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What happened when Li Shizhen compiled Compendium of Materia Medica?
Li Shizhen (15 18 ~ 1593), whose real name was Dongqiang, was named Lakeside Mountain in his later years. He was born in a family of world doctors in Washaba, outside the east gate of qi zhou Town, Qichun County, Hubei Province. Compendium of Materia Medica, written by him all his life, is an epoch-making masterpiece, which has a far-reaching impact on the development of science and culture in China and even the world.

Li Shizhen has tasted the hardships of the world since he was a child. Their brother and sister, together with their mother Zhang, are supported by their father. Li Shizhen spent almost half his childhood by the medicine stove. It was not until he was a teenager that Li Shizhen began to get better. He began to read and take part in some outdoor activities.

Yuechi county No.1 Father Li Yanwen is a famous doctor with rich medical experience and high medical attainments. Influenced by his father, Li Shizhen had a keen interest and hobby in the knowledge of plants, insects and fish since childhood. Sometimes Li Yanwen took him to the mountains to teach him about the growth of medicinal materials and distinguish them. Accompanied by his father, Li Shizhen, aged 153 1 year (the tenth year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty), went to Huangzhou to take the exam and won a scholar. However, in the next three after having obtained the provincial examinations, Li Shizhen failed in the list. So Li Shizhen formally expressed his determination to give up the imperial examination and become a doctor to save lives. From then on, Li Shizhen began his medical career with his father.

By the Ming Dynasty, the development of Chinese medicine had a long history of 1000 years, forming a complete system. Li Shizhen not only studied all kinds of medical classics hard, but also was good at inheriting the medical wealth of predecessors, and paid great attention to accumulating medical experience, striving for innovation and breakthrough. He treated children pica with Stemona, Junzi, Betel nut and other drugs. He thinks it belongs to a parasitic disease. When summing up the dosage, Li Shizhen thought that the dosage was directly related to the therapeutic effect. Therefore, in addition to the right medicine, the dosage should be appropriate. Croton, for example, is a laxative, but it can cure diarrhea when used properly. In this way, he cured diarrhea that made many people suffer.

Shameless questioning, open-minded consultation, paying attention to observation and analysis, and being good at learning and thinking are also important reasons for the rapid improvement of Li Shizhen's medical skills.

Li Jiaben was a local famous doctor for several generations, and with Li Shizhen's own efforts, he soon became an excellent doctor with a good reputation in Jingchu. At the age of 38, the son of Zhu Yingjian, the king of Chu in Wuchang, was seriously ill. After many treatments, it still has no effect. Finally became famous, let Li Shizhen treat. After a period of careful treatment, Zhu Yingjian's son's condition gradually improved. Zhu Yingjian was very happy, and appointed Li Shizhen as "Zheng Zheng" and was in charge of the good doctor's office in Wang Fu.

Read widely and interview the quartet.

In the second year of Song Huizong Daguan (A.D. 1 108), Tang Shenwei, a famous Sichuan doctor, was ordered to revise and supplement the Materia Medica, which was called Zheng Materia Medica in history. The book collected 1558 drugs and more than 3000 prescriptions. People have always appreciated this book.

Li Shizhen has carefully read and studied Shennong's Compendium of Materia Medica, Tang Materia Medica and Zheng Materia Medica. On the one hand, he admired the previous research results; On the other hand, there are still some theoretical and observational errors in these works, which need to be sorted out and corrected.

Moreover, from the revision of Compendium of Materia Medica in Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty when Li Shizhen lived, history has advanced for more than 500 years. Since the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, the introduction of foreign medicines and the disputes of various pharmaceutical schools have greatly improved the medical theory. And the loss of folk remedies will be made up as soon as possible. All this needs to be sorted out and written into new drugs, and this burden falls on Li Shizhen's shoulders.

Based on the above knowledge, Li Shizhen, who is only in his twenties, is determined to sort out, supplement and write some more detailed pharmaceutical works. However, he knows very well that it is not easy to revise materia medica and strive for a breakthrough and development on the basis of predecessors. To this end, he began preparations for decades.

In order to inherit the scientific achievements of predecessors, Li Shizhen consulted a large number of historical books, medical books and various materia medica. In addition to carefully reading the materia medica of past dynasties, Li Shizhen also extensively read various medical books and prescriptions, such as Huangdi Neijing, Huangdi Neijing Lingshu, Zhang Zhongjing's Treatise on Febrile Diseases, Fang Fang, Zhang Zhongjing's synopsis of the Golden Chamber and Kaiyuan Guangshu. The contents of these works are reviewed, examined, analyzed and judged. While reading a large number of medical classics, Li Shizhen also read many ancient and modern classics and novels of relevant officials.

About 1556 (thirty-five years of Ming Jiajing), the Ministry of Rites ordered all localities to select medical talents to concentrate in Beijing to make up for the vacancy of Tai Hospital. Li Shizhen is one of a group of famous doctors who left Huguang.

After Li Shizhen arrived in Beijing, although he didn't get much attention from the rulers, he benefited a lot from Taiyuan's rich collection of books and various medicinal materials at home and abroad. He also went to Wang Yao Temple many times to carefully identify the human acupuncture points of the bronze statue, and became familiar with the principles of all acupuncture points and meridians of the human body, which laid the foundation for him to write books such as "Examination of Eight Veins in the Strange Classics". Li Shizhen also frequented Shou Pharmacy and Imperial Pharmacy in TaiYuan Hospital, and made a comparative study of various drugs from different regions, and accumulated rich experience in drug identification.

When Li Shizhen was in a hospital, he applied to the imperial court several times to support him in compiling Compendium of Materia Medica, but there was no result. Therefore, he resigned from his post in Taiji Hospital and embarked on the road of returning to the south, determined to independently complete the compilation of Compendium of Materia Medica.

It is far from enough to compile a large-scale catalogue of pharmaceutical works with rich theoretical knowledge. At the beginning of writing, Li Shizhen sorted out the collected materials item by item according to his own classification method. However, with the deepening of research, he felt more and more difficult. What puzzles him most is that the shapes and growth of many drugs are often vague in ancient books, and some even contradict each other. After some hard thinking, Li Shizhen finally realized that the only way to solve these problems is to go deep into the people, collect specimens and conduct physical inspection.

Li Shizhen has traveled all over the mountains and rivers in Qichun, and Wuya Mountain, Yatou Mountain, Ziyun Cave and Zhujiadong have all become the targets of his visit. He carefully observed and studied chamomile, Sophora flavescens, Perilla frutescens, Xanthium sibiricum ... and ground bees, toads, bamboo and wild boar in the mountains.

In order to collect valuable specimens and get a deeper understanding of all kinds of medicines mentioned by the ancients, Li Shizhen has been to Wudang Mountain to collect medicines, and has also been to Sheshan, Maoshan and Niushou Mountain, which are rich in medicinal materials. He climbed the mountain, went down the valley, set foot in vilen, and went to the water town, with footprints all over Huguang, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Anhui and other provinces.

In the process of searching around, Li Shizhen made a lot of folk friends and gained a lot of knowledge from them that books can't learn. When he met a farmer, he asked about the ecology and attributes of food. Every fisherman asks about the catch and consumption of fish, shrimp, turtle and crab; When you see a hunter, ask about the living habits and medicinal value of wild animals and birds. Meet the woodcutter and talk about the shape of plants and the picking season; Ask farmers about the collection and brewing of medicinal materials; Learn about the planting, grafting and variety taste of fruits and vegetables from fruit farmers. Through extensive consultation and on-the-spot investigation, Li Shizhen corrected many wrong views of his predecessors.

In order to thoroughly understand the efficacy of drugs, Li Shizhen often tried drugs and even nearly died of poisoning several times.

"The Grand Ceremony" came out, which was famous at home and abroad.

After a lifetime of hard work, 1578 (the sixth year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty), a detailed and complete medical encyclopedia, Compendium of Materia Medica, was finally compiled successfully. At that time, Li Shizhen was an old man of 6 1 year. For the publication of Compendium of Materia Medica, he went all the way to Nanjing, the center of the national publishing industry at that time, regardless of his age and infirmity, and appealed to the publisher, but he didn't get what he wanted, and finally he had to return disappointed. It was not until 1596 (twenty-four years of Wanli) that Compendium of Materia Medica was published in Nanjing, known as Jinling Edition in history. But Li Shizhen has been dead for more than three years.

Compendium of Materia Medica 1.9 thousand words, 52 volumes, is a well-defined and well-organized book, which is not only a pharmacopoeia, but also a medical book and a prescription book.

Compendium of Materia Medica not only corrected the fallacies in previous materia medica, but also added 374 new drugs.

Compendium of Materia Medica is a veritable flora, in which the morphology, cultivation, classification and identification of plants are clearly and vividly recorded. Li Shizhen divided 1000 plants into 5 parts and 30 categories, and described the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds of each plant in detail. The differences between various plants are also described very delicately, accurately and vividly.

The study of animals in Compendium of Materia Medica has reached a fairly high level, including 32 species of waterfowl, 23 species of garden birds, 7 species of Lin Qin 13 species of mountain birds, 28 species of domestic animals, 38 species of wild animals, 8 species of rodents 12 species of molluscs. And so on.

Compendium of Materia Medica also includes 276 minerals, and describes in detail the sources, colors, mining and identification methods of many metals and compounds. In addition, the properties of chemical drugs and production methods such as distillation, sublimation, crystallization, precipitation and cauterization are introduced in detail.

After the publication of Compendium of Materia Medica, it was immediately welcomed by people, swept the country and spread widely. With the cultural exchange between China and foreign countries, Compendium of Materia Medica first spread to Japan, Korea, France, Germany and other countries, and was translated into Japanese, French, German, English, Russian, Latin and other languages and published in large quantities, which attracted great attention from all countries in the world. Westerners call it a great classic of oriental medicine. Li Shizhen's contribution to China and world civilization will go down in history together with Compendium of Materia Medica.