The book under review offers abridged selections from Paul Unschuld’s excellent full translation, in ten volumes, of Li Shizhen’s 李時珍 late-sixteenth-century Bencao gangmu 本草綱目 (University of California Press, 2021–2024). This book of selected entries is a great resource for a wide range of readers, including those interested in the history of science, the history of medicine, and Chinese cultural history. In addition, practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine will find it an accessible overview of the larger work. Individuals researching aspects of Chinese history that intersect with plants, minerals, and animals can locate examples that can then lead them to longer entries in the complete work. Teachers of Chinese history, Chinese culture, and Chinese literature will find excellent materials to assign to students, most likely several chapters, or selections from chapters.

In the “Prolegomena,” Unschuld includes a biography of Li Shizhen, places him within the context of Ming-period Confucian-centered education, provides a brief history of medical texts, and gives an overview of the structure of the text. Unschuld explains:

Unschuld also provides some important commentary on his translation, emphasizing that he chose not to use modern bio-medical terms: “I do not consider it meaningful to tell the ancient authors what they should have said if they had had the knowledge of the 20th and 21st century, thereby dispossessing them, as it were, from their own level of knowledge” (28). This is a praiseworthy approach, and it separates his translation from others. A teacher assigning just parts of this volume would almost certainly want to include this section.

In each of the chapters, one through seventeen, Unschuld has chosen a theme to explore through Li’s work. For each chapter, Unschuld first provides a short introduction to the topic, and then provides examples from Li’s text where the theme is explored or touched upon. Each example provides a reference to where to find it in the full, multi-volume translation. But while the full translation includes the original Chinese, this abridged version includes only occasional Chinese characters.

“Chapter One: Division of items.” In the introduction, Unschuld explains the overall organization of Li’s text. The examples include Li’s overview of each of the sixteen main divisions of the Bencao gangmu: waters, fires, soils, metals and stones, herbs, cereals, vegetables, fruits, woods, clothes and utensils, worms/bugs, animals with scales, animals with a shell, fowl, four-legged animals, and human substances. In these sections, Li engages with important organizing systems such as Yin and Yang, the Five Phases, and the Eight Trigrams. We can see Li’s enthusiasm for and curiosity about the natural world in commentaries such as: “Wow! The structure of things assumes a myriad appearances like that. Is this not something a learned person must know?” (43). We can also see him taking moral stands, and engaging in debates with other authors, such as in the introduction to the section on Human Substances:

Again, a teacher assigning just parts of the book would probably want to include this section.

“Chapter Two: Widespread culture, local customs, personal interventions.” This chapter is a great place to explore some of the broader cultural practices that are expressed within the text. For example, we see evidence of the widespread use of counterfeit ingredients in the manufacture of drugs. Li includes methods for testing whether or not a python gallbladder is genuine (67). The counterfeiting of the musk gland from musk deer was so common that Li states that the only way to guarantee that it was genuine was to witness the butchering of the deer (68). Unschuld includes a number of examples where we see Han Chinese xenophobia reflected in discussions about poisoning being more common among non-Han groups. In Li’s pursuit of knowledge, we see him questioning other sources or practitioners and engaging in debates about treatments. This chapter also includes a series of intriguing folktales involving the tapestry moth and the mountain otter that could be of interest to scholars and teachers of Chinese literature.

“Chapter Three: Visions of associations.” This chapter offers explorations of magical correlations as well as a deeper examination of the systematized associations of Yin and Yang and the Five Phases. A number of intriguing examples of correspondences offer important insights into sixteenth-century understandings of the natural world:

While the previous chapter includes examples of Li questioning his sources, in this chapter we see an example of him being more accepting: “Such an account borders on the absurd. Yet there are such things that happen outside of our reason. They should not simply be labeled as faulty” (91).

“Chapter Four: Cosmic structures: Numbers, time, and cardinal directions.” Unschuld explains the focus of this chapter as follows:

“Chapter Five: Demons and spirits, shamans and exorcism.” Introducing this chapter, Unschuld states that Li’s work “contains numerous examples of different concepts and activities for coping with demonic health threats. They were part of an indisputable reality acknowledged as such by Li Shizhen, even if he occasionally added a comment denying their validity. His generosity in presenting views with which he may have not agreed is unique” (107). Here is an example from the selections:

“Chapter Six: Involvement of Buddhists and Daoists.” Unschuld explains, “The Ben cao gang mu at no place explicitly refers to the Confucian world view or to Confucians as a distinct group. Daoists as a group are difficult to define. Still, they are mentioned quite often as ‘Daoists.’ … Buddhism cares about the quality of bodily life, and so it suggested a wide range of health care behaviors as well as disease related therapies” (124). The chosen examples include stories of Daoist hermits and Buddhist masters revealing secret healing recipes.

“Chapter 7: The Human body: Its organs and paths of entrance.” The examples that Unschuld chose for this chapter focus on the flow and blockage of qi and blood, as well as the many orifices in the human body “for introducing the pharmaceutical effects of herbs, plants and minerals, as well as of heat, cold, fire, and dampness” (150). This chapter and others offer evidence of the common use of corporal punishment in the judicial system with a formula for treating “wounds caused by flogging” (156). Given the title of this chapter, one might expect to find quite a few recipes from the final section of Li’s work that focuses on human body parts as ingredients in medical recipes, but most of the ingredients in the examples in this chapter are of non-human origin.

“Chapter 8: Standing up to nature: Cosmetics, body enhancement, anti-aging.” The introductory section explains, “Li Shizhen also included ample evidence of attempts at shifting the age limit, if not at deleting it altogether. … He quoted earlier authors making all sorts of promises as to the potentials of specific substances, and therapies based on their application, so as to achieve longevity and immortality. Every now and then he denounced a statement as unfounded and abstruse. … This is particularly evident in Li Shizhen’s detailed discussion of the effects of mercury” (173). In the commentary after an entry about silverfish and immortality, Li Shizhen proclaims, “This is even stranger than the legend of becoming an hermit/immortal by swallowing silver fish. It is entirely absurd nonsense. It is necessary to discuss and correct it” (187). From the entry for paper mulberry fruit: “The Daoist Liang Xu was 70 years old when he ate them and became even younger and stronger. At the age of 140 years he was still able to walk and to run as fast as a horse” (191).

“Chapter 9: Social and natural conditioning: Gender and sex.” Unschuld asserts that Li’s work reflects the dominant Ming expectations regarding sex and gender roles. For Li, “Gendering … was defined by natural law and social convention” (192). For example, Unschuld selected a number of recipes that include the injunction that women should not be allowed to view the process, and he notes that there are no such restrictions against men in the whole text. This chapter includes a number of recipes that vary depending upon whether the patient is male or female. While it is in a section titled “Human abnormalities,” it is intriguing to find Li discussing the “five kinds of apparent males that are not real males and cannot become fathers, and … [the] five kinds of apparent females that are not real females and cannot become mothers” (196).

“Chapter 10: The significance of reproduction: Fertility and pregnancy, abortion and birth.” Given the topics, it is not surprising that this chapter and the previous one include more about women’s health than the other chapters. Unschuld emphasizes that Li provides no moralizing regarding prevention of pregnancy and includes recipes for abortions (215). Being too cold was a common explanation for failure to conceive, so this chapter includes a fair number of recipes for warming.

“Chapter 11: Case records: Assessment and justification of therapeutic strategies.” For this chapter, Unschuld has chosen examples of actual medical cases. He asserts that “The implicit goal underlying most such case records and anecdotes is to promote adaptability rather than show stubborn adherence to superficial principles. Hence, Li Shizhen praises previous healers for their ingeniously individualized therapies. Nor is he afraid to criticize trained doctors or even court physicians for their incompetence” (235).

“Chapter 12: Neglected heritage: Tool-supported therapy.” This chapter includes discussions of tools that were used in the delivery of therapies. Most of Unschuld’s introduction is an interesting short essay on the nineteenth- and twentieth-century attempts to adapt traditional Chinese medicine to Western science and industrialization, but he does not provide the reader with a clear understanding of how this relates to the chapter topic. His primary organizing focus for making the selections in this chapter could have been explained more fully.

“Chapter 13: Sources of therapeutic expertise: Beggar and sovereign, chance encounters and dreams.” Here we see the broad range of Li’s sources: “Li Shizhen paid tribute to [the] diversity [of practitioners]. He saw beggars and convicts, physicians and pharmacists, noblemen and sovereigns as legitimate sources of therapeutic expertise whenever their advice proved to be effective. He also saw no problem in setting down advice conveyed in dreams or even inscribed by the hands of spirits on a wall” (266).

“Chapter 14: Dealing with poison.” In his introduction, Unschuld explains, “Virtually all the authors of the previous two millennia quoted in the Ben cao gang mu identified ‘poison’ as an enemy. To eradicate this enemy it must be ‘killed’. … [However,] as in the military, a former enemy can be turned in order to work for you. Poison is always good as an ally to attack adversaries” (290). When preparing poisonous ingredients to be used in recipes, Li provides warnings such as this one for preparing arsenic: “One must be careful! In the beginning, when the arsenic frost is prepared with heat sublimation, the persons engaged in this process will take a position more than ten fathoms away in the direction where the wind comes from” (300).

“Chapter 15: Raw materials found in nature and objects produced from them.” For this chapter, Unschuld has chosen passages about the uses of various objects unrelated to medicine. “Whether a natural raw material is made into candles, saddle covers, cotton filled mattresses, pillowcases, arrow shafts, flagpoles, axe handles, blocks for printing, or poles to push boats, dog troughs, roof beams, or car[t] wheel rims—Li Shizhen may have added detailed information on such alternative uses for the central reason underlying his grand work. He wished to demonstrate to his readers this very thing: the benefits of all these items for mankind” (308–309).

“Chapter 16: Explanation of names.” For this chapter Unschuld selected examples where Li delves into explaining multiple names for the same plant, same names for multiple plants, the meanings of names, and some foreign names. This chapter contains, by far, the most Chinese characters. This example from amber provides a good example:

“Chapter 17: ‘Further research is required’: Controversy and judgment.” In his introduction to this chapter, Unschuld clearly lays out his goals for this section:

“Chapter 18: Sample text and plant monograph: Chai hu, sickle-leaved hare’s ear.” For this final chapter, Unschuld has included a complete entry for one specific plant in order to show readers Li’s organizational approach. The introduction discusses the ten categories that Li included for each entry, as a guide for how to read the example, as well as any other entries that the curious reader may wish to pursue in the complete translation.

Teachers who wish to use parts or all of this text will need to provide their students with a bit of background information about traditional Chinese medical concepts, such as qi, Yin and Yang, the Five Phases, and perhaps an overview of common diagnostic techniques. In addition, while there is a short glossary at the back of the book, depending on the sections assigned for a class, the instructor may need to provide students with additional glosses. For example, the “Triple Burner” (sanjiao 三膲), a key if elusive concept, is mentioned a number of times by both Unschuld and Li, but is not included in the glossary (Unschuld does discuss it briefly on page 149).

In sum, A Catalog of Benevolent Items is an excellent resource for delving into traditional Chinese medicine, exploring traditional Chinese approaches to natural science, grappling with ways of organizing information, and gaining a deeper understanding of key values within Chinese culture.