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Chapter 2 of 20
本草纲目
Overall Paraphrase
Ancient records state: by glimpsing the radiance of the Longquan sword, one can identify an ancient blade; by observing the lustre of a precious gem, one can distinguish a luminous pearl. Thus, extraordinary things such as the Ping fruit and the Shangyang bird could only be comprehended by those endowed with extraordinary intelligence. Thereafter, in broad erudition the foremost was Zhang Hua; in deciphering inscriptions, Ji Kang; in appraising jade, Yi Dun—yet even these men were as稀少 as morning stars. Li Dongbi of Qiyang, Hubei (Li Shizhen), one day came to visit me at my mountain garden. While I kept him for wine, he presented the Compendium of Materia Medica in several dozen volumes.
Li Shizhen said to me: "Shizhen is a humble person from the Jing-Chu region. Frail and sickly in childhood, dull in natural endowment; in adulthood I became passionately devoted to ancient texts, savouring them as one would chew sugarcane or malt sugar. Thus I extensively hunted through the classics and gathered from a hundred schools of thought. Whatever works—be they philosophical treatises, histories, scriptures, commentaries, phonological studies, agronomy, medicine and divination, astrology, or folksongs—wherever I found a glimmer of insight, I wrote down a few lines. In antiquity there was a book called Materia Medica, passed down from the Divine Farmer and the Yellow Emperor through the Han, Liang, Tang, and Song dynasties to our own dynasty, with annotations accumulated over a long time. Yet the errors, fallacies, mistakes, and omissions therein are too numerous to count. Thereupon I conceived the ambition to compile a comprehensive work, presuming to exercise editorial authority. It took thirty years, drawing upon more than eight hundred authors, and the manuscript was revised three times. Duplications were deleted, gaps were filled, and errors were corrected. The old edition contained 1,518 medicinal substances; now 374 have been newly added, organized into sixteen sections, making up fifty-two volumes. Though it may not be called a grand synthesis, it is largely complete, and I have taken the liberty of naming it Compendium of Materia Medica. I humbly request a single phrase from you, that it may be transmitted for eternity through your endorsement."
I opened the book and studied it carefully: each substance begins with its proper name as the outline (kang), with the explanatory names appended as the details (mu)—this establishes proper beginnings; next, the collective explanations, doubts resolved, and corrections of errors detail its place of origin and form; further, the properties and flavours, principal indications, and prescriptions appended clarify its nature and functions. From the highest ancient classics—the Three Tombs and Five Canons—down to legends and novels, whenever something relevant appeared, nothing was omitted from collection. It is like entering the Golden Valley Garden, where every hue dazzles the eye; like ascending to the Dragon King's palace, where all treasures lie arrayed; like facing a crystal pot and jade mirror, where even a single hair can be counted. Broad yet not miscellaneous, detailed yet with essential focus, synthesizing verification and tracing to fundamentals, it peers directly into the abyss of the profound sea. How could this be regarded merely as a medical text? Truly it embodies the subtle essence of the philosophy of principle (xingli), the Comprehensive Canon of the investigation of things (gewu zhizhi), the hidden treasury of emperors, the prized treasure of ministers and subjects alike. How diligent is Master Li's effort in benefiting the world!
Alas! When jade is not cut open, the true purple and the counterfeit red are confounded—this malady has long existed. Thus, to identify the bone of a special chariot, one must await a scholar of Lu; to recognize the stone of the heavenly loom, one must consult a diviner. I am presently compiling the Miscellanies of Yanzhou, lamenting that no successor has arisen to erudite scholars like the Notes Composed with Red Lead; how fortunate to have seen this work! This werk—should it be hid in a stone chamber of deep mountains? That would be unworthy. Why not have it engraved and published, so that all who, like Yang Xiong savouring the Great Mystery, appreciate fine works under heaven, may share in its study?
Written in the spring, on the Festival of the First Full Moon, in the gengyin year of the Wanli reign (1590). Written respectfully by Wang Shizhen, the Hermit of Yanzhou, Fengzhou.
The essence of this preface lies not in specific medical theory, but in articulating the editorial philosophy and scholarly spirit of a landmark pharmacological work. Three dimensions may be drawn out:
First: The "outline and details" dimensional classification system. Wang Shizhen accurately captured the core structure of the Compendium of Materia Medica—each substance begins with the proper name as the outline (the trunk), with the explanatory names as the details (the branches), further structured under collected explanations, doubtful points resolved, errors corrected, properties and flavours, principal treatments, and appended prescriptions. This hierarchical structure of "bearing the net by its master cord" embodies a complete epistemic chain from nomenclature → origin and form → pharmacological properties → clinical application, systematically rectifying the older pharmacopoeias' tendency merely to list entries without distinguishing sources.
Second: The empirical spirit of "investigating things to extend knowledge." The preface's high praise of this book as "truly the subtle essence of the philosophy of principle, the Comprehensive Canon of the investigation of things" signifies that it transcends the mere category of a pharmacopoeia to become a natural-historical masterpiece that investigates things themselves (gewu) to probing the inherent patterns of things (xingli). Li Shizhen's own account—"hunting through the classics and gathering from a hundred schools," from classics to legends, omitting nothing relevant—exemplifies the Song-Ming neo-Confucian spirit of "seeking principle in things" applied within medicine.
Third: The critical consciousness of distinguishing truth from error. Li Shizhen explicitly notes the old Materia Medica's errors "too numerous to count," and devoted thirty years to "delete duplications, fill gaps, straighten errors." Wang Shizhen's image of "jade not cut apart, red and purple confounded" underscores the work's scholarly value in dispelling historic misconceptions—not blindly trusting antiquity, correcting error by evidence; this is the Compendium's most precious scholarly trait.
Validated worth: From a modern scientific perspective, the Compendium's synthetic methodology is strikingly ahead of its era. First, the "proper name as outline, explanatory names as details" taxonomy bears an intrinsic parallel to the hierarchical nomenclatural logic of "genus–species" in modern biology, reflecting a deep regard for the correspondence between names and objects. Second, Li Shizhen's "drawing on eight hundred authors, three drafts" mirrors the modern publishing suite of literature review, iterative revision, and collaborative review. Third, his emphasis on documenting "place of origin and form" prefigures the contemporary importance in pharmacognosy of geo-authentic herbs and provenance tracing.
Historical limitations: The preface's elevation of the Compendium to "the hidden treasury of emperors, the prized treasure of ministers" carries a Ming-dynasty literati's rhetorical ceremony. Moreover, the work includes somefolk experiences and hearsay never strictly validated, remaining conceptually embedded in the ancient philosophical frameworks of yin-yang, five phases, and "qi-flavour–channel-tropism" attribution, fundamentally different from the standards of modern evidence-based medicine centred on randomized controlled trials. The preface's allusions to "Ping fruit and Shangyang bird" and "bone of a special chariot" as proofs of erudition signal how the ancient epistemic system interwove naturalistic legend with close observation.
This preface contains no specific health methods, yet from Li Shizhen's career of dedication one may derive broadly useful life principles:
Associated Concepts Shennong's Classic of the Materia Medica (herbal medical canon) ｜ Four qi and five flavours (the hot–cold–warm–cool properties and pungent–sour–sweet–bitter–salty tastes) ｜ Investigation of thingsand extension of knowledge (neo-Confucian epistemology) ｜ Bencao xue (the general study of materia medica in Chinese tradition)
Further Reading:
TOC
Additional pathways and related organs remain visible appended to translation; they correspond organic-to-general sequence for context but omitted for brief here.