Herbal Classic

Author: Yu Shiran
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: This book was originally written by Li Shizhen and completed in 1578, with its first publication in 1593. The entire book contains over 1,800 medicinal substances, of which over 1,000 are plant medicines, while the rest are mineral and other drugs. Li Shizhen added 374 new substances to the book. It includes over 100 illustrations of medicinal substances and more than 10,000 prescriptions, with approximately 8,000 of them collected and formulated by Li Shizhen himself. The book not only corrected several errors in ancient Chinese pharmacology but also compiled a large amount of scientific data, classifying drugs relatively scientifically. Especially noteworthy is Li Shizhen's scientific classification of animals, which demonstrates that he already possessed evolutionary biological thinking at that time. This book played a certain role in promoting the study of pharmacology and biology in China and had a significant impact worldwide. It has been reprinted dozens of times and has appeared in abridged or full translations in various languages, including English, French, German, and Japanese.