Xinxiu bencao

The Xinxiu bencao (Chinese: 新修本草; pinyin: Xīnxiū běncǎo),[lower-alpha 1] 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. 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 was first mooted in 657 by court counsellor Su Jing (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 (許敬宗),[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. Goldschmidt 2022, p. 137.
  2. Ming 2018, p. 309.
  3. Teoh 2019, p. 89.
  4. Despeaux 2019, p. 766.
  5. Buell 2022, p. 329.
  6. Ming 2018, p. 310.
  7. Sterckx 2018, p. 140.
  8. Nappi 2010, p. 29.
  9. Marcon 2015, p. 30.
  10. Unschuld 1986, p. 46.
  11. 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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