Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu) (6 Volumes)

LI Shizhen (compiler)

ISBN: 9787119032603

Foreign Languages Press 2004 1st Edition



Considered one of the key achievements of China's ancient civilisation 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.

As early as the 17th century, Compendium of Materia Medica was introduced through translations to other countries in Asia, Europe and America as an essential work for the study of Chinese medical science, ancient Chinese science and technology and ancient Chinese culture and history. However, with the exception of a complete Japanese translation published in Japan in the 1970s, only parts of the Compendium (mainly to do with pharmacological therapeutics) have been translated. More difficult sections involving history, culture and science have never been translated, with only abridged versions available in the West.

This is first full English translation of the entire Compendium of Materia Medica. It is a careful rendition of the original text and explanatory notes place the contents in the context of modern scientific research.

265 x 195mm; 6 hardback volumes

4460pp