历代名家——李时珍
LI Shi-zhen
LI Shi-zhen(1518~1593) is the most distinguished medical expert in the Ming dynasty, also called LI Dong-bi, or Bin Hu Lao Ren, is from a medical family in Qi Zhou, Hubei Province. LI Shi-zhen He found that some recordings from the previous books including the “Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic)”, “Xin Xiu Ben Cao (The Newly-revised Material Medica)” and “Zhen Lei Ben Cao (Classified Materia Medica)” are not completely correct, and that some herbs are not clearly classified, some lack therapeutic effect and some are mixed with superstition. In addition, he also found many new herbs. Therefore he spent nearly 30 years compiling the monumental work “Ben Cao Gang MU (Compendium of Materia Medica)” to organize, supplement and revise the ancient books on materia medica. He not only made striking achievements in medicine, but also did great contribution to human civilization in such aspects as botany, zoology, mineralogy, agriculture, physics, chemistry, astronomy and literature.
The “Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica)” contains 52 volumes or 1.9 million words, 1,800 types of herbs and 11,000 formulas as well as over 1,000 illustrations.
The “Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica)” has been very influential introduced to other countries since its publication in 1593, which was called “an ancient Chinese encyclopedia” by Charles Darwin.
译文:
李时珍(1518~1593),是我国明代最著名的医药学家,字东璧,晚年号濒湖山人,湖北蕲州人,出身于世医之家。李时珍发现《神农本草经》、《新修本草》和《证类本草》等前代药物学专著中的一些记载并不完全可信,有的分类不清,有的疗效不显,有的参杂迷信成分;这些书籍刊行以后,又发现许多新的药物。鉴此,决心对古代药物学专籍进行整理、增补和修订。经近30年的努力,编成巨著《本草纲目》。他既在医药学上取得了令世人瞩目的卓越成就,也在植物学、动物学、矿物学、农学、物理学、化学、天文学以及文献学等许多方面,为人类的文明作出了重要的贡献。
《本草纲目》全书52卷,190多万字,记述药物1800多种,收录药方11000多个,绘有中药药图1000余幅。
《本草纲目》在1593年刊行。其后,屡经再版,对后世影响很大,并且很早就流传到国外。达尔文称《本草纲目》是“古代中国的百科全书”。