Shennong herbal classic of traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine has a wide range of sources, including plant medicine, animal medicine and mineral medicine, etc., but in terms of quantity and type, it is mainly plant medicine, so it has been along since ancient times, mostly referring to traditional Chinese medicine by herbal medicine and Chinese herbal medicine Traditional Chinese medicine is also known as materia medica, and as a classic subject, it is not Shennong materia classic Shennong's classic of Materia Medica is also called "the classic of Materia Medica" or "the classic of Materia Medica" In the old times, it was believed to be passed down by Shennong, the sage of the ancient times But like Huangdi's classic of Materia Medica, it was obviously the work of later generations The author of the book is still a mystery, and even the age of the book is controversial At present, according to the development of the history of pharmacology and the cultural background reflected in the contents of the book, most of the books are written in the Eastern Han Dynasty In fact, ancient China had a very early knowledge of medicine There were more than 100 kinds of animals and plants that could be used for medicine recorded in the book of songs, the book of mountains and seas and other Pre-Qin books There were more than 240 kinds of medicine used in the 52 disease prescriptions unearthed from the Han Tomb of Mawangdui, which shows that at that time, the knowledge of medicine had a considerable scale But these are not special books on drugs According to the literature, special books on drugs appeared in the early Han Dynasty For example, Cang Gong, a famous doctor in the Western Han Dynasty, inherited the medical books from Gongcheng Yangqing, which contained the theory of medicine From his name, it should be considered as the work of discussing medicine In addition, bangu's Hanshu also has the records of the special book of Materia Medica and the professor of Materia Medica Unfortunately, these documents have not been preserved As the earliest existing monograph on pharmacology, Shennong materia medica can be regarded as a collection of previous works on pharmacology, which laid the foundation for the development of ancient pharmacology and was a milestone in the history of Chinese medicine Shennong materia medica systematically summarizes the experience of ancient doctors in various aspects, and makes a comprehensive and systematic arrangement of the drug knowledge that has been mastered There are 365 kinds of drugs in the book, which coincide with 365 days of a year This is not a coincidence, but the result of the author's intention In fact, the number of drugs mastered at that time was far more than this number, but because of the influence of the number theory, 365 kinds of drugs were selected from them, "method 365 degrees, once should be a day, to become a year old" Shennong materia medica not only collects drugs, but also classifies the collected drugs consciously It divides 365 kinds of drugs into three categories according to the top, middle and bottom, which is called "three classification" The classification is mainly based on the performance and efficacy of drugs Among them, there are 120 kinds of Chinese medicine, such as ginseng, liquorice, rehmannia, jujube and so on There are 120 kinds of Chinese medicine, such as lily, angelica, longan, Coptis, ephedra, Angelica dahurica, Scutellaria and so on There are 125 kinds of Chinese medicine, which are more toxic, Do not take for a long time, such as rhubarb, Aconitum, kansui, Croton, etc From today's point of view, the classification method of "three products" is certainly not perfect, and even has many defects It does not grasp the essential characteristics of drugs, and it is still a relatively primitive classification method The boundary between the top, middle and bottom three drugs is also very vague, so it is difficult to establish a clear division standard Moreover, under the influence of the prevailing concept of immortality and alchemy at that time, there were many contents such as stone taking and alchemy, and even some highly toxic mineral medicines such as cinnabar and realgar were listed as the top of the list It was certainly absurd to think that long-term taking had the effect of prolonging life But even so, this method is still the forerunner of the classification of Materia Medica, which makes a large number of complex drugs tend to be organized and systematic, and also has a certain significance for guiding clinical application Shennong materia medica contains rich and profound drug theory, which establishes the theoretical framework of pharmacology The content of this part is mainly seen in the preface part, which is equivalent to the general introduction of the whole book Although the text is not long and only has 13 articles, it has covered all aspects of pharmacology Taking the drug compatibility as an example, the principle of composition of monarch, Minister and assistant envoy is put forward in Shennong materia classic The so-called monarch, Minister and assistant envoy are originally members of different classes in the society, with different functions and grades Pharmacology uses them to explain the different roles of drugs in the compatibility, such as the first-class drugs are monarch drugs, the second-class drugs are minister drugs, and the second-class drugs are assistant drugs In the formulation, the characteristics of drugs should be fully considered There should be not only monarch drugs, Minister drugs, but also assistant drugs The proportion can be dealt with according to the principle of one monarch, two ministers, three assistants, five envoys or one monarch, three ministers and nine assistants In drug compatibility, when two or more drugs are used in one prescription, they will have different reactions with each other: some drugs can play a greater role when they are used together, some drugs will reduce the drug resistance of the other when they meet; some drugs can restrict the toxicity of the other; some drugs are non-toxic themselves, but if they meet, they will produce a lot Toxicity, can not be used together, etc In Shennong Materia Medica, there are seven kinds of relations, including one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one-way relationship, one- In Shennong Materia Medica, the efficacy and main diseases of various drugs are recorded and described briefly, which is undoubtedly the summary of valuable experience in early clinical pharmacy Long term clinical practice and modern research have proved that most of the knowledge about the efficacy of the drugs contained in Shennong herbal classic is correct, and many of them are still widely used in clinical practice, such as ginseng tonic, Coptis dysentery, ephedra asthma, Changshan Plasmodium, rhubarb diarrhea and so on In addition, there are a wide range of main diseases treated by various drugs, including more than 170 kinds of diseases, including internal, external, women, children, facial features and other diseases In addition, Shennong materia medica has a lot to do with the taste, place of origin and collection, processing methods, and even the principles and methods of medication, which greatly enriches the knowledge system of pharmacology Throughout the history of ancient Materia Medica, it shows a dynamic development trend Every certain period, with the continuous enrichment of drug knowledge, there will be new summative works of Materia Medica Up to the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were hundreds of various kinds of herbage books Although the quantity and annotation of the included drugs are constantly changing, their sources are basically the result of the continuous enrichment and development on the basis of the framework of Shennong bencaojing, and their influence is very obvious.