Zou Xie, whose life remains obscure and about whom little public information is available, is known only through one surviving work, Benjing Shuzheng (A Commentary on the Divine Farmer's Materia Medica). The book belongs to the tradition of materia medica scholarship: it provides item-by-item explanations of the Shennong Bencao Jing, draws on later pharmacopoeias and physicians' discussions, and examines the nature, flavor, and functions of drugs as well as discrepancies in their names and identifications. It is a commonly consulted reference for readers of the Bencao Jing. Because no biographical details survive, Zou Xie's native place, dates, and medical training cannot be established, and modern readers know him almost solely through this work. Judging from the extant text, his writing emphasizes textual collation and the explication of underlying principles; the style is plain and substantive, avoiding rhetorical embellishment, and reflects the traditional materia medica emphasis on evidential scholarship and practical use. The book retains some reference value for the study of Chinese medical literature and the history of pharmacy, and it reminds us that among ancient medical authors there are those, like Zou Xie, whose lives have faded but whose writings endure.
