Xinxiu Bencao
Contents
Comprising fifty-three or fifty-four juan (卷) or "chapters", the text ostensibly contained both tujing (圖經) or "illustrated descriptions" and yaotu (藥圖) or "drug pictures", although these illustrations are no longer extant. In total, some 850 drugs are listed in the text, including thirty foreign ingredients that were imported into China via the Silk Road, such as benzoin, oak galls, and peppercorn.
Publication history
The idea of a bencao (pharmacopoeia) that would copy and expand on Tao Hongjing's Bencao jing jizhu was first mooted in 657 by court counsellor Su Jing (蘇敬). The project was eventually approved by Emperor Gaozong, following which a team of some twenty-two officials and physicians, including Xu Jingzong, Lü Cai, Li Chunfeng, Kong Zhiyue , and Xu Xiaochong . Li Shiji oversaw the final draft.
According to the Tang huiyao, the Xinxiu bencao was completed on the 17th day of the first lunar month of the fourth year of the Xianqing era (656–661). The text was first published in 659, making it the first state-sponsored pharmacopoeia in China, as well as one of the earliest known illustrated pharmaceutical texts.
The Xinxiu bencao was one of the most comprehensive works of its time. It was designated by the Tang government as the "official standard with regard to drug usage", although it is unclear how widespread its readership was, given the lack of a printing press then. By the Song dynasty, the text had become lost in China, although at least one copy still exists in Japan, where it had been transmitted to in 721, and fully translated into Japanese as Honzō wamyō in 1918 by palace doctor Fukane no Sukehito. In the modern era, fragments of the Xinxiu bencao have also been discovered from a book depository in a cave in Dunhuang, Gansu.
Notes
- ^ Translated into English as the Newly Revised Materia Medica or the New Revised Pharmacopoeia.
References
Citations
- ^ Goldschmidt 2022, p. 137.
- ^ Ming 2018, p. 309.
- ^ Teoh 2019, p. 89.
- ^ Despeaux 2019, p. 766.
- ^ Buell 2022, p. 329.
- ^ Ming 2018, p. 310.
- ^ Sterckx 2018, p. 140.
- ^ Nappi 2010, p. 29.
- ^ Tang huiyao, vol. 82: "顯慶二年,右監門府長史蘇敬上言。陶宏景所撰本草,事多舛謬,請加刪補"
- ^ Marcon 2015, p. 30.
- ^ Tang huiyao, vol. 26: "詔令檢校中書令許敬宗、太常寺丞呂才、太史令李淳風、禮部郎中孔志約、尚藥奉御許孝崇、并諸名醫等二十人。"
- ^ Tang huiyao, vol. 26: "仍令司空李勣總監定之。"
- ^ Tang huiyao, vol. 82: "至四年正月十七日撰成。"
- ^ Lo & Cullen 2004, p. 295.
- ^ Benn 2015, p. 24.
- ^ Rong 2022, p. 555.
Bibliography
- Compiled by Wang Pu. Tang huiyao 唐會要 [Institutional History of the Tang] (in Chinese).
- Benn, James A. (2015). Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History. University of Hawaii Press. doi:10.21313/hawaii/9780824839635.001.0001. ISBN 9780824853983.
- Buell, Paul D. (2022). "Food and dietary medicine in Chinese herbal literature and beyond". In Lo, Vivienne; Yang, Dolly; Stanley-Baker, Michael (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine. pp. 328–336. doi:10.4324/9780203740262-25. ISBN 9780415830645.
- Despeaux, Catherine (2019). "Tujing yanyi bencao 圖經衍義本草". In Schipper, Kristofer; Verellen, Franciscus (eds.). The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Vol. 2. University of Chicago Press. pp. 765–769. ISBN 9780226721064.
- Goldschmidt, Asaf (2022). "Pre-standardised pharmacology: Han through Song". In Lo, Vivienne; Yang, Dolly; Stanley-Baker, Michael (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine. pp. 133–145. doi:10.4324/9780203740262-10. ISBN 9780415830645.
- Lo, Vivienne; Cullen, Christopher (2004). Medieval Chinese Medicine: The Dunhuang Medical Manuscripts. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781134291311.
- Marcon, Federico (2015). The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan. University of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226252063.001.0001. ISBN 9780226251905.
- Ming, Chen (2018). "Fanciful Images from Abroad: Picturing the Other in Bencao Pinhui Jingyao 本草品彙精要". In Lo, Vivienne; Barrett, Penelope (eds.). Imagining Chinese Medicine. Vol. 18. Brill. pp. 305–314. doi:10.1163/9789004366183. ISBN 9789004362161. JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctvbqs6ph.27.
- Nappi, Carla Suzan (2010). The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China. Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674054356. ISBN 9780674054356.
- Rong, Xinjiang (2022). The Silk Road and Cultural Exchanges Between East and West. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004512597. ISBN 9789004512597. S2CID 245832841.
- Sterckx, Roel (2018). "The Limits of Illustration: Animalia and Pharmacopeia from Guo Pu to Bencao Gangmu 本草綱目". In Lo, Vivienne; Barrett, Penelope (eds.). Imagining Chinese Medicine. Brill. pp. 133–150. doi:10.1163/9789004366183_009. ISBN 9789004366183.
- Teoh, Eng Soon (2019). Orchids as Aphrodisiac, Medicine or Food. Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-18255-7. ISBN 9783030182557. S2CID 198190783.
- Unschuld, Paul U. (1986). Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520050259.