The ''Xinxiu bencao'' (), also known as the ''Tang bencao'' (), is a Chinese

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 ...

written in the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

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 Tao Hongjing (456–536), courtesy name Tongming, was a Chinese alchemist, astronomer, calligrapher, military general, musician, physician, and pharmacologist, and writer during the Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589). A polymathic indiv ...

. The text was first published in 659; although it is now considered

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

in China, at least one copy exists in Japan, where the text had been transmitted to in 721.

Comprising fifty-three or fifty-four ''juan'' () or "chapters", the text contains both ''tujing'' () or "illustrated descriptions" and ''yaotu'' () or "drug pictures". In total, some 850 drugs are listed in the text, including thirty foreign ingredients that were imported into China via the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

, such as benzoin,

oak gall Oak apple or oak gall is the common name for a large, round, vaguely apple-like gall commonly found on many species of oak. Oak apples range in size from in diameter and are caused by chemicals injected by the larva of certain kinds of gall ...

s, and

peppercorn Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diamet ...

Publication history

The idea of a ''bencao'' (

) that would copy and expand on

's was first mooted in 657 by court counsellor (), who went by the alias "Su Gong" () because of an "imperial taboo". The project was eventually greenlit by Emperor Gaozong, following which a team of some twenty-two officials and physicians, including the high-ranking (), was assembled to complete the text. According to the ''

Tang huiyao The ''Tang Huiyao'' () is an institutional history of Tang dynasty compiled by Wang Pu and presented it to Emperor Taizu of Song in 961. The book contains 100 volumes and 514 sections, it has an abundant content for the period before 846, and scar ...

'' (; Institutional History of the Tang Dynasty), the ''Xinxiu bencao'' was completed "on the 17th day of the first lunar month of the fourth year" of the Xianqing era (656–661). The text was first published in 659, making it the first state-sponsored pharmacopoeia in China, as well as one of the earliest known illustrated pharmaceutical texts. The ''Xinxiu bencao'' was one of the most comprehensive works of its time. 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. By 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 ...

, the text had become

in China, although at least one copy still exists in Japan, where it had been transmitted to in 721, and fully translated into Japanese as ''Honzō wamyō'' in 1918 by palace doctor Fukane no Sukehito. In the modern era, fragments of the ''Xinxiu bencao'' have also been discovered from a book depository in a cave in

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

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* * * * * * * * * * {{History of medicine in China Chinese medical texts 7th-century books

Contents

Publication history

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