Chinese Classics
The Bencao Gangmu (本草纲目), translated as Compendium of Materia Medica, is the most comprehensive and influential work on traditional Chinese herbal knowledge ever compiled. Written by the physician and naturalist Li Shizhen (李时珍) over a period of nearly 30 years, it was completed in 1578 CE and first published in 1596 CE. The work is a monumental achievement of scholarship and empirical observation. Li Shizhen traveled extensively throughout China, consulting hundreds of earlier texts, interviewing farmers, fishermen, and herbalists, and personally observing and testing thousands of natural substances.
The Bencao Gangmu is extraordinary in its scope. It classifies its entries into 16 major categories and 60 subcategories, covering everything from grasses, trees, and grains to insects, fish, and minerals.
Li Shizhen (1518–1593 CE) was born into a family of physicians in Hubei Province, China. Despite initially failing the imperial examinations, he dedicated his life to the study of natural history and traditional wellness practice. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest naturalists and physicians in Chinese history, and has been called "the Hippocrates of China" by some Western scholars.
His approach was remarkably empirical for his era. He was critical of errors and myths in earlier texts, and he insisted on personal observation and verification wherever possible. The Bencao Gangmu corrects numerous errors from earlier pharmacopeias and adds hundreds of new substances that had never been formally documented.
The Bencao Gangmu was not only influential within China — it had a significant impact on the development of natural history and pharmacology in Europe and Japan as well. It was translated into Japanese, Korean, Latin, French, German, English, and Russian, and was cited by Charles Darwin in The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868).
In 2011, the Bencao Gangmu was inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, recognizing it as a document of outstanding universal value.
Many of the herbs described on this website — from Astragalus Root and Goji Berry to Reishi Mushroom and Ginger — were documented and analyzed in the Bencao Gangmu. Li Shizhen's descriptions of their properties, uses, and preparations form the foundation of the traditional knowledge that has been passed down and refined over the past 400+ years.
Reading about these herbs in the context of this great tradition adds a layer of depth and meaning to their everyday use.
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Classical reading becomes much easier when paired with the plain-English material in Basics and a few concrete herb examples.
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This article is part of the Chinese Classics section. Go back there to continue through the core texts behind traditional herb language.