The current status of old traditional medicine introduced from Persia to China.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) includes over ten thousand herbal medicines, some of which were introduced from outside countries and territories. The Silk Road enabled the exchange of merchandise such as teas, silks, carpets, and medicines between the East and West of the Eurasia continent. During this time, the 'Compendium of Materia Medica' (CMM) was composed by a traditional medicine practitioner, Shizhen Li (1,518-1,593) of the Ming Dynasty. This epoch-making masterpiece collected knowledge of traditional medical materials and treatments in China from the 16th century and before in utmost detail, including the origin where a material was obtained. Of 1892 medical materials from the CMM, 46 came from Persia (now Iran). In this study, the basic information of these 46 materials, including the time of introduction, the medicinal value in TCM theory, together with the current status of these medicines in China and Iran, are summarized. It is found that 20 herbs and four stones out of the 46 materials are registered as medicinal materials in the latest China Pharmacopoeia. Now most of these herbs and stones are distributed in China or replacements are available but saffron, ferula, myrrh, and olibanum are still highly dependent on imports. This study may contribute to the further development, exchange, and internationalization of traditional medicine of various backgrounds in the world, given the barriers of transportation and language are largely eased in nowadays.

Analysis of varieties and characteristics of marine Chinese medicines recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica / 中草药

In this paper, the methods of literature study and data analysis were used to search and collect the information of the varieties of marine traditional Chinese medicine (MTCM) recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica (CMM), in order to analyze the changes of the varieties made by the comparison of CMM and the other ancient herbal works, as well as the added varieties and their habitat distribution, property and flavor, efficacy based on the species collected in Chinese Marine Materia Medica. At the same time, the classification, five-taste, four-nature, and efficacy of MTCM recorded in CMM were deeply analyzed. The results showed that 190 species of MTCM were recorded in CMM, 12 species of which were added compared with the classic works before Ming Dynasty. The main flavors of MTCM recorded in CMM were sweet taste (29.47%) and salty taste (16.84%), the main property of them was mild (30.53%), followed by cold nature (23.16%) and warm nature (10.00%). For the efficacy, the most of them were tonic (22.11%) and clearing heat (20.53%), followed by dissolving phlegm, relieving cough and relieving asthma (8.95%), and promoting diuresis and expelling pathogenic dampness (6.32%). The varieties and characteristics of the marine traditional Chinese medicines recorded in CMM were systematically sorted out and analyzed for the first time in this paper.

[Investigation of Compendium of Materia Medica in Japan].

Published in the Ming Dynasty around 1593 to 1596, the Jinling Edition of the Compendium of Materia Medica is considered the earliest engraved version. This edition has considerable literary and academic value. Only a handful of copies remain as they had to survive more than 400 years of human conflict and environmental damage such as mold and mildew. Throughout history, many ancient books, including herbal materia medica, have been exported to overseas, following the expansion of trade and cultural exchange. In Japan, many of these books are still well preserved. The author conducted a field investigation to Tohoku University in Sendai, Tokyo's Oriental Library, the Cabinet Library of the National Archives, and the National Diet Library to study four very well-preserved Jinling Editions of the Compendium of Materia Medica to fully understand the development of traditional medicine in Japan.

[Textual research on the unclear source of citations from Hua Tuo correlation works cited by the Compendium of Materia Medica].

The Compendium of Materia Medica is a magnum opus, in which a large number of literatures were cited. By searching with keywords, there were 30 citations related with Hua Tuo in this book. However, some citations were not specific, even lack of the source information. The objective of this article is to find out the contents, first-hand source and editions of the primary literatures by doing textual research.As a result, the sources of quotations about the Hua Tuo's Prescription for Madam Pengcheng and Hua Tuo's Emergency Cases Prescriptions were discovered.Meanwhile, it was confirmed that Zhongzang Jing (, Classic of the Central Viscera) with 3 volumes and books of prescriptions during Song and Ming Dynasties were cited by the Compendium of Materia Medica. This solve the long term problem about Hua Tuo's citations, and might benefit further study about the citations of the Compendium of Materia Medica.

[Study on themisprints of the primary version of the Compendium of Materia Medica].

The Jinling version of the Compendium of Materia Medica was the primary version.It accurately represented the ideas of LI Shizhen, therefore it was valued by the scholars.There were many defects in misprint (knife carving) and proofreading.The main errors were some Chinese character's strokes missing and wrong characters printed.The authors collected some statistics data andmade some statistical analysis. They found that total misprints were 376 and emerge 615 times.Those misprints can divide into two categories: lack of some parts of Chinese characters; lack of some strokes of Chinese characters.Four tables which list the misprints was made.It is helpful for scholars to examine Compendium of Materia Medica or the study of other similar ancient literatures.

Influence of Compendium of Materia Medica on the Materia Medica in the late period of the Chosun Dynasty / 의사학

In this paper, I investigated the influence of Compendium of Materia Medica (CM) on Records for Rural Life of Chosun Gentlemen (RRC), and refuted Miki Sakae's opinion, CM did not have much impact on the Materia Medica in the late period of the Chosun Dynasty. When Li Shizhen published CM, it resulted in a shift of mainstream of Materia Medica in Eastern Asia from Classified Emergency Materia Medica to CM and a new categorizing system of Materia Medica by CM led to the division of Materia Medica into medicine and natural history. It is obvious that doctors of the Chosun Dynasty also adopted the latest achievements of Materia Medica by CM, but so far there have been few studies to clarify this. Seo yugu was a scholar of the Realist School of Confucianism during the late period of the Chosun Dynasty, and RRC is his representative work. RRC is a massive encyclopedia of natural history that covers vast areas of science from agriculture, floriculture, writing and drawing, architecture, diet, and medicine, among others which absorbed the achievements of CM, the best Materia Medica book at that time. Miki Sakae also highly regarded the encyclopedic knowledge of RRC, but devalued the results of Materia Medica. He only described a part of RRC's Materia Medica, nurturing volume, on the view of life nurturing and mentioned that it had been strongly influenced by China. According to this study, a large portion of RRC, especially regarding Materia Medica, depends on CM. Seo yugu had accepted the categorizing system and new medicinal information of CM, at the same time he modified the categorizing system of CM practically by the subject of each volume of RRC. We can find many quotations of CM except the nurturing volume, but other books, Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine, Materia Medica for Relief of Famines are also quoted. Furthermore, Seo yugu emphasized the differences of natural environments between Chosun and China, and specified the editing criteria, "to be useful in Chosun." This is the most obvious evidence that Materia Medica of Chosun had not remained in the framework of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine which succeeded Classified Emergency Materia Medica, but had been developed into medicine and natural history based on CM.

The Introduction of Compendium of Materia Medica and Praxis in the Late Joseon Dynasty / 의사학

Sakae Miki said Classified Emergency Materia Medica had been the dominant standard of herbology throughout Joseon Dynasty, and that Compendium of Materia Medica had only been accepted so lately that a few books used herbological result of it in the late Joseon Dynasty. But according to Visiting Old Beijing Diary written by Munjoong Seo in 1690, Compendium of Materia Medica was in fact introduced before the year 1712, the year Miki Sakae argued to be the year Compendium of Materia Medica was accepted to Joseon officially. Now, we can assume that the introducing year of Compendium of Materia Medica was faster than Miki Sakae's opinion by the following reasons; the effort of Joseon government and intellectuals to buy new books of Ming & Ching; the publishing year of the book for living in countryside regarded as the first citing literature of Compendium of Materia Medica. And the True Records of the Joseon Dynasty and many collections written by intellectuals in the 18th century show that the herbological knowledge from Compendium of Materia Medica had already spread to the corners of Joseon Dynasty. Thus we can make the following assumption: Classified Emergency Materia Medica and Compendium of Materia Medica had coexisted in the late Joseon Dynasty. Sakae Miki suggested 6 examples which used Compendium of Materia Medica in the late Joseon Dynasty. I reviewed two of them in this paper, Essentials of Materia Medica & Handbook of Prescriptions from Materia Medica. Essentials of Materia Medica quoted Compendium of Materia Medica briefly focusing clinical use, and Handbook of Prescriptions from Materia Medica also re-compiled Compendium of Materia Medica to practical use according to the form of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine. It means that the results of Compendium of Materia Medica have been used positively, based on the herbology of materia medica from countryside. From this point of view, the hyphothesis there weren't any herbological progress after accepting Compendium of Materia Medica in the late Joseon Dynasty by Sakae Miki can be denied.