Li Shizhen.

Li Shizhen was born in 15 18 and died in 1593. He was an outstanding physician in China in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368- 1644) and one of the great scientific masters in the world at that time. He wrote more than ten books such as Compendium of Materia Medica in his life, which made great contributions to the Chinese nation and mankind.

Compendium of Materia Medica contains 1892 drugs in 52 volumes, divided into 16 parts and 60 categories, of which 374 are new drugs never recorded in historical medical books.

Compendium of Materia Medica describes the name, properties, uses and preparation methods of each drug in detail. More than 65,438+065,438+000 prescriptions and 65,438+065,438+060 drug morphology charts are attached to the book.

Compendium of Materia Medica summarizes the pharmacological knowledge and medication experience of China before the middle of Ming Dynasty, corrects many mistakes in Compendium of Materia Medica, and raises Chinese medicine to a new level. It is also a rich book about animals and plants. Among them, there are mainly animals, plants and minerals, including 1 167 species of plants and 478 species of animals, more than 200 species than the Herbs for Emergency, which records the most kinds of animals and plants.

He also developed the traditional classification method of ancient animals and plants in China in Compendium of Materia Medica. He divided all animals and plants into 1 1 parts: grass, grain, vegetables, fruits, trees, insects, scales, media, birds, beasts and people. In each category, several plants or animals are described respectively.

Compendium of Materia Medica has not only made great contributions to the development of pharmacology in China, but also had a far-reaching impact on the development of medicine, botany, zoology, mineralogy and chemistry in the world. It has been translated into more than ten languages such as Japanese, French, German, English, Latin, Russian and Korean, and published abroad.