Exegesis of the Materia Medica Classic

邹谢Jul 2024

4.0

Word count: 471K words
Chapters: 37

Summary

Traditional Chinese culture has a long and profound intellectual heritage, marked by remarkable originality, inventiveness and literary quality. Its early modes of thought are highly distinctive, and its religious and theological writings, medical classics, ancient military treatises, Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and Hundred Schools thought, feng shui and metaphysical studies, the Twenty-Four Histories, and customs and geographical records are all vast and profound. This "Essence of Classic Chinese Learning: Original Texts" series preserves the appearance of the original books, with the aim of conserving and transmitting traditional Chinese thought and culture. By reading the literary essence left by ancient sages, readers may cultivate their character and quietly absorb the classics of Chinese learning.

Editor's review

Benjing Shuzheng is the representative work of the Qing dynasty physician Zou Shu on the Shennong Bencao Jing and occupies an important place in the history of Chinese materia medica. Rather than simply listing medicinal properties, it takes the entries of the Bencao Jing as its framework and, drawing on the prescribing patterns of the Shanghan Lun and Jingui Yaolue, provides passage-by-passage commentary on the properties, combinations and indications of each medicinal, seeking to recover the clinical logic of the ancient materia medica. Its value lies in bridging pharmaceutical theory and clinical practice: it is rigorous in textual scholarship and reflective in its dialectical approach to prescribing, making it a suitable advanced reader for understanding the reasoning behind classical formula usage. This edition belongs to the "Essence of Classic Chinese Learning: Original Texts" series, preserves the appearance of the original book, and aims to conserve and transmit traditional thought and culture. It is suited to desk study rather than casual reading. Reading it alongside the original text of the Bencao Jing and the entries on classical formulas will make its method of commentary easier to appreciate.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and clinical practitioners of Chinese medicine, for deepening their understanding of materia medica and classical formula usage
Researchers of Chinese medical literature, for reference on Qing-dynasty commentary style and textual method
Enthusiasts of classical formulas who wish to understand the meaning of Shanghan Lun formulas at the level of medicinal properties
Readers of traditional culture with an interest in studying the original form of Chinese medical classics

Not a good fit for

Complete beginners to Chinese medicine, who lack the grounding in the Bencao Jing and classical formulas to absorb it
General readers seeking popular health-preservation or everyday medication guides
Readers who prefer light reading and are unaccustomed to classical-language commentary

Reading tips

Begin with the original text of the Shennong Bencao Jing and commonly used formulas from the Shanghan Lun, reading the commentary entry by entry alongside them
Read in batches by medicinal category, taking notes on the prescribing logic of each medicinal to avoid overloading
Mark points of textual disagreement as doubtful and cross-reference later materia medica works
Keep it as a desk reference for long-term browsing, revisiting it alongside clinical or formula study

版权信息
本经疏证
序
古歙洪上庠叙
同里周仪颢撰
序
道光十七年首夏邹澍序
卷一
卷二
卷三
卷四
卷五
卷六
卷七
卷八
卷九
卷十
卷十一
卷十二
本经续疏
序
卷一
卷二
卷三
卷四
卷五
卷六
本经序疏要
序
卷一
卷二
卷三
卷四
卷五
卷六
卷七
跋

FAQ

Can I understand Benjing Shuzheng without a foundation in Chinese medicine?

With difficulty. The book's discussion rests on the entries of the Bencao Jing and on classical formula usage, and involves a great deal of technical terminology and formula-pattern logic. Without a foundation in Chinese medicine, it is advisable to first read a plain-language guide to the Bencao Jing and an introductory work on formulas before returning to this book; otherwise it is easy to remain at the literal level and miss the method of commentary.

How does this book differ from an ordinary Chinese materia medica textbook?

Ordinary textbooks emphasize modern classification and summarized effects, whereas this book grounds itself in the entries of the ancient materia medica and comments on each medicinal in light of classical formula combinations, focusing on recovering the clinical logic and dialectical reasoning of ancient prescribing. It is more a scholarly work of commentary than an introductory course arranged by effect, and its threshold and depth of reflection are both higher.

Does this edition preserve the appearance of the original book?

According to the publisher's note, this series aims to conserve and transmit traditional Chinese thought and culture and preserves the appearance of the original books. Readers may use it as an edited edition of the original text, and should study mainly from the original text with the aid of necessary reference works, rather than expecting a popular edition with modern vernacular translation and annotation.

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About the author

邹谢 Author

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.