Li Shizhen

Li Shizhen

Li Shizhen (July 3, 1518-1593), whose name is Dongbi, was born in linhushan in his later years. He was born in Qizhou (now Qichun County, Hubei Province) of Huangzhou Prefecture in Huguang. He was a famous pharmacist in Ming Dynasty. In ancient times, there was a saying that "the prescription of Wan Mi Zhai is the medicine of Li Shizhen". After the death of the Ming Dynasty, he was granted the title of "wenlinlang".

Since 1565, Li Shizhen has been to Wudang Mountain, Lushan Mountain, Maoshan mountain, NIUSHOUSHAN mountain, Huguang, nanzhili, Henan, beizhili and other places to collect drug samples and prescriptions. He has paid homage to fishermen, woodcutters, farmers, coachman, pharmacists, snake catchers as teachers, referred to 925 books on ancient medicine, "Archaeology and physics", and recorded thousands of words of notes, In 1590, he finished the great work compendium of Materia Medica with 1.92 million words. In addition, he also studied the pulse and the eight pulse of the extraordinary meridian. His works include the eight pulse research of Qijing and the pulse study of Linhu. He was honored as "medicine saint" by later generations.

In 1982, Li Shizhen's cemetery was listed as the second batch of "national key cultural relics protection units" by the State Council.

Life of the characters

Study medicine with my father

Li Shizhen was born on May 26 (July 3, 1518) in the 13th year of Zhengde reign of emperor Wuzong of Ming Dynasty.

His grandfather was a herbalist, and his father, Li Yanwen, was a famous doctor at that time. At that time, the status of folk doctors was low and their life was hard. Li Shizhen's father did not want to study medicine again. When Li Shizhen was 14 years old, she went to Huangzhou with her father to take an exam. She came back from a doctor's family. She loved medicine when she was young, but was not keen on the imperial examination. After that, she went to Wuchang three times to take an exam, but failed. So she decided to abandon Confucian medicine and study medicine. At the age of 23, he studied medicine with his father.

For Taiyi

In 1551, when Li Shizhen was 33 years old, he became famous as a doctor because he cured the son of Zhu houkun, king of Fushun. He was employed by Zhu Yingyan, king of Chu in Wuchang, as the "fengci Zheng" of the royal family, and also in charge of the affairs of the good doctors. In 1556, Li Shizhen was recommended to work in Taiyuan hospital. He was awarded the post of "supreme hospital judge". Three years later, he was recommended to Beijing rentai hospital for sentencing. After one year in office, he resigned and returned home.

There are many arguments about Li Shizhen's work experience in Taiyuan hospital. Some people think that Li Shizhen once served as the judge of Taiyuan hospital (Grade 6), but others think that he only served as the imperial doctor (Grade 8). Regardless of his position, it is an undeniable fact that Li Shizhen was recommended to the court. His working experience in Taiyuan hospital may have a great impact on his life and laid a foundation for the compilation of compendium of Materia Medica. During this period, Li Shizhen actively engaged in drug research, often went to the pharmacy and imperial medicine storehouse of Taiyuan hospital, carefully compared and identified the medicinal materials from various places, collected a lot of information, and had the opportunity to enjoy the rich classics collected by the royal family and the royal family, including the essence of Materia Medica. At the same time, we got a lot of information about the folk herbs from the court, and saw many rare drug samples, which broadened our horizons and enriched our knowledge.

Dongbitang practises medicine

Dongbi Tang was founded by Li Shizhen in 1558 when she returned from Taiyuan hospital. After resigning from office and returning home, she practiced medicine and devoted herself to the investigation and research of drugs. During this period, she established Dongbi Tang with her own name Dongbi.

Devote oneself to writing

In the course of practicing medicine and reading classical medical books for decades, Li Shizhen found many mistakes in ancient herbal books, and decided to compile a new herbal book. In 1552, Li Shizhen began to write compendium of Materia Medica, which was based on Zheng Lei Ben Cao and referred to more than 800 books. During this period, since 1565, Li Shizhen has been away from home for many times, and has traveled all over Huguang, Jiangxi and Zhili, making clear many difficult problems.

In the process of compiling compendium of Materia Medica, what bothered Li Shizhen most was that because of the mixed names of drugs, the shape and growth of drugs were often unclear. Although the past materia medica books have made repeated explanations, because some authors did not carry out in-depth investigation and research, but copied from the books, the more they explained, the more confused they were, and there were many contradictions, which made people unable to agree. For example, Tao Hongjing, a famous pharmacist in the northern and Southern Dynasties, said that Yuanzhi was a little grass, like ephedra, but it was green in color and had white flowers. Ma Zhi in the Song Dynasty thought it was like Daqing, and blamed Tao Hongjing for not knowing Yuanzhi at all. Another example is Gouji medicine. Some say it looks like Keji, some say it looks like balsa, and some say it looks like Guanzhong. Inspired by his father, Li Shizhen realized that it is necessary to read thousands of books, but it is also necessary to travel thousands of miles. As a result, he not only "searched for Bai Shi", but also "interviewed Sifang" to conduct in-depth investigation.

After 27 years of long-term efforts, he completed the first draft of compendium of Materia Medica in 1578, when he was 61 years old. After 10 years of three revisions, a total of 40 years. Wanli 21 years (AD 1593) died. In 1596, the third year after Li Shizhen's death, compendium of Materia Medica was officially published in Jinling (now Nanjing).

Main achievements

Academic thought

Li Shizhen's clinical practice, highly praised Zhang Yuanyuan, focused on disease differentiation, strict legislation and proper medication. In the treatment, the old prescriptions, the new ones, and the folk ones are mostly effective. Li Shizhen's academic thoughts and research methods are very distinctive. Under the new historical conditions, based on his own practical experience, he improved the ancient scientific methods and accumulated new experience in scientific research. Li Shizhen successfully used the methods of observation and experiment, comparison and classification, analysis and synthesis, critical inheritance and historical textual research.

① Observation and experiment are the basic methods for the study of this herb. Li Shizhen personally collected and carefully observed the drugs to get the true method and achieved great success. Classification is an important task of scientific research. To systematize drug research, the key is how to establish the classification standard. Li Shizhen broke away from the traditional classification system of upper, middle and lower parts in Materia Medica, and established the classification system of three circles and sixteen parts, which made the classification system more scientific. In addition, on the basis of Tao Hongjing's classification of indications, he established a more perfect classification of indications for all diseases, and established the classification of meridian tropism.

② In order to find out each medicine, Li Shizhen put forward eight tasks, namely, name explanation, collection and explanation, identification of doubts, correction and error, repair and treatment, smell, indications, invention and accessory prescriptions. These eight tasks are not all for each medicine, and some of them vary from five to six. In fact, it is a systematic analysis and comprehensive synthesis of each drug. On the basis of the analysis, it is also a high degree of generalization and synthesis.

③ Critical inheritance and investigation are important methods of Li Shizhen's research. When he studied each medicine, he always referred to the materia medica of various schools, examined the similarities and differences of various schools, observed the test results by himself, and proved them: in the classic of Materia Medica, only the name of Lycium barbarum was recorded, but the medicinal parts were not specified; in the records of famous doctors, it was pointed out that the root was very cold, and the seed was slightly cold; in the theory of medicinal properties, it was said that Lycium barbarum had the same sweet, flat, seed and leaf; in the book of Materia Medica Yanyi, it was said that Lycium barbarum was stem skin; Li Shizhen said, "stealing is Lycium barbarum Miao and ye are bitter, sweet and cool in flavor; root is light and cold in flavor; Zi is sweet and flat in flavor and has different functions. Since then, people have not been to the place before. After research, Li Shizhen, on the basis of critical inheritance, weeded through the old and brought forth the new. This spirit runs through all his research activities.

④ Li Shizhen's personal practice, extensive learning from the working people, and paying attention to investigation and research are his other important research methods. Li Shizhen, after extensive consultation, gathered all kinds of herbs to see clearly, and came to the conclusion that "Luo" is the mother of pig ointment. After returning from the capital, he saw that the coachman used xuanfuhua to treat traumatic injuries, so he affirmed its function of replenishing qi, reinforcing tendons and tonifying strain. Li Shizhen was the first to introduce this variety into Chinese herbal medicine. He learned the function of tiger bones to strengthen the mind from hunting Hukou; he made clear that Brassica napus is Brassica napus from vegetable farmers, and learned the method to prevent mining poisoning from workers. Mountain people, fishermen, farmers, cobblers and hunters were all his teachers, which made him benefit a lot from investigation and research.

⑤ The method of historical textual research is a scientific method commonly used by Li Shizhen. Through literature research, the compendium of Materia Medica records the medical knowledge from Tianzhu, Dashi, Nanyang, Hu, fan, Sanskrit and Buddhist scriptures. Through historical textual research, it is pointed out that "Jusheng is also named after Juma according to Benjing, and Jusheng is named after Juma according to baopuzi. Jusheng is named after Juma, and Juma is named after Dalizi and Juma is named after Juma. It can not be ignored that Jusheng is wrong and wrong.".

Li Shizhen advocated that man can conquer nature. The results of the above research methods made him more firm in this belief. He believed that the drug properties were not fixed, and the natural properties could be modified by artificial methods. Li Shizhen made it clear that he was superstitious in the theory of immortals, criticized the fallacy of taking the food of feishengju, and took gold and silver, which was unbearable for the flesh and blood of Laishui valley. "It's foolish to die in search of immortals.". Living in the water and walking on the water is a heresy; taking food as an immortal "the crime of eating by mistake is universal", and medicine "can cure diseases, but not take food".

Personal writings

Li Shizhen's works are still handed down to the world, such as the study of the eight pulse of the Qijing and the study of the pulse near the lake;

Chinese PinYin : Li Shi Zhen