ABSTRACT
Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica （Ben Cao Tu Jing）， compiled in 1061， is regarded as the crystallization of the second national survey of Chinese medicinal resources in the history of China after the Newly Revised Materia Medica （Xin Xiu Ben Cao）， which serves as a precious source for exploring the Chinese medicinal resources in the Song Dynasty. The Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica （Ben Cao Tu Jing） covers 50 illustrations for Chinese medicinal materials named after geographical names of Jiangsu Province， 39 of which have been verified in today's Jiangsu Province. To be specific， Chinese medicinal materials in 32 illustrations can be traced back to their species， those in four illustrations to genera， and those in three illustrations to family. The remaining 12 illustrations remain to be further verified. The origins of most Chinese medicinal materials in the illustrations can be traced， which is attributed to their exquisiteness and lifelikeness as well as the detailed descriptions of the characters of the original plants and animals. In the textual research of these illustrations， we have noticed that there are inconsistencies between pictures and texts， and different illustrations may be derived from the same origin. This is believed to be related to SU Song's principle of collation that "for all Chinese medicinal materials presented as examples， if their shapes and categories recorded are not consistent with those in the literature， they will be retained. If there is any connection with the literature， they will be annotated according to literature to make their origins clear". As revealed by the distribution of Chinese medical materials in Jiangsu Province reported in the Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica （Ben Cao Tu Jing）， the utilization and development of Jiangsu medicinal materials during the Northern Song Dynasty were mainly concentrated in the low-altitude valleys and coastal areas. It could be seen from the illustrations of Chinese medicinal materials named after geographical names of today's Jiangsu Province that the production areas with a large number of illustrations were relatively developed in politics， economy， and transportation at that time， which enabled the medicinal resources to be fully utilized.
ABSTRACT
Ben Cao Tu Jing is the earliest version of block-printed edition for herbals so far, with 933 medicinal paintings. In this paper, it analyzed the medicine paintings in the Fruit, Vegetable and Rice Sections of Ben Cao Tu Jing, as well as discussed the types of medicine paintings and relevant information when they were drawn. There are a total of 76 paintings in the fruits, vegetables and rice sections of Ben Cao Tu Jing, which can be divided into four types: broken branch paintings, ground paintings, rootless plant paintings and the whole plant with root paintings. The first three paintings were similar to the paintings of Tang and Song, and the paintings of the whole plant with root can be called the type of medicine paintings with Chinese characteristics created by Ben Cao Tu Jing. These four types of paintings had a profound impact on the later illustrations of medicinal materials, such as Lv Chan Yan Ben Cao, Jiu Huang Ben Cao, Ben Cao Pin Hui Jing Yao, Zhi Wen Ben Cao, Zhi Wu Ming Shi Tu Kao. The two types that had the greatest impact on later generations are the broken branch paintings and the whole plant with roots paintings, which had been inherited and developed in contemporary Chinese pharmacy books such as Zhong Yao Cai Pin Zhong Lun Shu and Zhong Hua Ben Cao. The paintings of the fruits, vegetables and rice sections are highly realistic and artistic, not only carrying the role of conveying medicinal knowledge, but also having unique aesthetic value. It can be inferred that the fruits, vegetables and rice sections had the participation of professional painters at least. In addition, through the highly consistent drawing styles of several sets of paintings, it is concluded that the paintings without place names were likely to be drawn uniformly by the editing team, and the local paintings may have been revised and improved by the editing team lately.