The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica: A Translation of the Shen Nong Ben Cao (Blue Poppy's Great Masters Series)

225 Pages·1998·16.28 MB·English

The Divine Fartner's
Materia Medica
A Translation of the
Shen Nong Ben Cao ling
by Yang Shon-zhong
BLUE POppy PRESS, INC.
BOULDER, CO
Publishedby:
BLUEPOppyPRESS
ADivisionofBlue PoppyEnterprises, In,.
5441 WesternAve., Suite 2
BOULDER, CO80301
FirstEdition, June, 1998
SecondPrinting,January, 2003
ThirdPrinting,January, 2005
FourthPrlntlng, October,2005
FifthPrinting, Marc:h, 2007
SixthPrInting, OCtober, 2007
SeventhPrinting, June, 2008
ISBN 0-936185-96-1
ISBN 978-0-936185-96-5
LC 97-77991
COPYRIGHTC BLUEPOppyPRESS, 1998.All Rights ReselVed.
ALLRIGHTSRESERVED.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproduced,storedinaretrieval
system,transcribed inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic, mechanical, photocopy,
recording,oranyothermeans,ortranslated intoanylanguagewithouttheprior
writtenpermissionofthepublisher.
DISCLAIMER: The informationinthisbookisgiveningoodfaith. However, the
authorandthepublisherscannotbeheldresponsiblefor anyerrororomission.The
publisherswillnotacceptliabilitiesforanyinjuriesordamagescausedtothe reader
thatmayresultfromthereader'sactinguponorusingthecontentcontainedinthis
book.Thepublishersmake this informationavailabletoEnglishlanguagereaders
forresearchandscholarlypurposesonly.
Thepublishersdonotadvocatenorendorseself...medicationbylaypersons.Chinese
medicineisaprofessionalmedicine. Laypersonsinterestedinavailingthemselvesof
thetreatmentsdescribedinthisbookshouldseekoutaqualifiedprofessional
practitionerofChinesemedicine.
COMPDesignation: Denotativetranslationusingastandardtranslationalterminology
CovercaligraphybyMichaelSullivan(Seiho)
1098 7
PrintedatFidlarDoubleday, Kalamazoo, MIonrecycledpaperwithsoyinks
Publisher's Foreword
TheShenNong BenCaoling(The DivineFarmer's Materia Medica Classic)is
one of the 10 premodern classics of Chinese medicine selected in the
People's Republic ofChina as nationwide research priorities wit~the
Chinesemedicalliterature. Alsoreferred to astheShen Nong Benling, the
ShenNangBenCao,theBenCaoling,andsimplytheBenling,itisoneofthe
twomostimportantofthese10preeminentChinesemedicalclassics. The
Huang Di Neiling(The Yellow Emperor's InnerClassic)is thelocusclassicus
ofChinesemedical theoryand especiallyacupunctureandmoxibustion,
whiletheShen Nong BenCaolingisthelocus classicusofso-calledChinese
herbal medicine. All the rest of the Chinese medical literature, both
premodern and contemporary, is built on the foundation of these two
seminal texts. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why we have
chosentopublishthisfirst EnglishlanguagetranslationoftheShen Nong
Ben CaolingaspartofBluePoppyPress'sGreatMastersSeries.
ShenNongisoneofthethreegreatestheroes ofChineseculture, theother
two being the Yellow Emperor and Fu Xi, the revealer of the eight
trigrams. These three legendary divine beings are credited as being the
fountainhead ofChineselife-arts. ThenameShenNongcanbetranslated
as Divine Farmer, Divine Peasant, Divine Agriculturist, or Divine
Husbandman. Among his numerous discoveries and revelations, Shen
NongiscreditedwithteachingtheChinesepeoplehow tofarm~thushis
most common name. The first reference to a connection between Shen
NongandChineseherbalmedicineisfound intheHuaiNan Zi(The South
oftheHuaiMaster) writtenbyLiu Anwhodied in122BeE.
Ancientpeopleategrassesanddrankwater. Theygathered thefruit
fromtreesandatethemeatofclams. Theyfrequentlysufferedfrom
diseaseandpoisoning.ThenShenNongtaughtpeoplefor thefirst
time how to sowthefive grains, to observewhether the land was
dry orwet, fertile orrocky, locatedinthe hills orinthelowlands.
He tasted the flavors of allthe herbs and springs, [determining]
TheDivineFarmer'sMateriaMedicaClassic
whether theywerebitterorsweet. Thus he taughtpeoplewhatto
avoid and where they could go. At that time, [Shen Nong]
encountered 70 [herbs] in one day, [determininK which were]
medicinesand [whichwere] poisons.1
This is the first survivin~ recorded instance in the Chinese literature
creditingShenNongwithdetermininKthemedicinalpropertiesofthings
bytastingthemhimself.Thisstoryhasthenbeenrepeatedandembellished
upondownthroughthecenturies. SomeversionsevengiveShenNon~a
see-throughstomachsohecouldwitness theeffectsofwhatheateonhis
internalorgans!
Thewords ben and caomeantreerootsand grassesorherbsrespectively.
Therefore, as a compound term, they generically refer to the Chinese
materia medica, and materia medica is the most commonly used
translationofbencaousedinEngishtoday. Benand caoareused inChinese
medicinetorefertomateriamedicainKeneralbecausetheoverwhelming
majority of traditional Chinese medicinals are dervied from vegetable
sources.However,sincetheChinesemateriamedicaalsoincludesmineral
andanimalmedicinals,wehaveusedthewords, "so-calledChineseherbal
medicine," above.
As mentioned previously, this workis the locus classicusofthe bencaoor
materia medica literatureofChinese medicine. Itis this literaturewhich
describes the ingredients ofChinese medicine, their flavors and natures
(i.e., temperatures), their functions, and indications. According to this
book, medicinals have five basic flavors-sour, salty, sweet, bitter, and
acrid-and four qi or natures--eold, hot, warm, and cool. Hot diseases
shouldbetreatedwithcoldmedicinalsandcolddiseasesshouldbetreated
with hot medicinals. This book also introduced the first method of
classifying Chinese medicinals. Within this classic, all medicinals are
classified into three grades or categories: superior medicinals
corresponding to heaven which govern the maintenance of life and are
without toxicity, medium medicinalscorresponding to hUlnankind which
LiuAn,HuaiNan Zi, IiXiu Wu Xun,"chap. 19,p. la,anth 1 1 inZhu iIi
Cheng(An AnthologyofVarious Masters), HebeiPeople'sPr '- I - Lucn B 0-
qun&IouXi-yuan,Tang han, 1986.
II
Publisher's Foreword
benefit human nature an~ have some medicinal functions, and inferior
medicinals correspondingto earthwhichcure disease and definitely do
have some toxicity. Further, medicinals are also categorized into
sovereigns,ministers, assistants, and envoys. Hence,onecanfind allthe
mostbasic and elementaltheoriesofChineseherbalmedicineinseminal
forminthisclassic.
Althougha booktitled the Shen NangJing (The DivineFarmer's Classic) is
mentionedbyvariousChinesemedicalauthors andDaoistsinterestedin
longevity practices in the Qin dynasty (221-206 BCE), this bookhas long
beenlost,anditisnotatallclearthatitwas,infact, anearlyversionofthis
materia medica. The first mention of the Shen Nong Ben Cao per se is
found inthe writingsofthe DaoistphysicianTaoHong-jingwhomlived
from 452-536 CEo According to Tao, the knowledge of Chinese materia
medica transmitted orallyfrom the timeofShenNongwas first written
downinthelaterHandynasty(circa200CE). AsPaulU. Unschuldsaysin
hisMedicineinChina: A HistoryofPharmaceutics, "Thisopinionwasbased
uponthe fact that thenames used for t~eplacesoforiginofthe drugsin
thevariouspen-ts'aoworksofT'ao's timewerecommonto thelaterHan
period."2
Infact,itisduetothewritingsofTaoHong-jingthatwehaveanyversion
ofthe Shen Nong BenCaoJingtoday. Taois theauthoroftheBenCaoJing
JiZhu(CollectedAnnotationson theMateria Medica Classic)and aShen Nong
Ben Cao Jing. According to Unschuld, these are the same book and
sometimestheyarereferredtojointlyas theShen Nong BenCaolingIi Zhu.
TaowrotetheShenNongBenCaolingfirst inthreebooks and laterrevised
this into the Ben Cao Jing Ji Zhu in seven books based on Daoist
cosmologicalbeliefs involvingthenumberseven. However, thecontents
ofthese twobooks areidentical. Inhispreface,Taomentions threemain
sources forhis work. Theseincludeseveraldifferentversionsofthe Shen
Nong Ben Cao ling, the Tong lun Cai Yao Lu (Gentleman Tong's Notes on
GatheringMedicinals), and theLeiKung Yao Dui(Lei Kung'sComparison of
Medicinals). HealsomentionsZhangChi(142-220?CE),HuaTuo(190-265
CE), and Hua Tuo's students,Wu Pu and LiDang-zhi, as authorsbefore
Unschuld, Paul V., Medicine in China: A History ofPharmaceutics, U. of CA
Pn.sR, B rk"l y,1986,p.17
iii
The lJivineFarmer'sMateriaMedicaClassic
him who had worked on earlier versions ofthe Shen Nong Ben Caoling.
However, as Unschuld states, liltcannolongerbeproved whetherthere
was, in fact, ever a specific, original work entitled Shen-nung pen-ts/ao
ching, or whether various pharmaceutical collections of the Han period
werewrittenwith thisorasimilartitle.,,3
Inanycase,evenTaoHong-jing's Shen Nong Ben Caolingand BenCaoling
Ji Zhu werelost. Nevertheless, efforts to recreate the Shen Nong Ben Cao
lingwere undertakenat leastas earlyas theSongdynasty(960-1280CE).
This may sound crazy to Western readers not familiar with premodern
Chinese literarypractices. Ifsomethingis lost, it's lost. However,itwas
not uncommon for Chinese authors to include whole books or at least
chaptersfrompreviousbooksintotheirownnewcompilations. Thiswas
anacceptedliterarypracticeand carriednoopprobiumofplaKiarismas it
wouldinthecontemporaryWest.Thisprocesswasmadeeasierbythefact
thatTaoHong-jinghad used twodifferentcolors ofinkinhisversionof
theShenNongBenCaoling.Everythingwritteninredinkwas supposed to
be the words of Shen Nong. Since succeeding authors of later ben cao
continued this convention, itmakes theidentificationofquotesfrom the
Shen NongBen Caolingsomewhateasier.
AsearlyastheTangdynasty(618-907CE),SunSi-miaohad incorporated
lengthysectionsofthe Shen Nong BenCaolingintohisownQianlin Fang
(Prescriptions [Worth] a Thousand [Pieces oft Gold), and this book has
survived until today. Itis one oftheearliestsourcesfor recompilingthe
Shen Nong Ben Caoling. ThelingShiZhengLeiBeiIi Ben Cao(A Classic&
Historic [Work]: A Materia Medica for Emergencies [Based on] Pattern
Categorization) compiled by Tang Shen-wei in 1108 CE is the most
important surviving source for recreating the Shen Nong Ben Cao ling.
However, even Li Shi-zhen's late MinK dynasty (1368-1644 CE) Ben Cao
GangMu (Great Outline ofMateria Medica) hasbeenused tohelprecreate
this seminal materia medica classic, since even Li maintained the
conventionofusingred andblackinksinordertoidentifythesupposed
wordsofthe divineShenNong.
Ibid., p. 17
IV
Publisher's Foreword
At this point, thereadershould remember thatinancienttimes, doctors
wouldcopyotherdoctor's copiesofbooksbyhand. Therefore,different
copyistsoftentookthelibertyofrearrangingtextsdependingontheirown
tastes and proclivities, justas moderncollege students might rearrange
theirteacher'slecturenotesinordertofacilitate theirownstudy. Because
ofthis,severaldifferentversionsoftheZhengLeiBenCaocurrentlyexist,
and, therefore, thereareanumber ofdifferentversionsofthe Shen Nong
Ben Cao available today. The maindiscrepancies between these existing
versions ofthe Shen Nong Ben Cao are 1) the number ofmedicinals they
include, 2) the format of their presentation, and 3) the texts on certain
particularmedicinals.ItisbelievedthattheoriginalBenCaolingcontained
365 medicinals. However, all extant versions fall short of this number
despitemanypreviousscholars'effortstorecovertheselostmedicinals. In
terms offormat, someversions havefour books, whileothershaveonly
three. Some versions simply divide all the medicinals into superior,
medium, and inferior Ktades, whileothers first divide them into wood,
grass, animal, and stone medicinals which are then subdivided into
superior,medium, and inferior grades. Someversionscontaina tableof
contents at their beginning and others do not. Still others give a list of
medicinals tobediscussedbeforeeachsectionofeachbook. Inaddition,
there areminordiscrepanciesinthetextitselfundereachmedicinal. For
instance,someversionsdiscussthegeographicoriginsofthemedicinals,
whileothers donot. Thislastdiscrepancyisbasedontheassumptionby
certaineditors thatthis informationwasa lateradditionand notpartof
theoriginaltext.
ThepresenttranslationisbasedontheBenCaoling(Materia Medica Classic)
edited by Cao Yuan-yu and published by the Shanghai Science &
TechnologyPressinShanghaiin1987.ItisYangShou-zhong'sopinionthat
this version is the most carefully collated and edited of the various
versionsavailableinthePeople'sRepublicofChinaandisprobablycloser
to the original thananyother. The mostpopular currentversion ofthis
seminalmedicinalclassicistheShenNongBenCaoJing (The DivineFarmer's
Materia Medica Classic) published by the Chinese Medical Classics
Publishing House in Beijingin 1982. Readers familiar with that version
should note thatthese twoarenot thesame. Thepresentversiondiffers
from the Ben Cao ling version in that it includes a Book Four. This is
comprised of those passages which are absent from oursource textbut
v
TheDivineFarmer'sMateriaMedicaClassic
whicharecommontomanyotherversions.Specifically, thesearesegments
includedasappendicesattheendofthe Shen Nong BenCaolingeditedby
HuangShi.HuangShiwasahigh-rankingofficial duringthereignsofJia
Qing (1796-1820CE) and DaoGuang(1821-1850CE). Inaddition, wehave
created a new Table of Contents to make this book easier to use for
modern readers and wehave deleted the listingofmedicinalsdiscussed
in eachchapteras superfluous given the TableofContents and indexof
medicinalsattheback. Insertionswithinbracketshavebeenaddedbythe
translator in order to bringout the meaningofthe text and render it in
betterEnglishwhileallowingreaders toidentifythewordswhichactually
are inthesourcetext.
The terminology and methodology used in this translation is based on
Nigel Wiseman and Ken Boss's Glossary of Chinese Medical Terms and
Acupuncture Points, Paradigm Publications, Brookline, MA, 1990, with
updates and revisions as contained in Nigel Wiseman's English-Chinese
Chinese-English Dictionary of Chinese Medicine, Hunan Science &
TechnologyPress,Changsha, 1995. Themedicinalsareidentifiedbytheir
Chinese names written in Pinyin followed by their Latinate
pharmacologicalnomenclatureinparentheses. Sourcesfor theseLatinate
identifications are Benskyand Gamble'sChineseHerbalMedicine: Materia
Medica, Revised Edition, Eastland Press, Seattle, 1993; Hong-yen Hsu's
OrientalMateria Medica: A Concise Guide, OrientalHealingArts Institute,
LongBeach,CA,1986;StuartandRead'sChineseMateria Medica, Southern
Materials Center, Taipei, 1979; Paul U. Unschuld's Medicine in China: A
HistoryofPhannaceutics,U.ofCAPress,Berkeley,1986;A Barefoot Doctor's
Manual, Revised & Enlarged Edition, Cloudburst Press, Mayne Isle, WA,
1977;andtheZhongYao DaCiDian(LArge DictionaryofChineseMedicinals),
ShanghaiScience& TechnologyPress,Shanghai, 1991. Inparticular,Stuart
&Read'sChineseMateriaMedicaisagood resourceforfinding theChinese
characters for the medicinals in this text as well as discussions of their
botanicalidentificationsand common Englishnames. Whena medicinal
is subsequentlydiscussed ina footnote, wehavesimplyreferred toitby
its capitalizedcommonEnglishname or a simplified versionofits Latin
botanicalnameinnominativecase. Regrettably,thetranslatorwas unable
to find Latin (or English) identifications for a very small handful of
medicinals. Hopefully, as scholars in China continue to fes{'(lrch this
classic, thesewillbeadded to future editionsofthis work.
VI