Comic. Volume 2

Author: Zhu Shifeng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-10-01
Features: The Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, written during the Han Dynasty, is a comprehensive collection of pharmaceutical knowledge from the Warring States and Qin-Han periods. It is China's earliest pharmacological monograph, also known as Shen Nong Ben Cao and abbreviated as Ben Cao Jing or Ben Jing. The true author remains unknown, and the book is attributed to Shen Nong, one of the ancestors of the Chinese nation, who was revered for tasting hundreds of herbs and saving humanity. As early as the Qin and Han dynasties, not only did the government establish specialized institutions for studying medicine, but research was also highly prevalent, laying a solid foundation for the emergence of the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. The book includes 365 medicinal substances, of which 252 are plants, 67 are animals, and 46 are minerals. Based on their properties and functions, the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing classifies medicines into three grades: superior, medium, and inferior, marking China's earliest pharmacological classification system. In its preface, the book outlines the fundamental theories of pharmacology at the time. For example, it discusses the theory of "principal, deputy, assistant, and envoy" in medical prescriptions, the principles of drug preparation, and the "Four Qi and Five Flavors" theory, which states that drugs have "five flavors" (sour, salty, sweet, bitter, pungent) and "four qi" (cold, heat, warm, cool). The book encompasses six modern commonly used traditional Chinese medicines, such as ginseng, licorice, and rhubarb, and proposes treatments for over 170 diseases in fields like internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, dentistry, etc. The Ben Jing records the earliest known method of using ma huang to treat asthma, and these drugs have proven highly effective, remaining widely used in traditional Chinese medicine and by the general public to this day. The Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing laid the foundation for ancient pharmacology and had a profound influence on the development of later pharmacological studies. Subsequent medical scholars continuously supplemented it, giving rise to numerous herbal medicine works.