Review of the Complete Illustrated Edition of Compendium of Materia Medica
Zheng Jinsheng
Institute of History of Chinese Medicine, Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine
The Complete Illustrated Edition of Compendium of Materia Medica (edited by Chen Shilin, People’s Health Publishing House, 2018) is a significant work in recent years regarding the study of medicinal substances in the Compendium of Materia Medica. This book contains a large number of exquisite color photographs, most of which reflect the identification characteristics of medicinal substances from different angles, and comprehensively showcase the latest achievements in the verification of medicinal substances in the Compendium of Materia Medica. As I perused this book, reflecting on the past and present, I had many thoughts, which I will share below.
The use of images to assist in the identification of medicinal substances has a history of nearly 2,000 years in Chinese herbal medicine. Among the more than 250 ancient materia medica texts that remain today, about 40 (including 7 in color) are illustrated, with approximately 20,000 images preserved. The role of these medicinal images in assisting identification is undeniable. For instance, without the illustration of “Luzhou Ginseng” in the Song Dynasty’s Illustrated Compendium of Materia Medica, the distribution of ginseng in ancient Shanxi would remain an unresolved mystery. Some ancient illustrations of medicinal substances created by artists can even rival modern botanical scientific illustrations. While anyone can write, drawing requires professional training, and to accurately depict the characteristics of medicinal substances, one must be well-versed in their properties. Therefore, precise medicinal illustrations from ancient times are indeed scarce, leading to differing opinions on whether illustrations are necessary in materia medica texts.
The Southern Song Dynasty pharmacologist Chen Yan specifically wrote a section titled “On the Removal of Illustrations” in his Compendium of Materia Medica of Baoqing, expressing criticism towards the illustrations in materia medica. By the Southern Song Dynasty, medicine and pharmacy had already separated, and physicians mostly encountered medicinal materials or decoctions, with few opportunities to see the original medicinal substances. Thus, Chen Yan believed that illustrations primarily reflecting the original medicinal substances could not be compared with the actual medicinal origins. Many characteristics of medicinal substances are difficult to express through illustrations, leading to many being merely indicative or suggestive. For example, the illustration of Ejiao (Donkey-hide Gelatin) depicts a pavilion covering a well (suggesting “A Well”), which Chen Yan considered meaningless for identifying medicinal substances. The main text of Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Materia Medica does not mention any plans for accompanying illustrations. On the contrary, Li Shizhen criticized the first ink line engraved medicinal illustrations in China, stating: “The illustrations and descriptions do not correspond; they are unrelated. Sometimes there are illustrations without descriptions, or descriptions without illustrations, or the descriptions do not match the illustrations.” The Compendium of Materia Medica is a comprehensive work containing 1,892 medicinal substances, and if illustrations were to be included, achieving correspondence between text and image, and ensuring accurate depictions, is no easy task. The existing illustrated version of the Compendium of Materia Medica from Jinling, created by Li Shizhen’s descendants, contains many errors and is of much lower quality than the Illustrated Compendium of Materia Medica.
From the evaluations of medicinal illustrations by ancient pharmacologists Chen Yan and Li Shizhen, it is clear that when judging medicinal illustrations, one should not pursue extravagance; the images must be true and accurate, and correspond with the textual records. This is the fundamental point in assessing the value of ancient materia medica illustrations. Since modern times, scientific illustrations of medicinal origins have become mainstream in medicinal illustrations. However, ink line or color scientific illustrations require expertise to complete and often struggle to depict living, naturally growing medicinal origins. With the development and popularization of photography technology, color photography has gradually become the primary means of modern materia medica illustrations. In over ten contemporary specialized works on the Compendium of Materia Medica, color photographs dominate. However, regardless of how the form of medicinal illustrations changes, the standard for judging them still lies in their role in identifying medicinal substances.
The Complete Illustrated Edition of Compendium of Materia Medica (hereinafter referred to as Illustrated Edition) consists of 20 volumes, fully incorporating the punctuated text of the Compendium of Materia Medica and integrating 1,109 ink line illustrations from the Jinling edition into the corresponding medicinal entries. On this basis, the Illustrated Edition adds a section titled “Origin” under specific medicinal entries, explaining the source of the medicinal substances and presenting numerous color photographs of medicinal origins, habitats, medicinal materials, and decoctions. Most photographs include Chinese names or Latin scientific names. Additionally, important common medicinal substances are accompanied by genetic sequences, and these contents are generated as QR codes.
Compared to other similar works, the Illustrated Edition adopts modern, internationally applicable DNA barcoding technology, attaching accurately verified genetic sequences of the original medicinal substances under the corresponding medicinal entries. This move allows the Illustrated Edition to surpass the traditional identification systems of most similar works, better aligning the identification of ancient materia medica with relevant international disciplines. Furthermore, the Illustrated Edition records the full text of the Compendium of Materia Medica, which is also rare among similar works. Its full text directly adopts the 2015 printed version from the People’s Health Publishing House, without any new corrections or improvements (such as still not using quotation marks, etc.). Moreover, the text is often overlaid on color photographs, affecting the reading experience; thus, from the perspective of academic innovation and practicality, the inclusion of the full text of the Compendium of Materia Medica in this book is indeed counterproductive.
The greatest highlight of the Illustrated Edition is the “Origin” section and the accompanying medicinal images.
The “Origin” section is a new addition in the Illustrated Edition, found under 1,239 medicinal substances. Additionally, 13 medicinal substances, although lacking an “Origin” section, contain actual origin content. This section selects results from the verification of certain important works, and most present the taxonomic position and Latin scientific names of the origins, followed by information on their production areas, cultivation status, varieties listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and related harvesting and processing details. Although this section does not list the ancient materia medica references for verifying the origins, it reflects a wide range of modern verification achievements regarding medicinal origins, with clear sources that can be cross-verified. According to the preface of this book, the Illustrated Edition references 20 important related works. Among them, those closely related to verifying the origins of medicinal substances in the Compendium of Materia Medica include Color Illustrated Guide to Medicinal Substances in Compendium of Materia Medica, Color Illustrated Compendium of Materia Medica, Color Illustrated Guide to Medicinal Materials and Original Plants in the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China, New Compilation of Chinese Medicinal Materials, Encyclopedia of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Chinese Materia Medica, Illustrated Guide to Chinese Medicinal Materials, Color Illustrated Guide to Chinese Medicinal Plants, Encyclopedia of Chinese Animal Medicines, Flora of China, Compilation of National Chinese Herbal Medicines, and Dictionary of Chinese Medicinal Materials, among others. Notably, six of these authoritative works are edited by Chen Shilin. By examining the names of these currently authoritative works, it is evident that the “Origin” section in the Illustrated Edition presents the latest and most authoritative research results in similar studies, while also incorporating the long-term research findings of the editor and his team.
The quality of illustrated works is determined not only by the accuracy of the origin verification but also by whether they reflect identification characteristics with clear and reliable images. Given that most medicinal origins (especially plants) exhibit different morphological characteristics at different growth stages, and that physicians generally have limited opportunities to see wild origins, they often rely on medicinal materials and decoctions. Therefore, the images used for identifying Chinese medicines cannot be as definitive as an ID card; they need to be selected from different growth stages, parts, and angles. In this regard, the quality of the medicinal images included in the Illustrated Edition (especially plant images) is considered the best among similar works.
For example, ginseng primarily grows in a corner of Northeast China and is not a widely distributed common plant. Historical materia medica often provides descriptions of its plant and medicinal parts that are somewhat misleading. Ginseng is a treasure, with its leaves, flowers, roots, and rhizomes all being medicinal. In modern times, wild ginseng is on the brink of extinction, and current medicinal sources include cultivated ginseng and forest ginseng, necessitating the illustration to convey many characteristics. The Illustrated Edition first presents several images of the upper part of the ginseng plant, clearly showcasing the identification features of “three branches and five leaves” and fruit “like soybeans, turning from green to red.” It then displays images of ginseng rhizomes, young shoots, and fully captures the lively state of ginseng sprouts emerging from the “rhizome” (the old scar of the rhizome), which is very creative. Following this, it presents images of ginseng flowers (dried medicinal material), cultivated ginseng roots and fibrous roots, whole cultivated ginseng, forest ginseng, ginseng slices, and a total of 20 photographs. Among them, the fresh root images of forest ginseng accurately showcase its characteristics (long and slender rhizome, multiple scars, sparse fibrous roots, long and tough, etc.). Although this ginseng is artificially sown, it grows naturally without human interference from fertilization or pesticide application, and its age is relatively long (often around 15 years), making it the closest to the source of ginseng used in ancient medical prescriptions, and it does not destroy the forest due to the cultivation of ginseng gardens. Thus, the numerous images accompanying ginseng not only reflect the characteristics of the original ginseng plant and medicinal materials but also pay attention to the latest applications of ginseng.
Taking Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels as an example, according to materia medica verification, its authentic origin is the plant of the Umbelliferae family, commonly known as “Maw Tail Angelica.” However, in recent decades, Levisticum officinale Koch. and Angelica acutiloba (Sieb. et Zucc.) Kitagawa have been widely cultivated and used in Northeast China, North China, and provinces such as Shaanxi, Shandong, and Henan. If only a small photo of the whole plant of Angelica sinensis is taken, the differences between these three origins and medicinal materials cannot be discerned. The origin photos selected in the Illustrated Edition are large and detailed; the selection of the medicinal materials also fully highlights the characteristics of “Maw Tail Angelica.” The book also includes longitudinal and transverse section images of the decoction slices, completely reflecting the characteristics of Angelica sinensis as described in the Compendium of Materia Medica.
The phenomenon of confusion among medicinal varieties was not uncommon in ancient times. For instance, the two medicinal substances Belamcanda chinensis (L.) DC. and Iris tectorum Maxim. have been debated in ancient materia medica, with even Li Shizhen believing that Iris tectorum “is the seedling of Belamcanda chinensis, not a different species.” Therefore, the illustration in the Compendium of Materia Medica is titled “Belamcanda and Iris,” treating the two as the same. However, according to records in the Newly Revised Materia Medica and Illustrated Compendium of Materia Medica, Belamcanda chinensis flowers are “yellow-red, with fine patterns on the petals,” while Iris tectorum flowers are “purple-blue.” The root shapes of the two are also different: Belamcanda chinensis has “many fibrous roots, yellow-black skin, and yellow-red flesh,” while Iris tectorum has “black roots resembling high-quality ginger with large nodes, connected in clusters” (as cited in Shu Materia Medica from the Tang Dynasty). According to materia medica verification, Belamcanda chinensis is a plant of the Iridaceae family, while Iris tectorum is a plant of the same family. Although their leaves are similar, the flower colors and root cross-sections differ significantly. The Illustrated Edition presents the full forms of these two plants, as well as their fresh root shapes and decoction slices, allowing for a very intuitive and straightforward distinction between the two plants.
Due to the wide geographical sources of medicinal substances and the seasonal differences in the characteristics of different origins, capturing photographs of medicinal origins requires photographers to trek into the wild in different seasons. According to the introduction at the front of this book, it took 16 years to complete, with over 180 contributors, gathering numerous experts and scholars, resulting in the successful compilation of this work, and selecting a large number of photographs from tens of thousands of images for inclusion in the Illustrated Edition. Among them are many rare and unique images that are captivating.
For example, Gastrodia elata, also known as “Red Arrow” in ancient times. As a researcher of materia medica for many years, I have seen dried and fresh roots of Gastrodia elata, as well as many hand-drawn or photographed images of the plant. However, when I saw the photograph of Gastrodia elata (above-ground part) in the Illustrated Edition, I was still shocked: the scene features crooked trees, with two upright, flesh-colored “bamboo poles” standing among them, resembling a living “arrow shaft”! I finally understood why the ancients referred to the seedling of Gastrodia elata (stem) as “Red Arrow.” Additionally, this medicinal substance also presents freshly dug roots, orange-red flower clusters, dried Gastrodia elata, and slices, vividly and comprehensively showcasing its true appearance.
As I read through the Illustrated Edition page by page, I often found myself amazed by many exciting and previously unseen images! Many subtle identification features that previous similar illustrations glossed over are “zoomed in” in this book. For instance, the arrangement of sporangia in ferns like Guan Zhong, the orange-red flower spikes of Typha (male flower clusters), their size, color, and clarity are as if the real objects are right in front of you. Some medicinal cross-sections are captured with such precision that their colors, textures, and patterns are vividly apparent. This can be seen in many medicinal substances such as Rhizoma Atractylodis, Alisma, Reishi Mushroom, Yam (Yellow Tuber), and Gambir. The patterns displayed in the cross-section of Coptis chinensis allow one to better appreciate the ancient texts stating, “When broken, it resembles the eye of a bird.” The flowers and fruits of plants are the most important organs for modern plant identification. The Illustrated Edition pays special attention to these features. Many rare plants’ flowers or flower clusters, fruits or fruit clusters, which were previously hard to see, are realistically presented in this book. This can be seen in many medicinal substances such as Asarum, Cardamom, Turmeric, Epimedium, Anemone, and Epimedium sagittatum. Even the most common Rheum palmatum is carefully presented with its stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits, and the often overlooked fruits of Rheum palmatum are magnified. Alisma is specifically photographed with its stem broken to show the white sap flowing out, highlighting one of the identification characteristics of such plants. For small plants like Hymenocallis, as well as mosses, both ancient materia medica illustrations and modern illustrations struggle to adequately showcase their true forms. The Illustrated Edition attempts to address this by using 10 photographs to present the plant, flowers, flower clusters, and dried decoction slices of Hymenocallis from different angles, allowing this medicinal substance, which was difficult for ancient people to describe its morphology, to reveal its true form. From many images, one can also sense the dedication of the photographer. For instance, the image of the “Yellow-headed Snake” features a person holding the snake’s head to fully display its characteristics. Due to space limitations, I cannot list all the outstanding color images in this book. These painstakingly captured images are the most commendable and academically valuable achievements of this book.
After introducing the main content and features of the Illustrated Edition, let us examine it using the criticisms of Chen Yan and Li Shizhen regarding illustrated materia medica.
Chen Yan stated, “Physicians only use the finished medicines… even if there are illustrations, how can they be verified?” This statement is somewhat biased. The Ming Dynasty pharmacologist Chen Jiamao said: “There is a saying: the seller of medicine has two eyes, while the user has one eye.” Physicians who only use medicines should learn more about pharmacology, which is a good thing. The Illustrated Edition includes many images of medicinal materials and decoctions, making it more suitable for physicians to understand the sources of medicinal substances. However, Chen Yan viewed suggestive or indicative illustrations (like the “A Well” image) as “excessive,” which is not unreasonable. For a modern academic work like the Illustrated Edition, the selection of images should be meticulous. However, the second volume of the Illustrated Edition contains images of rainwater, dew, flowing water, warm soup, blue sea water, and mountain spring water, while the twelfth volume includes images of vinegar, wine, distilled liquor, grape wine, dregs, and pestle heads, which I believe are excessive and unhelpful, either being well-known or failing to express inherent characteristics, thus not serving the purpose of identifying the origins of medicinal substances. Furthermore, the 588 medicinal images inserted in the general discussion of volumes 1-4 of the Illustrated Edition are unrelated to the main theme. The only reason for their inclusion is that these medicinal names were mentioned in the general discussion. The Illustrated Edition is not a “picture book,” and the appearance of so many unrelated medicinal images in chapters not specifically discussing them is akin to “decorative illustrations” in novels. Additionally, the twelfth volume contains rough hand-drawn color images (not scientific illustrations) under the entries for “Coral” and “Water Bitter Lettuce,” while the thirteenth volume includes “Sleeping Vegetable,” and the fifteenth volume includes “Incense” and “Su He Xiang,” which do not match the overall style of the book. There are hundreds of medicinal substances with clear origins that lack images in the Illustrated Edition, and the inclusion of rough hand-drawn images for just these five medicines damages the overall photographic style and format of the book.
Li Shizhen criticized the Song Dynasty’s Illustrated Compendium of Materia Medica for its most fatal flaw being “the illustrations and descriptions do not correspond; they are unrelated,” or “the descriptions do not match the illustrations.” For a work like the Illustrated Edition, which reflects the latest achievements in materia medica verification, there are virtually no such errors. The few instances of image-text inconsistency are not due to a lack of academic rigor but are likely “typos.” For example, in the thirteenth volume under the entry for “Bitter Eggplant,” the origin is unclear, but the “Origin” section and illustration below it are a repeated paste of the content from the subsequent entry for “Hu Lu.” Similarly, the image of “Zhi Mu” decoction slices under the entry for “Zhi Mu” is actually that of “Zhi Ke” decoction slices. Additionally, under the entry for “Laurel,” the origin is identified as the Lauraceae plant Cinnamomum camphora, and the image is also of the Lauraceae Cinnamomum camphora, but the accompanying illustration is of the Oleaceae Osmanthus fragrans. Given that the “Origin” section already states “see the entry for ‘Cinnamomum camphora’ in this volume,” it is clear that the attached erroneous image was not intended. Similar issues can also be found in the tenth volume under the entry for “Tong Cao,” which I will not elaborate on. In such a large illustrated work, a few minor errors are not significant.
Another criticism Li Shizhen made of the Song Dynasty’s Illustrated Compendium of Materia Medica was that “there are illustrations without descriptions, or there are substances without illustrations.” The so-called “substances without illustrations” refers to those with clear origins but no accompanying images. “Illustrations without descriptions” refers to those with images but no explanations. While these issues may not be academic errors, their occurrence in a rigorous, high-level materia medica atlas is indeed regrettable. Such situations exist in the Illustrated Edition, but they are mostly found in animal medicines and are rare in plant medicines.
Among the 1,095 plant medicines in the Compendium of Materia Medica, the Illustrated Edition has verified the origins of 809, accounting for 73.9% of all plant medicines. Among these 1,095 plant medicines, there are 153 “named but unused” medicines and 69 various supplementary medicines, totaling 222. These 222 medicines are part of the 1,892 medicines in the Compendium of Materia Medica and cannot be overlooked. The Illustrated Edition rarely includes verification results for the origins of such medicines, the reason for which is unclear. In recent years, both domestic and foreign scholars have conducted considerable verification of various supplementary medicines in the Compendium of Materia Medica, especially for the supplementary fruit medicines, many of which have clear origins. Even among the “named but unused” medicines, several plant origins have been clearly verified, such as Jixiangcao, Cizhu, Bailiangjin, Jiulongcao, Tianxianlian, Manjianghong, Geshanxiao, Shijianchuan, Bisida, Ganjianzi, Muzhuzizi, Luquzi, Renmianzi, Siweiguo, Qiansuizi, and Shanzao. Ignoring the verification of such medicines has resulted in at least 20 medicinal substances with clear origins from the Compendium of Materia Medica missing the opportunity to be illustrated in the Illustrated Edition.
Among the plant medicines with clear origins but no images in the Illustrated Edition, there are only 13, accounting for 1.6%, which is a very low proportion. In contrast, the situation is different for animal medicines. The Compendium of Materia Medica lists 409 animal medicines (excluding human medicines). Of these, 358 (87.5%) have verified origins. It should be noted that the proportion of animal medicines with clear origins is higher than that of plant medicines. However, the number of animal medicines without images is 116, accounting for 32% of all animal medicines with verified origins. For example, among the 68 fish species listed in the Compendium of Materia Medica, 59 have “Origin” sections, indicating that the majority (86.8%) have clear origins. However, only 33 of them are illustrated, while 26 lack images, resulting in a “substances without illustrations” rate as high as 44%. Fish such as White Fish, Shad, Shark, Grouper, Carp, Eel, Sea Shrimp, and Catfish are not illustrated. Compared to the loss of images among plant medicines, the “substances without illustrations” phenomenon among animal medicines is significantly more severe. These missing animal images are not universally known. Even rainwater, dew, warm soup, and distilled liquor have illustrations, yet the animal medicines are overlooked, which is unreasonable.
As for the “illustrations without descriptions” phenomenon, it also exists in the Illustrated Edition, but it is very rare. For example, there are 13 instances where there are images but no “Origin” sections or any explanations. Among these are medicines like Chenlinmi, Rice, Porridge, Cake, and Sticky Rice Dumplings, which, even if they have “Origin” sections, are not very meaningful. However, the entries for Shu Mu, Pongcaozi, Sheng Guacai, and Wenzhu in the eleventh to fourteenth volumes lack “Origin” sections, which is somewhat careless.
In summary, the various medicinal images included in the Illustrated Edition indeed contribute positively to the practical application of medicine and the correspondence between images and text. However, using medicinal images as decorative pages in the general discussion or inserting unrelated indicative images detracts from the quality of a rigorous academic work. The plant medicines rarely exhibit the “substances without illustrations” phenomenon, but among animal medicines, this phenomenon is quite serious and constitutes a defect.
Furthermore, during my study of the Illustrated Edition, I found that such a highly academic work was edited as if it were a picture book. This has led to issues such as oversized medicinal names, wasted space, and overlapping images and text. In particular, the method of overlapping images and text significantly affects the use of images and text in the Illustrated Edition. Many black text from the Compendium of Materia Medica and genetic sequences are overlaid on dark images, making them unreadable, and the images become obscured. For instance, in the twelfth volume under “Ge Cong,” the original image was taken in the wild, with a background of overgrown weeds, and the text overlaid on it makes it impossible to read, and the image is split and obscured, preventing one from appreciating the image of “Ge Cong.” In the last few volumes of the book (mostly animal medicines), at least dozens of animal medicine images fail to reflect the full appearance of the origins. For example, the name of “Carp” in the eighteenth volume (green background with white text) resembles a playing card, obscuring the lower half of the carp. How can such a layout help understand the Compendium of Materia Medica citation stating, “(Carp) has 36 scales from head to tail, all the same size”? Similar situations occur repeatedly in the same volume. “Bream,” “Salamander,” “Perch,” etc., are either obscured at the lower half or cut off at the waist. The most critical parts of “Sea Cucumber” are also obscured. The image of “Turtle” in the nineteenth volume is almost half obscured by the medicinal name, and the remaining part is overlaid with text, making it look hazy. It is inappropriate for a scientific work to adopt such a layout. A well-taken photograph of “Horseshoe Crab” is split by the name and text, making it impossible to see its full appearance. Such damage caused by layout makes the effect of the image even less helpful for identification than the colored illustration of the horseshoe crab drawn in the Ming Dynasty’s Essentials of Materia Medica. Additionally, the book lacks an index of medicinal names and Latin scientific names at the end, which can be inconvenient for readers unfamiliar with the arrangement of medicinal substances in the Compendium of Materia Medica.
As a researcher of materia medica, I greatly cherish the numerous creative and painstakingly captured beautiful medicinal images in the Illustrated Edition. The quality of these images is unmatched by any previous similar book. However, I also lament the damage caused to the Illustrated Edition by human factors such as layout design. Nevertheless, I sincerely recommend this book to readers, hoping to share the gains and joys I have obtained from studying the Illustrated Edition.
[Author’s Biography] Zheng Jinsheng graduated from Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1969. In 1978, he became the first master’s degree holder in the history of medicine and a researcher at the Institute of History of Chinese Medicine, Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, doctoral supervisor, and one of the first academic leaders in the field of history of medicine literature; he has served as the director of the institute and a visiting professor at Humboldt University in Berlin and Charité Medical University. He specializes in the history of Chinese medicine literature, with a particular focus on the history of materia medica and Chinese medical literature. He has edited large series such as Overseas Chinese Medicine Rare and Valuable Ancient Books Series and Encyclopedia of China: Pharmacology Subvolume, and serves as the director of the academic committee of the Complete Book of Chinese Materia Medica. He has organized and published over 70 ancient Chinese medicine texts and written more than 170 papers.
This article is intended for publication in the Journal of Chinese Experimental Formulas, 2019, Issue 13. Please indicate the author and source when reprinting.
