The Compendium of Materia Medica, which was completed by Li Shizhen through 27 years of painstaking efforts, encapsulated the highest achievement of ancient Chinese medicine. It surpassed medical works of previous times and brought the theory and practice of Chinese pharmacology to a new height.
specialists and researchers in many countries.
The outstanding achievements of the Compendium of Materia Medica are shown in several ways. First, it has abandoned the classification of the medicinal materials into upper, middle and lower classes but has instead put forward a new classification based on 60 types under 16 classes. Second, it gives precise names, places of origin, curing properties and process methods of the 1892 medicinal materials included in the book.
In 1518 LiShizhen was born into a family of doctors,wictice in Qizhou of Hubei Province. LiShizhen began to study medicine at the age of 23 from his father. At the same time he studied ancient medicalbooks.After ten years as he had become a well－learned and famous － doctor, he was called into the capital city and employed as a palace physician. But Li Shizhen was not interested in fame or wealth. .
Many outstanding persons in international field of science have highly evaluated it. In the conference of the World Peace Council held in Vienna in 1951 Li Shizhen was unanimously honoured as an eminent cultural figure of the world.
After the publication of Compendium,its value has been increasingly recognized. Through the last four centuries, it was repeatedly reprinted. Its influence has reached Asia, Europe and America. It has become a treasure house for
The Pulse Studies of Binhu has been regarded as the guidance for generations of medical workers. Even today it is a must for students of pulse study. A Study of the Eight Extra－ － Channels confirmed the basic methodology of diagnosis on the basis of analysis of the eight extra－channels. It laid － the foundation for Chinese theories on channels and clinical medicine.
Third, by adding 374 new medicinal materials, it has enhanced Chinese medical science.Fourth, it has recorded more than ten thousand recipes, three quarters of which are newly recorded, and this is a great contribution to Chinese pharmaceutics.
The traditional Chinese medicine is a great treasure house, in which The Compendium of Materia Medica is an epoch－ － making, encyclopedic work.
Considered one of the key achievements of ancient Chinese civilization for its wealth of information on medicine, mineralogy, botany, zoology, and natural science – Compendium of Materia Medica covers the long period between remote antiquity and the Ming Dynasty when the book was first published in 1593.