Li Shizhen, whose name is Dong Bi, was impressed and was born on the night of the lake. Qi zhou (now southwest of Qichun County, Hubei Province) is from Waxiaoba. Born in the 13th year of Zheng De (15 18), he died in the 21st year of Wanli (1593). He was an outstanding pharmacologist in China and one of the greatest scientists in the world at that time. Li Shizhen was born in a doctor's family, and his father and ancestors were both doctors. Grandpa is a "Dr. Bell" who walks around the streets practicing medicine. My father's name is Yu Zi and his name is yuechi county. He has studied a lot of classics and history, and he takes medicine as his profession. He not only has rich experience in disease diagnosis and treatment, but also has profound attainments in pharmacy. He once worked in Taiji Hospital. He has written eight volumes of Inventions of Four Diagnoses, eight medical notes, two biographies of Ginseng and one biography of Artemisia argyi, as well as several works such as Diagnosis and Treatment of Acne Rash and Siyan.

Influenced by his family and sickly since childhood, Li Shizhen has long been interested in Chinese medicine. He is "good at reading medical books" and often goes into the mountains with his father and brother to collect herbs, so he knows a lot about herbs. However, in the Ming Dynasty, when the imperial examination was prevalent, taking the official career and stepping into it was the right way to become famous. So, under the supervision of his father, Li Shizhen studied Confucian classics and production art since childhood. In the tenth year of Jiajing (153 1), accompanied by his father, he went to Huangzhou to try. Later, he went to Wuchang for three times and lost three times. Gu Riyan, a famous science teacher, studied hard for ten years and studied medicine at the same time. In the twenty-first year of Jiajing (1542), Li Shizhen began to practice medicine formally and devoted himself to the research of traditional Chinese medicine. He devoted himself to studying predecessors' medical works, and at the same time diagnosed and differentiated symptoms and accumulated experience. A few years later, he became a famous doctor for some time. In the 30th year of Jiajing (155 1), the King of Chu hired him as a temple official, in charge of the doctor's office, and was recommended to the court soon, and sentenced by the Imperial Hospital. The rich medical classics and some secret recipes of Chu and Taiyuan provided convenience for Li Shizhen's research work.

After nearly ten years of study and practice, Li Shizhen felt that as a doctor, it was a big problem to know and use drugs. Doctors are unfamiliar with drugs, which is tantamount to taking human life seriously. In the thirty-first year of Emperor Sejong Jiajing of Ming Dynasty (1552), 35-year-old Li Shizhen began to compile Compendium of Materia Medica.

Our ancestors knew for a long time that some plants, animals and minerals can be used to prevent and treat diseases, and then gradually formed a unique "herbal medicine" in China. "There are 365 kinds of materia medica handed down by doctors in Shennong, and so is Liang Tao Hongjing. Tang Sugong added 1 14 species and Song Dynasty added 120 species. By the generation of Zhangshu and Tang Shenwei, 1558 species had been added, which was called big preparation. However, there are many categories and names, or one thing is divided into two or three, or two things are mixed with one product, or "jade is mixed with water and soil, and insect scales are difficult to distinguish", or "the pictures are different from each other, or there are no pictures, or there are shortcomings, or they are not pictures". Li Shizhen decided to write "The Compendium of Materia Medica is Immortal" because of numerous mistakes and omissions in his previous herbal works.

Shortly after he started writing, Li Shizhen resigned from the Tai Chi Academy, and was able to "collect the Bai family background", "visit the four corners" and "search for poor learning" without bothering to make up for the vacancy. For more than 30 years, I have read more than 800 books and three drafts have become books. "

Compendium of Materia Medica is selected from Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica in Han Dynasty (containing 367 kinds of drugs), Liang Tao Hongjing's Classic of Materia Medica (containing 760 kinds of drugs), Song Kaibao's Herbal Medicine (containing 1082 kinds of drugs), Su Song's Herbal Illustrated Classic (containing 730 kinds of drugs) and Tang Shenwei's Emergency Herbal Medicine. In addition, there are 1 1096 recipes recorded in the book, which are four times more than the previous works, and are accompanied by1110 animal and plant illustrations. The book consists of 50 volumes, 1.9 million words.

Compendium of Materia Medica has the characteristics of "vibration" and "outline" in compiling style, and its classification is advanced and reasonable. The book is divided into 16 parts and 60 categories. Traditional classification of materia medica has two systems. One is the classification of upper, middle and lower categories in Shennong Herbal Classic. Top grade mainly includes non-toxic or less toxic drugs, such as nourishing and strengthening; China products are toxic and non-toxic, which can not only nourish and strengthen, but also have the effect of attacking and treating diseases; Inferior drugs are generally toxic and are specially used to attack and treat diseases. This classification based on the function and nature of drugs is primitive, simple and confusing. Another system is to classify drugs according to their natural properties. This system began with Tao Hongjing's Notes on Materia Medica in Nanliang. Since then, this classification has been widely used in herbal works, but many of them combine the two methods, that is, each drug is divided into three categories. Compendium of Materia Medica classifies herbs according to their natural properties. He divided mineral herbs into water, fire, earth and stone, plant herbs into grass, grain, vegetables, fruits and wood, animal herbs into insects, scales, vectors, birds, animals and people, and a service part. Subordinate classification, subdivision classification, with departments as the key link, categories as the purpose, "things follow categories, eyes follow the key link", "broad but not complicated, fine but important", so that many drugs are arranged in an orderly manner. This strict classification is a great progress in TCM taxonomy. In terms of biology, it was also the most advanced in the world at that time.

In the explanation of drugs, the method adopted in Compendium of Materia Medica is that each drug is marked with a common name as the "outline" of the drug, and the following columns are "items". Including "description name" (description of the source and basis of drug name) and "collection solution" (description of source, form and collection method, etc. ), "repair treatment" (processing method of drugs), "smell" (explaining the nature of drugs), "indication" (explaining the function of drugs) and "invention" (describing the clinical experience and pharmacological exposition of drugs used by predecessors and themselves). On the one hand, the author closely combines drugs with prescriptions and advocates practicality; On the other hand, prescriptions are based on drugs and attached to diseases. Therefore, this book develops and defines the standard style and structure of China's ancient pharmaceutical works. Compendium of Materia Medica is not only a masterpiece of pharmacology, but also a detailed monograph on botany, zoology and mineralogy. This book records 65,438+0,094 species of plants, and describes their varieties, shapes, smells and medicinal functions in detail, with detailed illustrations, which provides valuable information for the collection, identification, classification and comparison of plant specimens. This book records 445 kinds of animal drugs, and their classification completely conforms to the development process from low to high. He has some observations and descriptions on the influence of environment on animals, the heredity and variation of animals, etc. In addition, this book also records 276 kinds of minerals, among which the sources, colors, identification and mining methods of many metals or compounds are described in detail. After the Compendium of Materia Medica was completed, Li Shizhen wanted to present it to the court. In the 21st year of Wanli (1593), Li Shizhen died at the age of 76, and this book was not submitted in time. "It's a matter of time, the god of national history, a letter to buy books. His son Jianyuan presented his father's legacy and book, and the son of heaven was honored and published in the world. Of course, the literati have their books. " Since the first edition of Compendium of Materia Medica was published in Jinling in the 24th year of Wanli (1596), this masterpiece of10.9 million words has been reprinted and printed for more than 50 editions. Under the influence and inspiration of this book, a large number of materia medica works appeared, such as Compendium of Materia Medica in Qing Dynasty, Compendium of Materia Medica, Compendium of Materia Medica by Lu Zhiyi, Description of Materia Medica by Liu Ruojin, Compilation of Edible Materia Medica by Shen and Compendium of Materia Medica by Zhang Lu.

Compendium of Materia Medica has far-reaching influence not only in China, but also in the world. As early as A.D. 1607, the book was introduced to Japan and reprinted for people to study, so that different research academic factions appeared soon. This book also spread to Ryukyu, Korea and Vietnam very early. In the18th and19th centuries, Compendium of Materia Medica began to attract the attention of Europeans again, and was translated into English, German, Latin, French, Russian and other languages for publication.

Li Shizhen has rich works in his life, including the Compendium of Materia Medica, Lakeside Pulse Studies, Eight Pulse Theories of Strange Classics, Textual Research on Pulse Strategies, Five Zang-organs Graph Theory, Sanjiao Conan, Mingmen Theory and so on. He is not only a pharmacist, but also a physician. In medicine, from basic theory to clinic, he has made new progress on the basis of his predecessors. On the basis of the twenty-four pulses in Wang Shuhe's Pulse Classic, his Linghu Pulse added three kinds of pulse conditions, which increased the number of TCM pulse conditions to 27, and gave a vivid description of each pulse condition, which greatly popularized the knowledge of pulse conditions and improved the clinical quality of medicine. Until modern times, this book was still regarded as the most important teaching material of Chinese medicine. His "Examination of Eight Veins of Strange Meridian" reveals the basic situation and laws of pathogenesis and syndrome differentiation of Eight Veins of Strange Meridian, thus making the meridian theory of traditional Chinese medicine a part of a systematic and complete unique theoretical system, which still occupies an important position in the academic field of traditional Chinese medicine. Through long-term research, his five zang-organs graph theory, Ming Men Kao and Ming Men Triangle Conan have expressed their opinions on many controversial issues in TCM pulse science, and made unique contributions to TCM pulse science. The Medical Records of Linhu and the Simplified Prescription of Linhu are medical record monographs of Fang Shu, successful records of clinical practice of Fang Shu, and famous medical records and works in early China.