The Xinxiu bencao (Chinese: 新修本草; pinyin: Xīnxiū běncǎo),[a] also known as the Tang bencao (Chinese: 唐本草; pinyin: Táng běncǎo),[1][3] is a Chinese pharmacopoeia written in the Tang dynasty by a team of officials and physicians headed by editor-in-chief Su Jing [zh]. It borrowed heavily from—and expanded upon—an earlier monograph by Tao Hongjing. The text was first published in 659; although it is now considered lost in China, at least one copy exists in Japan, where the text had been transmitted to in 721.

Contents

Comprising fifty-three or fifty-four juan (卷) or "chapters",[4][5] the text ostensibly contained both tujing (圖經) or "illustrated descriptions" and yaotu (藥圖) or "drug pictures",[6] although these illustrations are no longer extant.[7] In total, some 850 drugs are listed in the text,[1] including thirty foreign ingredients that were imported into China via the Silk Road, such as benzoin, oak galls, and peppercorn.[8]

Publication history

The idea of a bencao (pharmacopoeia) that would copy and expand on Tao Hongjing's Bencao jing jizhu [zh] was first mooted in 657 by court counsellor Su Jing [zh] (蘇敬),[2] who went by the alias "Su Gong" (蘇恭) because of an "imperial taboo".[4] The project was eventually approved by Emperor Gaozong, following which a team of some twenty-two officials and physicians,[9] including the high-ranking historiographer Xu Jingzong,[1][10] was assembled to complete the text.[2]

According to the Tang Huiyao, the Xinxiu bencao was completed "on the 17th day of the first lunar month of the fourth year" of the Xianqing era (656–661).[6] The text was first published in 659, making it the first state-sponsored pharmacopoeia in China,[1][11][12] as well as one of the earliest known illustrated pharmaceutical texts.[2]

The Xinxiu bencao was one of the most comprehensive works of its time.[5] It was designated by the Tang government as the "official standard with regard to drug usage", although it is unclear how widespread its readership was, given the lack of a printing press then.[1] By the Song dynasty,[11] the text had become lost in China, although at least one copy still exists in Japan, where it had been transmitted to in 721,[3] and fully translated into Japanese as Honzō wamyō in 1918 by palace doctor Fukane no Sukehito.[9] In the modern era, fragments of the Xinxiu bencao have also been discovered from a book depository in a cave in Dunhuang, Gansu.[11][13]

Notes

  1. ^ Translated into English as the Newly Revised Materia Medica[1] or the New Revised Pharmacopoeia.[2]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f Goldschmidt 2022, p. 137.
  2. ^ a b c d Ming 2018, p. 309.
  3. ^ a b Teoh 2019, p. 89.
  4. ^ a b Despeaux 2019, p. 766.
  5. ^ a b Buell 2022, p. 329.
  6. ^ a b Ming 2018, p. 310.
  7. ^ Sterckx 2018, p. 140.
  8. ^ Nappi 2010, p. 29.
  9. ^ a b Marcon 2015, p. 30.
  10. ^ Unschuld 1986, p. 46.
  11. ^ a b c Lo & Cullen 2004, p. 295.
  12. ^ Benn 2015, p. 24.
  13. ^ Rong 2022, p. 555.

Bibliography

  • Benn, James A. (2015). Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History. University of Hawaii Press. doi:10.21313/hawaii/9780824839635.001.0001. ISBN 9780824853983.
  • Buell, Paul D. (2022). "Food and dietary medicine in Chinese herbal literature and beyond". In Lo, Vivienne; Yang, Dolly; Stanley-Baker, Michael (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine. pp. 328–336. doi:10.4324/9780203740262-25. ISBN 9780415830645.
  • Despeaux, Catherine (2019). "Tujing yanyi bencao 圖經衍義本草". In Schipper, Kristofer; Verellen, Franciscus (eds.). The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Vol. 2. University of Chicago Press. pp. 765–769. ISBN 9780226721064.
  • Goldschmidt, Asaf (2022). "Pre-standardised pharmacology: Han through Song". In Lo, Vivienne; Yang, Dolly; Stanley-Baker, Michael (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine. pp. 133–145. doi:10.4324/9780203740262-10. ISBN 9780415830645.
  • Lo, Vivienne; Cullen, Christopher (2004). Medieval Chinese Medicine: The Dunhuang Medical Manuscripts. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781134291311.
  • Marcon, Federico (2015). The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan. University of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226252063.001.0001. ISBN 9780226251905.
  • Ming, Chen (2018). "Fanciful Images from Abroad: Picturing the Other in Bencao Pinhui Jingyao 本草品彙精要". In Lo, Vivienne; Barrett, Penelope (eds.). Imagining Chinese Medicine. Vol. 18. Brill. pp. 305–314. doi:10.1163/9789004366183. ISBN 9789004362161. JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctvbqs6ph.27.
  • Nappi, Carla Suzan (2010). The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China. Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674054356. ISBN 9780674054356.
  • Rong, Xinjiang (2022). The Silk Road and Cultural Exchanges Between East and West. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004512597. ISBN 9789004512597. S2CID 245832841.
  • Sterckx, Roel (2018). "The Limits of Illustration: Animalia and Pharmacopeia from Guo Pu to Bencao Gangmu 本草綱目". In Lo, Vivienne; Barrett, Penelope (eds.). Imagining Chinese Medicine. Brill. pp. 133–150. doi:10.1163/9789004366183_009. ISBN 9789004366183.
  • Teoh, Eng Soon (2019). Orchids as Aphrodisiac, Medicine or Food. Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-18255-7. ISBN 9783030182557. S2CID 198190783.
  • Unschuld, Paul U. (1986). Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520050259.
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