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Ben Cao Gang Mu ����
(Compendium of Materia Medica)
Inscribed 2011
What is it
Ben Cao Gang Mu or ‘Compendium of Materia Medica’
is a comprehensive pharmacopedia, textbook and
encyclopedia of traditional Chinese medicine written in
the 16th century.
Why was it inscribed
The compendium is regarded as the foundation of herbal
medicine. It illustrates the pharmaceutical progress and
achievements of China up to the 16th century and was
the forerunner of modern pharmacological studies.
Where is it
Library of the China Academy of Chinese Medical
Sciences, Beijing, China
Ben Cao Gang Mu is a multi-volume work which
recorded and summarized traditional medicinal
knowledge before the 16th century. The book lists,
analyzes and describes plants, animals, minerals
200 Ben Cao Gang Mu �����(Compendium of Materia Medica)
and other objects believed to have medicinal and
pharmacological properties.
The author was Shanghai physician Li Shi-zhen (1518–93)
who took 27 years to complete his work. He described each
drug with its name and explanation, processing method,
fl avour and taste, known cure, observation notes and
prescriptions. Contraindications and drugs recommended
for various specifi c uses are also listed.
The content of Li’s work goes beyond pharmacology
to cover related topics including botany, zoology,
mineralogy, physics, astronomy, chemistry, metallurgy,
geology and meteorology. British biologist Charles Darwin
called the book an ‘ancient Chinese encyclopedia’.
Ben Cao Gang Mu was the fi rst work of its kind and
drew from texts written as far back as several centuries
BC and from places as far-fl ung as Persia, India and the
Mediterranean. Many of the sources Li used have since
been lost or destroyed, leaving his Compendium as the
only record of many of them. He built on the content in
these works, correcting mistakes regarding the nature
of medicinal substances and the causes of various
illnesses, and supplementing them with new advances.
The book is a fi fty-two-volume compilation with the
edition listed on the Register being the one carved and