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The monkey and the inkpot : natural history and its transformations in early modern China / Carla Nappi.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Nappi, Carla Suzan, 1977-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Li, Shizhen, 1518-1593. Ben cao gang mu.
- Li, Shizhen.
- Li, Shizhen, 1518-1593--Influence.
- Li, Shizhen, 1518-1593.
- Natural history--China--History--16th century.
- Natural history.
- Medicine, Chinese--History--16th century.
- Medicine, Chinese.
- Naturalists--China--Biography.
- Naturalists.
- Physicians--China--Biography.
- Physicians.
- Scholars--China--Biography.
- Scholars.
- Learning and scholarship--China--History--16th century.
- Learning and scholarship.
- China--Intellectual life--960-1644.
- China.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (251 p.)
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- This is the story of a Chinese doctor, his book, and the creatures that danced within its pages. The Monkey and the Inkpot introduces natural history in sixteenth-century China through the iconic Bencao gangmu (Systematic materia medica) of Li Shizhen (1518 - 1593). In the first book-length study in English of Li's text, Carla Nappi reveals a "cabinet of curiosities" of gems, beasts, and oddities whose author was devoted to using natural history to guide the application of natural and artificial objects as medical drugs.
- Contents:
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- List of Illustrations
- Ex-Voto
- Note on Conversions
- Prologue: A Curious Instinct, A Taste for Ink
- 1. Conception: Birth of a Naturalist
- 2. Generation: Anatomy of a Naturalist
- INTERLUDE. Here Be Dragons: A Reader's Guide to the Bencao gangmu
- 3. Transformation: Elements of Change
- 4. Transformation: Sprouts of Change
- 5. Transformation: Bodies of Change
- 6. Transformation: Creatures of Change
- Conclusion. Rot and Rebirth: The Afterlife and Reincarnation of a Naturalist
- Appendix A. Li Shizhen, Lidai zhujia bencao [Bencao works through the ages]
- Appendix B. Contents of the Bencao gangmu [Systematic materia medica]
- Notes
- Glossary of Chinese Characters
- Index
- Notes:
- Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780674054356
- 0674054350
- OCLC:
- 650350221
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