A Catalog of Benevolent Items - by Li Shizhen

About the Book

"The Ben cao gang mu was the world's most comprehensive encyclopedia of natural history and medicine when it was published in China in 1593. In fifty-two chapters, the physician Li Shizhen evaluated the wisdom of two millennia about plants, animals, minerals, and artificial substances used in medicine and collected it with countless verbatim quotations and his own supplementary comments. A Catalog of Benevolent Items provides the first single-volume introduction to this vast record of the classical Chinese world. Edited and translated by Paul U. Unschuld, a leading expert on historical Chinese medical texts, this anthology offers little-known details of China's historical knowledge of nature; traditional Chinese medicine and its theoretical foundations; social and cultural facets of ancient Chinese civilization not documented elsewhere; and the information management of a sixteenth-century Chinese scholar. Thoughtfully curated and organized by theme, A Catalog of Benevolent Items provides an accessible gateway to this foundational work"--

Book Synopsis

Distills ten volumes, four dictionaries, and 1,800 years of knowledge into an authoritative introduction to the Ben cao gang mu.

The Ben cao gang mu was the world's most comprehensive encyclopedia of natural history and medicine when it was published in China in 1593. In fifty-two chapters, the physician Li Shizhen recorded two millennia of medical observations, interpreting the wide-ranging uses of plants, animals, minerals, and artificial substances and including countless verbatim quotations along with his own evaluations.

Edited and translated by Paul U. Unschuld, A Catalog of Benevolent Items provides thoughtfully curated selections from the Ben cao gang mu, organized by theme. This anthology offers little-known details of China's historical knowledge of nature; traditional Chinese medicine and its theoretical foundations; social and cultural facets of ancient Chinese civilization not documented elsewhere; and the information management of a sixteenth-century Chinese scholar.

From the Back Cover

"Paul U. Unschuld's translation of the Ben cao gang mu is a monumental achievement of scholarship, and one that makes available to English readers its incredible trove of information about premodern Chinese culture. A Catalog of Benevolent Items introduces some of those treasures in a thematic reader that will appeal to students, curious readers, and anyone interested in natural history and the nature of knowledge."--Andrew Schonebaum, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Maryland

"Unschuld's complete Ben cao gang mu translation is a milestone for Chinese medicine, providing an essential window on Li Shizhen's masterwork. Astutely organized by topic with Unschuld's critical introduction to each section, A Catalog of Benevolent Items is a necessary companion to the full work, both engaging and enlightening the reader."--Donald Harper, Centennial Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Chicago

"This work will be useful to medical professionals, researchers, and teachers of Chinese medicine, history, and culture--an invaluable resource that can then be used to examine the depths of the complete volumes and dictionaries that comprise the Ben cao gang mu."--Z'ev Rosenberg, author of Returning to the Source: Han Dynasty Medical Classics in Modern Clinical Practice

Review Quotes

"An excellent resource for delving into traditional Chinese medicine, exploring traditional Chinese approaches to natural science, grappling with ways of organizing information, and gaining a deeper understanding of key values within Chinese culture."

-- "Journal of Chinese History"

"A faithful and valuable abridgement of an important work, that highlights the importance of an English translation, and may well go on to whet the reader's appetite for the multi-faceted and multitudinous layers of the entirety of Unschuld's publication series."-- "Journal of Chinese Medicine"

"Paul U. Unschuld has devoted many years to a translation of the full text in twenty-four volumes, with four further dictionary volumes. In this anthology he is anxious to show that the Ben cao is more than just a collection of medical preparations, to demonstrate its significance as a source for Chinese history in many aspects and to highlight Li Shizhen's pioneering achievement."-- "Times Literary Supplement"

About the Author

Paul U. Unschuld is Professor and Director of the Institute for the Theory, History, and Ethics of Chinese Life Sciences at Charité - Medical University, Berlin. His previous books include Medicine in China: A History of Ideas and What Is Medicine? Western and Eastern Approaches to Health Care.