What are the editions of Shennong s Materia Medica ?

It is known that there are 16 kinds of "Materia Medica" in history. The main ones are:

1. Wang Jie of the Southern Song Dynasty compiled the text of this book for the first time, and became 3 volumes of "Materia Medica", which is now unknown.

2. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Lu Fu (not far away) compiled 3 volumes of "Shennong's Benjing", the table of contents is based on the "Compendium of Materia Medica", and the text is taken from "Evidence Materia Medica".

3. Qing Dynasty Meng Qi (Deduction) series of "Materia Medica" 3 volumes (1687), the text is taken from the "Evidence Class Materia Medica", and only a fragment exists today.

4. Sun Xingyan (Yuanru) and Sun Fengyi (Fengqing) of the Qing Dynasty compiled 3 volumes of "Shennong's Materia Medica" (1799), each medicine supplemented the content of the growth environment, and also included "Wu's Materia Medica", "Famous Doctors" and some drug research materials, and the research was detailed.

5. Qing Gu Tourism (Shangzhi) series "Shennong's Materia Medica" 4 volumes (about 1844), slightly tested for school.

6. Wang Hong (Guang'an) of the Qing Dynasty claimed to have obtained the Song version of "Jia Materia Medica", and according to this, he compiled 3 volumes of "Shennong's Materia Medica" (1885). However, it may be said that Wang's compilation is not based on the Song version of the "Benjing".

7. The king of the late Qing Dynasty? Yun (纫秋) compilation "Shennong's Materia Medica" 3 volumes (1885), 360 kinds of medicines, also known as the Song Jia's "Shennong's Materia Medica" publication.

8. Liu Fu took Wang's compilation, and also edited by Samson Xingyan and Gu Guanguan, and published "Shennong's Materia Medica" (1942).

9. Qing Jiang Guoyi (Yin Ren) compiled "Shennong's Benjing" (1862-1892), arranging and writing in accordance with the "Compendium of Materia Medica".

10. Shang Zhijun, a close friend, compiled "Shennong's Materia Medica" (1983), which collected the strengths of everyone and revised them in detail.

11. Cao Yuanyu's "Classic of Materia Medica" (1987) 3 volumes, 12. Wang Yunmo's "Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica" (1988) 3 volumes.

13. 3 volumes of Shennong's Materia Medica, with 1 volume of "Preface" and 1 volume of "Examination of Differences". The collection is well-cited and well-researched.

After the Shennong Materia Medica was written, it still existed in the Sui Dynasty, and it was not seen in the official collection catalogue in the Tang Dynasty, and it is estimated that the original work was lost in the early Tang Dynasty and was never found again. However, its content has been preserved due to the citations of later generations such as Tao Hongjing's "Commentary on the Materia Medica" of the Liang Dynasty, Su Jing's "New Revision of Materia Medica" in the Tang Dynasty, Tang Shenwei's "Evidence of Materia Medica" in the Song Dynasty, and Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" in the Ming Dynasty. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, many scholars have been engaged in the restoration of the book, and there are a variety of editions.

In the compilation, the book of Lu Fu of the Ming Dynasty is the earliest, and the three editions of Sun Xingyan and Gu Guanguan of the Qing Dynasty and the Japanese Mori Lizhi have their own strengths and great influence, and these three editions were reprinted after liberation.

The author of "Shennong's Materia Medica" is Emperor Yan. Emperor Yan is the honorific title of the leader of the tribe surnamed Jiang in ancient China, called Shennong, also known as Kuikui, Lianshan, Lieshan, alias Zhu Xiang. Legend has it that the leader of the tribe surnamed Jiang was called Emperor Yan because he knew how to use fire to get the throne.

From Shennong, the tribe surnamed Jiang has a total of nine generations of Yan Emperor, Shennong Sheng Di Kui, Kui Sheng Di Cheng, Cheng Sheng Di Ming, Ming Sheng Di Zhi, Zhisheng Emperor Yu, Qi Sheng Emperor Mourning, Mourning Emperor Ke, Kesheng Emperor Yu, 530 years of succession.

Brief introduction. The era of Emperor Yan is the Neolithic Age, and there are currently six places in the hometown of Emperor Yan, namely: Baoji in Shaanxi, Lianshan in Huitong County in Hunan, Yanling County in Zhuzhou, Hunan, Suizhou in Hubei, Gaoping in Shanxi, and Zhecheng in Henan.

The range of activities of the Yandi tribe is in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and it is said to be the Qingjiang River in Weibin District, Baoji City, and Qishui in Qishan County, Baoji City.

The tribe began to flourish in the area, initially in Chendi, and later moved the capital to Qufu. According to legend, Emperor Yan Niu was the first person, he tasted herbs and developed herbs to cure diseases; He invented slash-and-burn farming, created two kinds of soil turning farming tools, and taught people to cultivate food crops in the wasteland; He also led the tribesmen in making pottery and cooking utensils for food and drink.

The author of "Shennong's Materia Medica" was a number of medical scientists in the Han Dynasty.

Shennong's Materia Medica, also known as "Materia Medica" or "Benjing", is said to have originated from Shennong's family, passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, assembled and sorted out into a book in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the book was not a time, the author was not a person, many medical scientists in the Qin and Han dynasties collected, summarized, and sorted out the monographs of the experience and achievements of pharmacology at that time, which was the first systematic summary of Chinese medicine.

Introduction. Shennong's Materia Medica has formed a theoretical system of pharmacy in China and laid the foundation of pharmacy in China, and a large number of works on Materia Medica in later generations have been produced and developed on this basis. The original book has long been lost, and its main text has been quoted and reproduced and is still preserved in books such as "Zheng Class Materia Medica". After the Ming Dynasty, a variety of books entitled "Shennong's Materia Medica" were published after the Ming Dynasty, all of which were compiled by later generations.

In addition to the preface to the general theory of drugs, the book contains 365 kinds of drugs, which are divided into three products (categories): upper, middle and lower. Among them, there are 120 kinds of upper grade and 120 kinds of medium grade, and 125 kinds of lower grade.

Regarding the copyist of this book, the title of the book is "Shennong", firstly, because in ancient times there was a legend that "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs" and discovered the drug; The second is a reflection of the ancient atmosphere of respecting the ancient Tuo, just like the name of the Yellow Emperor before the "Neijing". As "Huainanzi Cultivation Training" said: "Secularly people, many respect the ancient and the present, so those who are Taoists must be entrusted to Shennong and the Yellow Emperor and then be able to speak."

Therefore, we say that the author of "Shennong's Materia Medica" is not Shennong. Dow's argument that it may have been the work of doctors such as Zhang Zhongjing and Hua Yuanhua seems to be at least unfounded today. In addition, the reason why the title of the book is called "Materia Medica" is because in ancient times it was based on botanical medicine.

Say the text and explain the word "cloud": "Medicine, cure grass also." Han Baosheng also said in the fifth generation

According to the medicine, there are jade, plants, insects and beasts, and Zhiyun Materia Medica is the most herbaceous medicine among all medicines. In short, "Shennong's Materia Medica" was not made by one person at a time, but was accumulated and summarized by many medical scientists since the Qin and Han dynasties, and continuously collected.

Shennong's Materia Medica, known simply as the Materia Medica or Du, is the earliest surviving pharmacological monograph in China. DAO "Shennong's Materia Medica" was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty, not by one person at a time, but a monograph by many medical scientists in the Qin and Han dynasties to summarize, collect and sort out the experience and achievements of pharmacology at that time, which is the first systematic summary of Chinese herbal medicine.

Shennong's Materia Medica was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty, not by one person, but by many medical scientists in the Qin and Han dynasties to summarize, collect, and sort out the experience and achievements of pharmacology at that time.

The author of "Shennong's Materia Medica" was a number of medical scientists in the Han Dynasty.

Shennong's Materia Medica, written by many medical scientists in the Han Dynasty and written in the Han Dynasty, is one of the four classic works of Chinese medicine and is the earliest known work of Chinese medicine. The book is divided into three volumes and contains 365 kinds of medicines.

With the classification method of three products, it is divided into upper, middle and lower products, and the text is concise and simple, which has become the essence of traditional Chinese medicine theory. "Shennong's Materia Medica" records the efficacy of 365 kinds of drugs, most of which are true and reliable, and are still commonly used in clinical practice; It puts forward the idea of syndrome differentiation and drug use, and the drug can be used for more than 170 kinds of diseases, and there are specific regulations on the dosage and time of medication, which also plays a fundamental role in traditional Chinese medicine.

The value of Shennong's Materia Medica:

The advent of the Benjing has had a great impact on the development of Chinese pharmacy. Several representative "Materia Medica" in history, such as "Commentary on the Classic of Materia Medica", "New Revision of Materia Medica", "Evidence of Materia Medica", "Compendium of Materia Medica", etc., all originated from the "Materia Medica" and developed.

The interrelationship between drugs is also a key to pharmacy, and the principle of "harmony of seven feelings" proposed in the "Benjing" has played a huge role in the practice of medicine for thousands of years.

Between drugs, some of them can complement each other and exert greater efficacy, and some are even several times stronger than their own use alone; When two drugs meet, one will reduce the properties of the other, making it difficult for them to work.

Some drugs can subtract the toxicity of another drug, and are often used when concocting toxic drugs or restricting the toxicity of one drug in the formula; Some of the two drugs themselves are not toxic, but when the two drugs meet, they will be very toxic, damaging the body and so on. These are the basic professional knowledge necessary for medical practitioners or those engaged in pharmaceutical research, which are very important, and even manipulate the difference between life and death, and cannot be ignored.

As of March 2022, the authors and scholars of "Shennong's Materia Medica" are still under research.

The Shennong Materia Medica is not recorded in the Hanshu Art and Literature Chronicles, but only began to be recorded in the Seven Records and Sui Books of the Liang Dynasty Ruan Xiaoxu, but there is no writing date and author's name, so scholars of the past dynasties have made many studies and inferences about it:

First, Shennong said.

Zheng Xuan of the Eastern Han Dynasty believed that this book was a work of the Shennong era and was written by the Shennong family in the "Zhou Li Zheng Note".

Second, the Yellow Emperor said.

Emperor Fu Mi of the Jin Dynasty said in the "Imperial Century": The Yellow Emperor made Qibo taste the Materia Medica, set the "Materia Medica", and made a medical prescription to treat all diseases, which was believed to be made by the Yellow Emperor in the era of the Yellow Emperor. However, according to archaeological research, there was no writing in the era of Shennong and the Yellow Emperor. Therefore, the above two statements cannot be trusted.

Third, the Han Dynasty said.

Tao Hongjing of the Liang Dynasty first put forward the view that the book was written by the Han Chinese, based on the origin of the medicine contained in the book. He said in the "Commentary and Preface to the Collection of the Materia Medica": There are these four volumes that exist today, which are the scriptures of the scriptures, and the counties and counties that come out are the system of the Later Han Dynasty, and are recorded by Zhongjing, Yuanhua (i.e., Hua Tuo) and so on.

He also said: The time and month of Materia Medica are all at the beginning of the Jianyin year, and they are also recorded from the beginning of the Han Dynasty. ＂

Dow believes that most of the origins of the drugs recorded in the book were set up in the Eastern Han Dynasty, so it is inferred that the book was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the author may have been Zhang Zhongjing or Hua Tuo, a famous doctor at that time.

The main content of "Shennong's Materia Medica".

Shennong's Materia Medica systematically summarizes the experience of ancient doctors and other aspects of drug use, and makes a comprehensive and systematic collation of the drug knowledge that has been mastered. A total of 365 drugs are included in the book, which coincides with 365 days of the year, which is not a coincidence, but a deliberate result of the author.

In fact, the number of drugs mastered at that time had far exceeded this number, but due to the influence of the idea of mathematics, 365 kinds of drugs were selected from them, "the law is three hundred and sixty-five degrees, one time should be one day, and one year old".

Shennong's Materia Medica not only carried out the collection of drugs, but also consciously classified the collected drugs, and divided 365 kinds of drugs into three categories according to the upper, middle and lower, which is known as the "three-product classification method". The classification is mainly based on the performance efficacy of the drug.

The author of "Shennong's Materia Medica" was a number of medical scientists in the Han Dynasty.

Shennong's Materia Medica" is said to have originated from Shennong's, passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, assembled and sorted out into a book in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the book is not a time, the author is not a person, many medical scientists in the Qin and Han dynasties collected, summarized, and sorted out the monograph of the experience and achievements of pharmacology at that time, which is the first systematic summary of Chinese medicine.

"Shennong's Materia Medica" author test

The connection between Shennong and the Book of Scripture began with Liu An of the Western Han Dynasty. "Huainanzi Cultivation Training" cloud: Shennong tastes the taste of a hundred herbs, the sweetness and bitterness of the water spring, so that the people know what to avoid, at this time, one day and encounter seventy poisons.

Therefore, most scholars before the Qing Dynasty were superstitious that the "Benjing" was written by Shennong. In addition, there are also documents based on Tao's preface: this book should be similar to "Suwen", but later generations have more embellishments.

Burned by the Qin Emperor, the prescription and divination were not predicted, so they still had to be recorded. Therefore, it is believed that the "Benjing" is a work of the Warring States period.

The above content refers to: Encyclopedia - Shennong's Materia Medica.