Chinese materia medica—bencao literature—was a changing tradition of classifying, identifying, processing, and discussing substances used in Chinese medicine. It included plants but also minerals, animal materials, foods, and manufactured substances. Important texts accumulated commentary over centuries, culminating famously in Li Shizhen’s sixteenth-century Bencao gangmu. These works are historical and natural-historical records, not proof that every recorded use is safe or effective today.
What does bencao mean?
Bencao is commonly translated as materia medica. “Herbal” is convenient but too narrow because the literature includes non-plant materials. It organized names, qualities, geographic origins, collection, processing, combination, attributed effects, toxicity, and textual disagreement.
Related reading: The History of Medication and Pharmacy.
A timeline of major textual layers
| Text or period | Historical role | Important caution |
|---|---|---|
| Shennong bencao jing tradition | Early organized corpus traditionally linked to the Divine Farmer | The surviving work formed over time; mythic attribution is not literal authorship |
| Tao Hongjing’s collected commentaries | Expanded, reorganized, and annotated earlier material | Dates and textual relationships depend on later witnesses |
| Tang official materia medica | State-sponsored revision and illustrated identification | Official status did not guarantee modern pharmacological accuracy |
| Song printed works | Broader compilation, correction, and circulation | Print stabilized some readings while transmitting older claims |
| Li Shizhen’s Bencao gangmu | Large sixteenth-century synthesis and critical reclassification | It includes natural history, textual criticism, and therapeutics—not a modern drug formulary |
The Shennong bencao jing was compiled, not dictated
The text is traditionally attributed to the culture hero Shennong. Historical scholarship instead studies a formation process around the early imperial period and later reconstruction. Categories conventionally translated as upper, middle, and lower grades concerned attributed properties, use, and risk within the text’s worldview; they should not be read as modern regulatory grades.
Li Shizhen and the Bencao gangmu
The NLM catalog describes the Bencao gangmu as a sixteenth-century encyclopedia of materia medica and natural history that culminated a long textual tradition. Li Shizhen compared earlier authorities, corrected names and classifications, and added observations. The Wellcome Collection records 1,892 medicinal substances and 1,109 illustrations in the work.
Identification was a central problem
Names varied by region and period; one name could refer to different organisms, and substitutions could enter trade. Authors used habitat, appearance, taste, processing, and provenance to distinguish materials. Modern botanical naming can clarify some identities but cannot solve every historical reference.
Ancient & Modern Medicine’s take: The Shennong Bencao Jing, credited to the mythical Shennong but compiled around the late Western Han, ranks 365 substances in three classes: superior drugs that nourish life, middle ones that nourish nature and inferior ones that treat disease and may be toxic. Earlier still, the Mawangdui tomb (sealed 168 BCE) preserved the Recipes for Fifty-Two Ailments.
Processing and formulas changed the substance
Historical practice rarely meant swallowing an undifferentiated raw herb. Drying, roasting, washing, combining, and other processing methods were embedded in textual and craft systems. Because preparation changes chemistry and risk, a translated plant name cannot establish equivalence with a modern supplement.
Historical toxicity categories are not modern safety approval
Some texts explicitly discussed poison or cautioned use. Modern products introduce additional concerns: contamination, adulteration, incorrect substitution, interactions, and variable concentration. The NCCIH safety review reports serious complications associated with some mislabeled or contaminated products.
How to read a materia medica claim
- Identify the exact text, edition, date, and language.
- Distinguish authorial claim from later commentary.
- Resolve the material’s identity and preparation as far as evidence allows.
- Separate recorded use from current efficacy.
- Use current toxicology and clinical evidence for present-day conclusions.
Place this literature within the history of Chinese medicine and compare it with the global history of medication and pharmacy.
Sources and further reading
- NLM Catalog, Bencao gangmu — bibliographic and contents record for the complete annotated edition.
- Wellcome Collection, Bencao gangmu — collection record and scope of the materia medica.
- NCCIH, Traditional Chinese Medicine — current evidence and product-safety context.
