Why was Li Shizhen a practitioner of medicine? What efforts did he make?

Li Shizhen is a real practitioner of medicine, he has done too much effort, summarized, focusing on the following points:

First, field trips.

Li Shizhen not only in his hometown near the investigation, but also went to a lot of places, the motherland's mountains and waters are almost all Li Shizhen hard footprints, like Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Anhui, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hunan, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, Li Shizhen have been, and all over the mountains, forests, lakes and swamps, Li Shizhen did not one by one to find all over the because he knew that the most precious herbs must grow in the most dangerous and uninhabited mountains, the most dangerous and uninhabited mountains. Must grow in the most dangerous uninhabited valleys, only personally picked, can get a good prescription to save lives.

II. He read all the medical writings he could find.

Li Shizhen knew that some of the previous herbal knowledge and today's some differences, and even have a big difference, for this reason, Li Shizhen read the survey of the books, to verify the correct source of the prescription, herbal, corrected the past some of the old, and even harmful prescription, at the same time, Ye greatly enriched the knowledge of the pharmacology of Chinese herbal medicine, for the preparation of the "Materia Medica Compendium" to do the most solid foundation work.

three, personally went up to the mountains to collect specimens, personally chewed and tasted, ants he had eaten.

Li Shizhen on medicine to a degree of fascination, he disregarded his old age, often personally over the mountains, in order to collect specimens, collect evidence, he had dissected a hedgehog, he had tasted a variety of ants, in order to know whether the ants can be used as medicine. In the course of his extensive communication with the folk, Li Shizhen also discovered the subtle effects between many things. This is also a great help to his medical writings.

Four, good at research and discovery.

Li Shizhen personally solved a lot of difficult and miscellaneous diseases, he also put forward the pharmacology of the existence of many mistakes and defects, and careful Li Shizhen found that those on the name, type, nature, utility and other descriptions, etc., are not standardized, it is these subsidies prompted Li Shizhen finally resolved to decide to personally seek the mountains and fields, to the past medical texts to a comprehensive summary. This is the book was later regarded as a classic "Ben Cai Compendium".