Volume I is divided into two parts. Part B of volume I in the
Ben cao gang mu
series offers a translation of portions of chapter 3 and the complete chapter 4, devoted to pharmaceutical drugs for diseases. This volume is a continuation of volume I, part A. The first portion of chapter 3 is found in part A.
The
is a sixteenth-century Chinese encyclopedia of medical matter and natural history by Li Shizhen (1518–1593). The culmination of a sixteen-hundred-year history of Chinese medical and pharmaceutical literature, it is considered the most important and comprehensive book ever written in the history of Chinese medicine and remains an invaluable resource for researchers and practitioners. This nine-volume series reveals an almost two-millennia-long panorama of wide-ranging observations and sophisticated interpretations, ingenious manipulations, and practical applications of natural substances for the benefit of human health. Paul U. Unschuld's annotated translation of the
, presented here with the original Chinese text, opens a rare window into viewing the people and culture of China's past.