Translation of the original preface of Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica in Ming Dynasty: According to ancient books, you can know where Gu Jian is when you see the phosgene of Longquan sword. When you see the treasure, you know that there is a pearl. Such auspicious things as Pingshi and Shangyang are not known by smart people.
if you want to talk about people who know things widely, you should push Zhang Hua. The person who can clearly distinguish the meaning of words should be Ji Kang. No matter who is good at distinguishing Baoyu, it should be said that he is leaning. . But these people can only be regarded as the stars in the morning.
There is a man named Li Shizhen in Qiyang, Hubei. One day I met him in the mountains west of Longfu Temple in Taicang County, Jiangsu Province, and drank with him for a few days. I carefully observed him, his face was moist and radiant, thin and energetic, and his speech was funny. South of the Big Dipper, Li Shizhen is the first person.
He unpacked his luggage, and there was nothing extra, except a Compendium of Materia Medica with dozens of volumes. He said to me, "Shizhen is a native of Hubei, and she was ill when she was young, and she was born clumsy. When I grow up, I love reading classical works, just like eating honey, so I read a lot of books and collected hundreds of works, and wrote down all the books, history, classics, biography, phonology, agricultural nursery, medical divination, astrology and Yuefu after reading them.
There used to be a book "Materia Medica" in which Shennong annotated a lot from the Han, Liang, Tang and Song dynasties to the present, but there were not a few mistakes and false theories. So I took the liberty to swear that I could do more than I could chew. After more than 3 years of hard work, I have consulted more than 8 books and revised the manuscript three times.
Repeated deletion, missing addition and error correction. There are 1518 kinds of old Materia Medica, which are now divided into 16 parts by adding 374 kinds, and compiled into 52 volumes. Although it has not been completed, it is basically complete, and it is signed as Compendium of Materia Medica. I hope you will preface this book to make it immortal. "
I opened the book and pondered it carefully. I saw that each medicine was marked with its proper name as "Gang" and its alias as "Mu". Starting from the proof, the functions of collecting, distinguishing doubts, correcting mistakes and arranging the shapes of unearthed plants are explained in order, and then by smell, indication and attachment. From ancient allusions to folk legends, there is nothing related to medicine that cannot be described.
It's like entering the Garden of Golden Valley (the metaphor here is rich and beautiful), with many varieties and dazzling colors; It is like boarding the palace, and the treasure can be seen clearly; Like a curling jade carving, it's exquisite. Many but not complicated, detailed but with key points, covering the thorough verification of research and seeing the essence of things directly. How can this be just a medical book? It is really a grand ceremony to explain the exquisite truth of life and everything, a secret record of emperors and a treasure of the people.
Li Shizhen has a good heart and benefits others. How hard he works! Baoyu hasn't been dissected, and he hasn't argued between true and false for too long. Therefore, it is necessary to wait for Confucius to identify a big bone that can only be carried by a whole car. To know Vega's support stone, you must visit Yan Junping, who sells divination.
I'm working on "I'm afraid there are no descendants from" I'm afraid I've been working on ". How lucky I am to see this Compendium of Materia Medica! It is not appropriate to hide this book in a cave in a deep mountain. Why not engrave it for future generations to study, just like the Xuan Jing written by Yang Xiong?
Original text:
Ji said: Look at the dragon light and know Gu Jian; Be bold and distinguish the pearl. Therefore, it is better to be a sheep than to be a cave in the morning. After that, natural history called China, distinguishing words called Kang, and analyzing Baoyu called Yi Dun, which was only the morning star.
Chu Qi Yang Li Jun Dong Bi paid a visit to the Lushan Garden one day and stayed for several days. Looking at him, he looks like a man, looks like a man, and talks about him with relish. He is really a man south of Beidou. There are dozens of volumes of Compendium of Materia Medica. It is said to Yu: Shi Zhen, Jingchu is also a humble person, young and ill, with a blunt spine and a long history, if you chew sugar cane.
So I fished and hunted books, and collected hundreds of families. Every child's history is passed down, and there are several words in it. In ancient times, there was a book "Materia Medica", which was written by Yan Emperor, Han, Liang, Tang and Song Dynasties, and then went down to the State Dynasty, and it was noted that Qunshi was old. Among them, the mistakes and omissions are countless, which is the right to dare to compile the ambition of motorcycle and arrogate the right to compile it.
The age is 3 feet, and there are more than 8 books, and the manuscripts are easy to change. Those who reply will be punished, those who are absent will be arrested, and those who are wrong will be brought to justice. There are 1,518 kinds of old books, and now there are 374 kinds of medicines, which are divided into 16 parts and written into 52 volumes. Although they are not integrated, they are also rough and prepared, and they are nicknamed Compendium of Materia Medica. I am willing to beg for a word to support immortality.
Open the book and play carefully. Each drug label is named as the outline, and the explanatory name is attached as the purpose, which is also the beginning. Secondly, it focuses on solving, arguing, right and wrong, and details the shape of its native products. Followed by smell, indications, and attached prescriptions, it also focuses on its body use. From the grave canon to the legend, everything is relevant.
if you enter the garden of golden valley, the colors are dazzling; Such as the palace of the Dragon King, the treasure is known; As for curling jade, hair can also be indexed. Broad but not complicated, detailed and important, comprehensive core after all, straight into the deep sea. Is it only based on medical books, the subtlety of real nature, the general rules of things, the secret records of emperors, and the treasures of subjects? Li Jun is attentive, so he is diligent in adding benefits.
hey, it's a long time since you don't cut the jade, and Zhu Zi is inclined to each other. Therefore, to distinguish the bones of a special car, we must first visit Lu Ru, the stone of Bo Zhiji, and sell divination, and give Fang a book entitled "The Words of Gezhou", but Bo Gu, like "The Words of Dan Lead", is lacking in people, so why should we see this collection? This collection, too, hides in the deep mountain stone room, but it is stubborn, and it tastes like a cloud with * * * the world's later generations.
Extended information:
Creation background:
Li Shizhen borrowed the name of Zhu Xi's Compendium as a Mirror and named it Compendium of Materia Medica. In the thirty-first year of Jiajing (1552), it began to be compiled, and it was completed in the sixth year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (1578), which lasted for 27 years.
Introduction:
The Compendium of Materia Medica records medical knowledge from Tianzhu, Dashi, Nanyang, Hu people, Fanren and Sanskrit and Buddhist scriptures. The first column of the book is the general table of contents, examples and drawings. The first volume is a preface, which mainly introduces the basic theories of materia medica and traditional Chinese medicine in previous dynasties.
Li Shizhen has broken the classification of upper, middle and lower products that has been followed for more than 1 years since Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica, and divided medicines into 16 parts, including water, fire, earth, stone, grass, grain, lai, fruit, wood, utensils, insects, scales, media, birds, animals and people. The proper name of each drug label is the outline, and the following items of the outline are clear. The book also systematically describes the knowledge of various drugs.
It includes correction, name interpretation, explanation, correction, treatment, odor, indications, invention, appendix, prescription, etc. It describes the history, form, function and prescription of drugs in detail, enriching the knowledge of materia medica.
By quoting predecessors' monographs, such as Shennong's famous classic, Tao's rule of not recording the prescription of drugs by secluded famous doctors, seven prescriptions and ten doses, five flavors should be avoided, five flavors are superior, specimen yin and yang, ups and downs, quoting classics, opposite drugs, taking drugs and eating taboos, dietary taboos, Li Dongyuan's example of using drugs with syndrome, Zhang Zi's method of sweating and vomiting, Chen Cang.
About the author:
Li Shizhen (about 1518 ~ 1593) was an outstanding medical scientist in Ming Dynasty. A world doctor has a medical name. Influenced by the family, I am good at medical books and fine medicine. His representative works include five zang-organs graph theory, medical records near the lake, simplified prescriptions of the collection near the lake, an examination of eight strange meridians, compendium of materia medica and so on.