The classic document "Compendium of Materia Medica"

　　"Compendium of Materia Medica" is a pharmaceutical work with a total of fifty-two volumes. It was written by Li Shizhen, a famous medical scientist in the Ming Dynasty. This book is a precious heritage in my country's medical treasure house.

　　"Compendium of Materia Medica" was compiled by Li Shizhen (1518-1593), a great medical scientist of the Ming Dynasty, to correct errors in ancient medical books. He spent his whole life, personal experience, practice, and extensive collection to comprehensively organize and summarize Materia Medica. It took 29 years to compile and was the culmination of more than 30 years of hard work. There are 52 volumes in total, containing 1,892 types of medicines, including 374 new medicines, and 11,096 prescriptions. The book also contains 1,160 exquisite illustrations, about 1.9 million words, and is divided into 16 parts and 60 categories. This classification method has transitioned to a system based on natural evolution. The scientific classification of plants was two hundred years earlier than the Swedish taxonomist Linnaeus. Each drug is divided into items such as name (determine the name), collection (describe the place of origin), correctness (correct errors in past literature), correction (preparation method), smell, indications, invention (the first three refer to the analysis of the function of the drug), attached prescription (collection of folk prescriptions), etc. The book contains 881 kinds of botanical medicines and 61 kinds in the appendix, totaling 942 kinds. In addition, there are 153 kinds of named unused plants, totaling 1095 kinds, accounting for 58% of the total number of all drugs.

　　"Compendium of Materia Medica", published in 1590. The book has a total of more than 1.9 million words, contains 1,892 kinds of medicines, collected 11,096 medical prescriptions, and drawn 1,160 exquisite illustrations, divided into 16 parts and 60 categories. It is a masterpiece compiled over several decades on the basis of inheriting and summarizing previous achievements in Materia Medica, combined with a large amount of pharmaceutical knowledge accumulated by the author through long-term study and interviews, and through practice and research. The book not only corrects several errors in past herbal medicine, integrates a large amount of scientific data, proposes a more scientific drug classification method, incorporates advanced biological evolution ideas, and reflects rich clinical practice. This book is also a natural history work with worldwide influence.

　　This pharmacopoeia, whether in terms of its strict scientific classification, the large number of drugs it contains, and its smooth and vivid writing style, far exceeds any ancient herbal book. Known as the "Great Classic of Oriental Medicine", it has the greatest influence on modern human science and medicine. It is a precious heritage in my country’s medical treasure house. Its achievements include, first of all, changing the original classification of upper, middle and lower categories of drugs, and adopting a scientific classification of "analyzing families, regions and categories, focusing on the main categories and categories". It divides medicines into mineral medicines, botanical medicines and animal medicines. Mineral medicine is also divided into four parts: gold part, jade part, stone part and brine part. A category of botanical medicines, based on the performance, shape, and growth environment of the plant, it is divided into five parts: grass part, cereal part, vegetable part, fruit part, and xylem part. The grasses are divided into subcategories such as mountain grass, fragrant grass, wake grass, poisonous grass, water grass, creeping grass, stone grass and so on. Animals are a kind of animal, arranged in the order of evolution from low level to high level, and are divided into six parts: insect part, scale part, medial part, bird part, beast part, and human part.

　　"Compendium of Materia Medica" extensively covers many scientific fields such as medicine, pharmacology, biology, mineralogy, chemistry, environment and biology, heredity and variation, etc. In the history of chemistry, it recorded a series of chemical reactions of pure metals, metals, metal chlorides, sulfides, etc. earlier. At the same time, it also records some operating methods used in modern chemistry such as distillation, crystallization, sublimation, precipitation, and drying. 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 the ghosts in it are the shadows of mountains and rivers." "Compendium of Materia Medica" is not only a masterpiece of pharmacology in my country, but also an encyclopedia in ancient my country. As Li Jianyuan pointed out in "Compendium of Materia Medica": "From the tombs to the legends, everything relevant is not collected. Although it is a medical book, it is actually physics. ”

　　"Compendium of Materia Medica" is not only a pharmacological work, but also a natural history work with worldwide influence. The book contains a wide range of contents and has made certain contributions to chemistry, biology, geography, astronomy, geology, and mining.