Tang Shenwei (; c.1056-1093),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

Shenyuan (), was a Chinese physician of the

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

. He compiled an influential

pharmacopoeia A pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea (from the obsolete typography ''pharmacopœia'', meaning "drug-making"), in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of compound medicines, and published by ...

, ''Zhenglei bencao'' (證類本草).

Career

Tang Shenwei was born in a family of professional physicians from Jinyuan (晉原; in today's

Chongzhou Chongzhou ( zh, c=崇州, p=Chóngzhōu), known as Chongqing County ( zh, t=崇慶縣, s=崇庆县) until 1994, is a county-level city of Sichuan Province, Southwest China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Chengdu, l ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

). During the Yuanyou

era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Compa ...

(元祐; 1086–1094) of Emperor Zhezong's reign, he became a disciple of and moved to Huayang near

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

''Zhenglei bencao''

Tang spent several years on studying books on pharmaceuticals to create his own compendium. He merged the entirety of some existing works and added information researched on his own to the compilation. The book was ready about 1082–1083. Its full title, ''Jingshi zhenglei beiji bencao'' ( zh, t=經史證類備急本草, s=经史证类备急本草, first=t) translates as "Ready-to-use pharmacopoeia, classified as collected from the Classics and historiographical books". The compendium encompassed 1,748 different drugs (476 of which were not included in the previous texts) and beyond 4,000 treating methods. It quotes more than 240 ancient written sources, many of which are lost today. Part of the information hails from his own research. In the preface, Tang summarized the history of materia medica books and explained the way in which he carried out the compilation. Every drug entry includes the description of usage, function in the

Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

framework, places or origin, methods of collection and preparation. 933 illustrations are included for easier identification. Some of the medical materials were not described before in any known book. The book has spawned many editions, including state-sponsored revisions. It stayed influential for several centuries, even if outshined by the even more monumental

Bencao gangmu The ''Bencao gangmu'', known in English as the ''Compendium of Materia Medica'' or ''Great Pharmacopoeia'', is an encyclopedic gathering of medicine, natural history, and Chinese herbology compiled and edited by Li Shizhen and published in the ...

of the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

. Its author,

Li Shizhen Li Shizhen (July 3, 1518 – 1593), courtesy name Dongbi, was a Chinese acupuncturist, herbalist, naturalist, pharmacologist, physician, and writer of the Ming dynasty. He is the author of a 27-year work, found in the ''Compendium of M ...

spoke about Tang Shenwei favorably.

Depictions

Song dynasty official Yuwen Xuzhong () described Tang Shenwei as "ugly in appearance and slow in demeanor and speech". ''The Strange Doctor Tang Shenwei'' (怪医唐慎微), a 2014 film produced by CCTV6 and directed by Fang Junliang, depicts Tang Shenwei's life, with actor in the title role.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Chinese male non-fiction writers 11th-century Chinese physicians Song dynasty people Song dynasty science writers