious, and gastrointestinal diseases are prevalent everywhere. The "pharmacy" organized by the government of qi zhou refused to treat the poor. When the poor are sick, they all come to Li Shizhen's father for treatment. Everyone kept thanking them when they left. All this was seen by Li Shizhen. At the age of 20, Li Shizhen suffered from "bone steaming" (tuberculosis), coughing and having a fever, and almost died. Thanks to his father's careful diagnosis and treatment, he cured the disease with Qin Huang soup. The more Li Shizhen thought about it, the less willing he was to take the road of imperial examination. He told his father that he was determined to study medicine, be a good doctor and relieve the pain of patients. Seeing his resolute attitude, my father had to agree.

Li Shizhen began to study medicine at the age of 24. During the day, he and his father went to the "mysterious temple" to see a doctor. In the evening, I am familiar with classic medical works such as Neijing, Materia Medica, Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Pulse Meridian under the oil lamp. Li Shizhen's reading spirit is admirable. "After studying for ten years, I never leave home and know everything." . Thanks to hard work, he mastered the treatment. He used "corydalis yanhusuo" to treat the stomachache of Princess Hu, and used pesticides to treat the snuff disease of the grandson of King Fushun. Later, he used Fuzi Qihe decoction to cure Fugu Wang's illness, and was hired as the king of Chu to serve Zheng.

Years of clinical practice made Li Shizhen understand that to be a doctor, you should not only know medicine, but also know pharmacology. If you choose the wrong shape and performance of the medicine, it will kill people. On the basis of reading Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica, he carefully read Tao Hongjing's Notes on the Classic of Materia Medica of Qi Liang in Southern Dynasties, Newly Revised Materia Medica in Tang Dynasty, Kaibao Materia Medica in Song Dynasty, Jiayou Materia Medica, Emergency Classic Materia Medica and Yanyi Materia Medica. Li Shizhen found many problems in ancient cursive scripts. First, in the classification of drugs, it is "regardless of plants, animals and insects, and the fish are mixed." For example, "ginger" and "yam" should be listed in the vegetable department, and ancient cursive scripts should be listed in the grass department; "withering" and "female withering" are two kinds of medicinal materials, and some cursive scripts say that they are one kind; "Orchids" can only be used for ornamental purposes, but not as medicine. Some cursive scripts regard "orchids" as medicinal "bluegrass"; What's more, the poisonous "Uncaria rhynchophylla" is regarded as a tonic "Polygonatum sibiricum". Li Shizhen thinks that there are so many mistakes in ancient cursive script, mainly because of the lack of on-the-spot investigation of drugs.

Since the Song Dynasty, pharmacology in China has made great progress, especially with the frequent cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, foreign drugs have been increasing, but they have not been included in this cursive script. Li Shizhen thinks it is necessary to revise and supplement the previous cursive script. At this time, Li Shizhen was 35 years old.

Five years later, the imperial court issued an imperial decree to select a group of experienced doctors from all over the country to fill the vacancy in the Imperial Hospital. Chu Wang Zhu of Wuchang recommended Li Shizhen. Li Shizhen thinks that Beijing is the Kyoto of Ming Dynasty, where not only important medical books from all over the country are gathered, but also more medicinal materials can be seen, which is an excellent opportunity to revise this cursive script. Li Shizhen accepted the recommendation of the King of Chu and entered the Beijing Imperial Hospital at the age of 4l as a judge of the Imperial Hospital.

Zhu Houzong, Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, was a complete bad king. He is bent on pursuing the elixir of life and wants to be an immortal. In order to meet the needs of Zhu Houzong, the medical officers of Taiyuan Hospital not only collected "fairy prescriptions" and "prescriptions" from all over the country, but also rummaged through the cursive scripts of past dynasties in an attempt to obtain the medicine of immortality from them. Some medical officials say that "taking mercury for a long time can make you live forever", and some medical officials say that "refining sulfur can grow skin and benefit qi"; Some say that "Ganoderma lucidum is a fairy grass, and long-term consumption can prolong life". Hearing this nonsense, Li Shizhen strengthened his determination to revise this cursive script.

Li Shizhen not only read a lot of medical books, but also extensively referred to hundreds of classics, local chronicles and unofficial history. At the same time, we carefully observed the precious medicinal materials imported from abroad and at home, and recorded their morphology, characteristics and origin one by one. After a year or so, in order to revise the cursive script, he didn't want to stay any longer and resigned under an excuse.

On the way home, one day, Li Shizhen stopped at a post office and met several taxi drivers who were driving for the government. They gathered around a small pot and cooked weeds with roots and leaves. Li Shizhen came forward to ask, and the coachman told him, "We coachmen have been running around all the year round, and it's common to hurt our muscles and bones. If we cook this herb and drink it, we can relax our muscles and promote blood circulation. " This herb grassland is called "drum flower" or "spinning flower", and Li Shizhen recorded the experience introduced by the groom. It is written that convolvulus has the function of "benefiting qi and continuing tendons" This incident made Li Shizhen realize that the modification of this cursive script can only be found in practice.

Li Shizhen and Compendium of Materia Medica (Ⅱ)

In order to revise this cursive script, Li Shizhen investigated and studied the different records in various medical books. In order to find apples, duckweeds and duckweeds with similar shapes, he went to Yuhu Lake in front of his house, and collected them in Makou Lake, Yanshi Lake and Dongchi Lake far away. After patient observation and comparison, he finally corrected the long-term confusion of this cursive script.

In order to find out the shape of the Agkistrodon, Li Shizhen came to Longfengshan in northern qi zhou to catch snakes (Agkistrodon is a specialty of qi zhou), only to hear someone sing: "Agkistrodon, who told me that I can resist wind evil, my boss Sol was anxious, and the doctors in the state only forced me, but I couldn't break my flesh for a while." Along with the ballad came several snake catchers with bamboo baskets on their shoulders. They walked towards some heather trees. It is said that the white snake likes to eat the leaves of heather, so heather has become the "home" of the white snake, winding around the heather day and night. After the snake catcher found the viper, he immediately grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and aimed it at the viper. Strangely, a viper meets sand, just like flour meets water, it shrinks into a ball. The snake catcher immediately stepped forward, grabbed Ajisen's neck with a wooden fork and grabbed the snake's back with his other hand. At this time, Adkisson can no longer exert its power. Li Shizhen decided to observe the shape of the viper carefully. He saw the snake's head as big as a triangle, with four tusks in its mouth, 24 diagonal squares on its back and stripes on its abdomen. It's really different from ordinary snakes. Then, hang the snake-catching personality on a small tree by the roadside, cut its abdomen with a knife, take out its internal organs, roll it up and put it in a bamboo basket. It is said that snakes can't be used as medicine until they are dried. Li Shizhen recorded every detail activity in the process of catching snakes, which not only supplemented the cursive script, but also provided important materials for the later compilation of Legend of the White Snake. A few years later, according to the characteristics of Agkistrodon, Li Shizhen made "Agkistrodon Wine" to treat hemiplegia and stroke. According to modern pharmacological analysis, it is proved that Agkistrodon extract has sedative, analgesic, vasodilator and antihypertensive effects.

Pangolin is also called carp. According to Tao Hongjing's Notes on Materia Medica, pangolin is an ant-eater. It "can go hand in hand with land, come out from the shore at noon, spread its scales like death, and lure ants into the armor, that is, keep them in the water, and all the ants with open armor come out and eat them around." Is the life habit of pangolin really like this? In order to find out this problem, Li Shizhen followed the hunter into the depths of the forest, dissected pangolins, and found that the animal's stomach was indeed full of undigested ants, which proved that the records in this cursive script were correct. But Li Shizhen found that pangolins were not lured by scales, but "often spit out their tongues to lure ants to eat". He corrected the wrong record on this point in cursive script. At the same time, he also collected the medicinal value of pangolin among the people, and recorded a jingle of "Pangolin, Wangliuxing, Women Suck".

Some people say that there is a medicine called Datura flower in the north, which can make people dance and even anesthetize in severe cases. Li Shizhen left his hometown to look for Datura flowers in the north. Finally, he found that the single stem was four or five feet high, the leaves were like eggplant leaves, the flowers were like morning glory, and the Datura bloomed early at night. In order to master the performance of Datura flower, he personally tried to "test it" and wrote, "It is better to take this first, but you will not feel bitter." According to modern pharmacological analysis, Datura contains scopolamine, which can excite the brain and medulla oblongata on the central nervous system and antagonize or paralyze the parasympathetic nerves on the peripheral nerve.

When Li Shizhen was doing toxicity test of Datura stramonium, he thought of the records in this cursive script. Soybean has a curative effect on various drugs, and he also conducted many experiments, which confirmed that it is impossible to detoxify simply with soybean. If you blindly add licorice, it will have a good effect and say, "You must know such a thing."

Li Shizhen not only made a detailed investigation and observation on plant medicine and animal medicine, but also made a lot of investigations on mineral medicine. He has been to copper mines, lead mines, lime kilns and other places for investigation and research. According to this cursive script, lead is a non-toxic substance. In order to understand the performance of lead, Li Shizhen went deep into the mining area and saw the hard working conditions of the miners. He wrote: "In the caves and rocks where lead was born, people walked for miles with oil lamps and cut up and down with the twists and turns of the veins." Through the health survey of miners, he realized that lead is a toxic substance, "toxic, you can't take more." At the same time, I learned that lead poisoning can cause toxic hepatitis and cause jaundice symptoms. "I won't be out for a few months, my skin is sallow, I can't eat with abdominal distension, and I will die." .

According to the previous cursive script, "mercury" is not poisonous; Say for a long time, serve the gods; Words are the medicine of immortality. Is that really the case? Through investigation, Li Shizhen realized that mercury is decomposed by heating cinnabar ("mercury comes from cinnabar"); When mercury and sulfur are heated together, they can become vermilion (mercury sulfide); Mercury salt, etc. , can become another substance, called calomel (mercuric chloride). Therefore, he described mercury as a "warm, dry and toxic" substance. If you take too much medicine, the poison will evaporate into the meridian bones, which will turn into tendon contracture and bone pain, resulting in carbuncle and swelling, or hand and foot fractures. In a few years, it will become a disease and cancer, and its harm will be endless. According to the historical fact that taking mercury for a long time since the Six Dynasties led to lifelong disability, Li Shizhen refuted the nonsense that taking mercury for a long time could lead to immortality, and wrote: "The alchemist is not strong enough, but the herbs are ridiculous. "

Li Shizhen is a medical scientist with realistic spirit. In order to complete the arduous task of revising this cursive script, he almost traveled all over the famous mountains and rivers in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and other places without stopping in Wan Li. At the same time, I consulted more than 800 books, and after three revisions, I finally compiled Compendium of Materia Medica at the age of 6l (AD 1578). Later, with the help of his students, sons and grandchildren, Compendium of Materia Medica became more complete and refined. Compendium of Materia Medica contains Li Shizhen's painstaking efforts for nearly 30 years and records Li Shizhen's arduous course.

Li Shizhen's contribution to mankind is enormous, so he is respected by later generations. In memory of this great physician, both Ming Shi and Bai Mao Tangji wrote biographies for him. During Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty, Li Shizhen's tomb was commemorated by a monument. After liberation, the Li Shizhen base was renovated. 1956, scientist Guo Moruo wrote an inscription as a memorial: "The sage of traditional Chinese medicine is a masterpiece of China's pharmacy, and Compendium of Materia Medica is a description of 1892 drugs, which took 30 years to refine. Benefit the people and make many people live longer! The great master will be with the life of the nation. "

Compendium of Materia Medica (52 volumes) contains 892 kinds of drugs 1892 (including 374 kinds of new drugs in Li Shizhen), including 1 109 pictures of drugs and1096 prescriptions (including more than 8,000 collected and prepared by Li Shizhen himself) Each drug is divided into the following items: description (determination of name), centralized description (description of place of origin), right and wrong (correction of mistakes in past literature), treatment (processing method), odor, indication, invention (the first three items refer to analysis of drug's function), and attached prescription (folk prescription collection). Plant medicine 88 1 species, appendix 6 1 species, * * 942 species, named unused plants 153 species, accounting for 58% of all drugs. Li Shizhen divides plants into five parts: grass part, valley part, vegetable part, fruit part and headquarters, and divides the grass part into nine categories: mountain grass, vanilla, wet grass, poisonous grass, creeping weed, water grass, stone grass, Carex and weeds.