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Shennong Bencao Jing · The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica
Preface
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
Preface 1 · Upper Grade
The upper medicines, 120 kinds, are sovereigns. They chiefly nourish life in correspondence with Heaven and are classified as non-toxic, said not to harm through large or prolonged use. Those seeking bodily lightness, increased qi, freedom from aging, and lengthened years are directed to the Upper Classic.
English edition note: This historical text's claims about toxicity, ingestion, longevity, alchemy, and supernatural effects are translated as its claims. Flavors and cold/warm natures are traditional categories. Historical substance names are generally transliterated; neither those names nor the disease terms establish exact modern species, chemical composition, or diagnoses.
Preface 2 · Middle Grade
The middle medicines, 120 kinds, are ministers. They chiefly nourish one's nature in correspondence with humanity. Some are classified non-toxic and some toxic; their suitability must be weighed. Those seeking to check illness and supplement deficiency and emaciation are directed to the Middle Classic.
Preface 3 · Lower Grade
The lower medicines, 125 kinds, are assistants and envoys. They chiefly treat illness in correspondence with Earth. Most are classified toxic and are not for prolonged use. Those seeking to remove cold, heat, and pathogenic qi, break accumulations and gatherings, and cure illness are directed to the Lower Classic.
Preface 4 · Sovereigns, Ministers, Assistants, Envoys
Medicines have sovereign, minister, assistant, and envoy roles, communicating, regulating, and harmonizing together. The text gives one sovereign, two ministers, and five assistants, or one sovereign, three ministers, and nine assistants and envoys.
Preface 5 · Seven Relationships
Medicines have yin–yang pairings, children, mothers, elder and younger siblings, roots, stems, flowers, fruits, herbs, stones, bones, and flesh. Some act singly; some require one another; some serve as envoys; some fear one another; some antagonize, oppose, or counteract one another. Examine these seven relationships together. Use suitable mutual assistance and envoy relationships, not antagonistic or opposing ones. Where toxicity needs restraint, mutual fear or counteraction may be used; otherwise do not combine them.
Note: The source abbreviates the envoy category as “there are envoys.” Its relationship terminology is retained.
Preface 6 · Flavors, Natures, and Preparation
Medicines have five flavors—sour, salty, sweet, bitter, pungent—and four qi—cold, hot, warm, cool—besides toxicity or its absence. Shade drying or sun drying, harvest and preparation dates, raw or cooked condition, producing terrain, genuine or false material, and old or new stock each have their methods.
Preface 7 · Forms of Preparation
Some medicinal natures suit pills, some powders, boiling in water, steeping in wine, or preparing as thick extracts. One substance may suit several forms; some must not enter decoctions or wine. All follows the substance's nature and must not be contradicted.
Preface 8 · Examining Illness
To treat illness, first examine its source and observe its mechanism. If the five zang organs are not yet deficient, six fu not exhausted, blood vessels not disordered, and essence and spirit not scattered, the text predicts survival through medicine. Once illness has become established, half may recover. When its course has passed beyond the critical point, life is difficult to preserve.
Preface 9 · The Text's Rule for Toxic Medicines
For toxic medicines against illness, the source says to begin with an amount like millet grain and stop when the illness departs. If it does not, double it; if still not, make it tenfold, taking removal of illness as the limit.
Note: This reproduces the historical dosing assertion without converting its amounts or adding a modern regimen.
Preface 10 · Matching Classes of Medicine
Cold is treated with hot medicines, heat with cold. Undigested food calls for vomiting and purging medicines; ghost infestation and gu poison, toxic medicines; abscesses, swellings, sores, and growths, sore medicines; wind-damp, wind-damp medicines. Each follows what the text considers suitable.
Preface 11 · Timing by Site of Illness
For illness above chest and diaphragm, the text places food before medicine; below the heart and abdomen, medicine before food. For limbs and blood vessels, an empty stomach at dawn; for bones and marrow, a full stomach at night.
Preface 12 · Principal Disease Categories
Major illnesses include wind-strike, cold damage, warm-nue periodic fever, being struck by malign influences, huoluan vomiting and diarrhea, enlarged abdomen, water swelling, intestinal pi with diarrhea, blocked stool or urine, bentun upsurge, upward qi, counterflow cough, vomiting, jaundice, wasting-thirst, retained fluid, pishi food disorder, hard accumulations and zheng/jia masses, fright and malign influences, dian/xian seizure disorders, ghost infestation, throat impediment, toothache, deafness, blindness, metal-weapon wounds, sprains and fractures, abscesses and swellings, harmful sores, hemorrhoidal disorders, fistulas, neck swellings and fistulas; men's five exhaustions and seven injuries, deficiency, fatigue and emaciation; women's lower discharge, flooding bleeding and blocked blood; and injuries from insects, snakes, and gu poison. These are only broad indications. Their changing branches and details should each be approached through the clues they present.
Note: Zang/fu, qi, bi impediment, zheng/jia masses, Three Worms, hun/po souls and the named disease categories retain the text's traditional meanings; they are not automatically modern diagnoses.
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