Bencao gangmu 本草綱目 [Systematic Materia Medica]

Many woodcut illus. 32 vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, mostly new stitching (some loose). Beijing: Ben li tang 本立堂, 1717.




A rare and early edition of this landmark work of Chinese natural history studies, the most important book in its genre.


Bencao gangmu was completed in 1578 and published by the author’s descendants in 1596. A “monument of Chinese science and medicine, celebrated by schoolchildren and scholars alike,” the book “was a work of unprecedented scope, presented as such from its earliest publication.” Li (1518-93), the “prince of pharmacists,” was “probably the greatest naturalist in Chinese history, (truncated) and worthy of comparison with the best of the scientific men contemporary with him in Renaissance Europe...His scholarly approach to the wealth of previous literature makes him also the greatest Chinese historian of science before modern times, for his works are an unparalleled source of information on the development of biological and chemical knowledge in East Asia” (Needham & Lu, pp. 308-09). Li’s prefatory material to the book “reflects both a self-conscious desire to produce a work of magnitude and lasting historical significance and a clear sense of pride in what he was doing. In an annotated bibliography of works on materia medica throughout history, he immodestly made his own compendium the final, crowning step in a march toward ever more complete, less error-riddled, and better-organized texts” (Nappi, p. 19).


Bencao gangmu was tremendously influential, not just in China but also in neighboring countries and even further afield. “By the eighteenth century, Li’s compendium was being studied in Korea as well, and portions were translated into French...Even Charles Darwin cited Li’s work as a ‘Chinese encyclopedia’, from which he culled several examples of the ‘ancient Chinese’ domestication of fowl, fish, and other creatures and plants” (Nappi, p. 20). In early modern Japan, “the entire field of nature studies...began with the introduction of...Bencao gangmu.” The book “entered Japan in the early 1600s as the most authoritative encyclopedia of pharmacological substances at a time of great medical innovation” (Marcon, pp. 28-31).


The book important not only for its encyclopedic scope but also for its arrangement. Li called his system a “reasoned classification” (gangmu), and he described it as follows, in the translation of Georges Métailié:

My overall system of classification consists of sixteen sections (bu 部) that form the upper level (gang 綱) and sixty categories (lei 類) that form the lower level (mu 目), and everything is placed following [its category]...In ancient works, jade, stone, water and earth are intermingled. The insects, animals with scales and animals with shells are not differentiated; or sometimes the insects fall into the trees section or the trees fall into the grasses section. Now I have put everything in order (lie 列) in sections beginning with waters and fires, followed by earth: for water and fire precede everything and earth is the mother of everything. Next come metals and stones for they issue from the earth. Next [I classify] grasses, grains, vegetables, fruits, trees, proceeding from the smallest to the greatest. Next come clothing and objects made from plants. Then I work up from insects, animals with scales, animals with shells, winged animals and beasts to man, from the lowliest to the most precious. (Métailié, p. 78.)

Our edition is also noteworthy for its many illustrations. It belongs to the Benli Tang edition, which in turn belongs to the “Hangzhou edition lineage.” The basis for the Hangzhou edition was the edition published in Jiangxi in 1603 (Wanli 31). The Hangzhou edition was published as a facsimile of the Jiangxi edition by Liuyou Tang 六有堂 in 1640 (Chongzhen 13). The Hangzhou edition is noteworthy for carrying out the first great overhaul of the images in the book. Because of the superior craftsmanship of its woodcutters, it was used as the basis for several later facsimile editions, including our book (He et al.). Our edition and other early Qing editions contributed to Bencao gangmu becoming a standard reference book for physicians and lay readers in the Qing.


Very good set, with some light browning, staining, and the occasional tear and chip to leaves. Preserved in eight hantao.


❧ He Guangyi 何广益 et al., “Bencao gangmu Ming-Qing banben shuyao” 《本草纲目》明清版本述要, Sohu.com, online; Federico Marcon, The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan (Chicago: 2015); Georges Métailié, Traditional Botany: An Ethnobotanical Approach, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 6, Biology and Biological Technology, Part 4 (Cambridge: 2015); Carla S. Nappi, The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China (Harvard: 2009); Joseph Needham & Gwei-Djen Lu, Botany, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 6, Biology and Biological Technology, Part I (Cambridge: 1986). (Inventory #: 10389)