Ben Cao Gang Mu, Volume VI : Vegetables, Fruits.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Li, Shizhen.

Series:

Ben Cao Gang Mu: 16th Century Chinese Encyclopedia of Materia Medica and Natural History Series

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1046 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2024.

Summary:

Volume VI in the Ben cao gang mu series offers a complete translation of chapters 26 through 33, devoted to vegetables and fruits. The Ben cao gang mu is a sixteenth-century Chinese encyclopedia of medical matter and natural history by Li Shizhen (1518-1593). The culmination of a sixteen-hundred-year history of Chinese medical and pharmaceutical literature, it is considered the most important and comprehensive book ever written in the history of Chinese medicine and remains an invaluable resource for researchers and practitioners. This nine-volume series reveals an almost two-millennia-long panorama of wide-ranging observations and sophisticated interpretations, ingenious manipulations, and practical applications of natural substances for the benefit of human health. Paul U. Unschuld's annotated translation of the Ben cao gang mu, presented here with the original Chinese text, opens a rare window into viewing the people and culture of China's past.

Contents:

Cover

Series List

Title Page

Contents

1. Prolegomena

1.1 History of Chinese Materia Medica Literature

1.2 Structure and Contents of the Ben Cao Gang Mu

1.3 Biographical Sketch of Li Shizhen (1518-1593)

2. Notes on the Translation

3. Wang Shizhen's Preface of 1590

4. Translation of the Ben Cao Gang Mu, ch. 26 through 33

Vegetables I, Fragrant-Acrid [Items], Chapter 26

Entries

Vegetables II, Soft[ing] and Smooth[ing items], Chapter 27

Vegetables III, Melons, Chapter 28

Vegetables IV, Water Vegetables

Vegetables V, Mushrooms-Fungi

Fruits I, Five Fruits, Chapter 29

Fruits II, Mountain Fruits, Chapter 30

Fruits III, Non-Chinese Fruits, Chapter 31

Fruits IV, Spices, Chapter 32

Fruits V, Melons and Berries Chapter 33

Fruits VI, Water Fruits

Appendix

5. Weights and Measures

5.1 Measures of Capacity

5.2 Measures of Weight

5.3 Measures of Length

5.4 Measures of the Size of Pills

6. Lists of Substances

6.1 Identification of Pharmaceutical Substances of Plant Origin Mentioned in BCGM ch. 26 - 33 in Passing. Herbs with an Entry of their Own are Marked with their Entry Number

6.2 Substances Discussed in Chapters 26 - 33 in a Separate Entry. Listed in Alphabetical Order of their Proper Pin Yin Names with their Popular English Names and References to their Entry.

6.3 Currently Accepted Scientific Identification of Substances Discussed in BCGM ch. 26-33 in a Separate Entry. Listed in Alphabetical Order, with Reference to their Entry.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-520-39518-2

OCLC:

1410593114