What Is the Bencao Gangmu?

By Ella Leung · Written October 2026

The Bencao Gangmu (本草纲目, Běncǎo Gāngmù), commonly translated as the Compendium of Materia Medica, is a Chinese work of pharmacology and natural history completed in 1578 by the Ming-dynasty physician Li Shizhen (李时珍, Lǐ Shízhēn). It describes roughly 1,900 medicinal substances — mainly plants, animals and minerals — and arranges them under an "outline and detail" scheme whose two terms, 纲 (gāng) and 目 (mù), give the book its name. This page explains who wrote it and why, how the text is organised, why it mattered, how its editions and illustrations were produced, and why a record of this kind is not, by itself, a basis for using anything today.

1. Li Shizhen and how the book was made

Li Shizhen (1518–1593) was born in Qizhou (蕲州), in present-day Qichun County, Hubei, into a family of physicians; his father, Li Yanwen, was a respected local doctor [1]. Like most men of his time he was trained for the civil-service examinations, and he passed the lowest level at the age of fourteen, but after failing the higher provincial examinations three times he set the examinations aside and turned to medicine [2]. He later held a post in a princely household and, by some accounts, served briefly at the imperial medical office; the exact title is marked unverified here [2].

The making of the book was a long project. The most common figure is about twenty-seven years — UNESCO uses that number — while the book's own preface language speaks of "thirty years," with the start usually placed around 1552 and the finished manuscript in 1578 [3]. Accounts add that Li consulted more than eight hundred earlier sources and rewrote the manuscript three times [3]. The exact counts differ, but the method matters more than the number: years of gathering, comparing and correcting earlier work rather than one author's recollection.

His aim was corrective. The genre to which the book belongs, 本草 (běncǎo, "materia medica") — the Chinese tradition of drug literature — had accumulated errors over many centuries, and the last official compilation was by then several hundred years old [7]. The book reports that Li travelled through several provinces, questioned farmers, hunters, herbal sellers and other practitioners, and inspected plants, animals and minerals himself [3][7].

2. How the text is organised

The book is often described by its numbers: 52 juan (卷, scrolls or volumes), 16 divisions (部, bù) and 60 categories (类, lèi), covering about 1,892 substances, of which 374 are recorded as Li's own additions, alongside some 11,096 formulas drawn from earlier works [4]. Different editions and sources give slightly different counts — for instance, illustration totals are quoted as either 1,109 or about 1,160 — so these figures are best read as approximate [4].

The title states the method. 纲 (gāng) is the "outline," the guiding cord, and 目 (mù) is the "entry," the detail gathered under it. The book's own guide to its use says it "sets out sixteen divisions as the outline and sixty categories as the detail" [5]. Li did not keep the older scheme, which had sorted drugs into three grades of upper, middle and lower quality; instead he grouped substances by their natural kind [5][6].

The sixteen divisions run, in order: water; fire; earth; metals and stones; grasses; grains; vegetables; fruits; trees; clothing and utensils; insects; scaled creatures (fish and reptiles); shelled creatures; birds; beasts; and, last, the human body [5]. The ordering follows a stated logic of moving "from the small to the large" and "from the lowly to the noble," ending with the human division — a sequence that runs broadly from minerals, through plants, to animals [6]. Later writers have called this a step toward a natural system, closer to how plants and animals came to be grouped by observation; that is a modern reading, attributed as such [6][7]. The book also reviews 41 earlier works of materia medica and lists its cited books, making it an early bibliography as well as a catalogue [7].

3. Why it mattered

The Bencao Gangmu gathered the pharmacological and natural-history knowledge of East Asia up to the sixteenth century, and it became a standard reference within the bencao tradition and beyond [13].

The British historian of Chinese science Joseph Needham called it "undoubtedly the greatest scientific achievement of the Ming," and described Li Shizhen as an "uncrowned king" among Chinese naturalists [13]. In the West, Charles Darwin cited "an ancient Chinese encyclopedia" in his work on variation in domesticated animals and plants — identified by later scholars as this book — drawing on its observations about bred animals and plants; the attribution to Darwin is well documented, and the number of citations is a later count [12]. The work was translated, in whole or in part, into several European and East Asian languages and reprinted many times; the often-quoted claim that it was reissued "more than a hundred times" comes from a single modern account and is marked as unverified [16].

Its recognition is also formal. In 2011 a copy of the earliest, or Jinling, edition was added by UNESCO to its Memory of the World Register, having been submitted by China the year before [14].

4. Editions and illustrations

The book reached print only after the author's death. A preface by Wang Shizhen (王世贞), a leading literary figure of the day, helped it find a publisher, and the Nanjing bookseller Hu Chenglong (胡承龙) produced the first edition, known as the Jinling edition (金陵本, Jīnlíng běn, after the old name of Nanjing) [8].

The date of that first edition is not agreed. The National Library of China's introduction describes printing that began in 1590 and was completed in 1596; the academy that holds the copy entered on the Memory of the World register describes it as printed in 1593; other library catalogues give 1590 [9]. What is consistent is that Li Shizhen died in 1593 and did not live to see the book in print [9]. The sources differ, so this page gives the span rather than a single year, and marks the exact date unverified [9].

Later editions were numerous. A 1603 reprint from Jiangxi, produced under two provincial officials, corrected some faults of the first printing and became the basis of many later reprints; further well-known recensions appeared in 1640 and 1885 [10]. One scholarly count puts the number of editions by the end of the Qing dynasty at more than sixty; that is a single count, marked unverified here [10].

The first edition carries two juan of illustrations, given in the book as compiled by one of Li's sons, Li Jianzhong (李建中), and drawn by another, Li Jianyuan (李建元) [11]. How original those pictures were is disputed. The National Library's introduction describes most of them as newly drawn from life, while other scholarship argues that many were adapted from earlier illustrated herbals; the two accounts are not fully reconciled, and the question is marked unverified [11]. The images were prepared as the book was made ready to print, and a picture in such a book is not on its own evidence about the identity or use of a substance.

5. A historical record is not a basis for use today

This boundary matters most for a reader. The Bencao Gangmu records what people at a particular time believed about a wide range of natural substances and their uses. A statement in it is a claim made within the Chinese medical tradition, in that tradition's own framework of flavours, categories and correspondences — not a confirmed modern finding, and not a health promise [6][7].

The age, size or fame of the book does not settle whether a given substance helps or harms. That question is answered, when it is answered, by controlled studies, pharmacology and toxicology — methods that did not exist in the sixteenth century. Its entries range across plants, animals and minerals, and some, such as mercury (水银, shuǐyín), are recognised today as toxic; the record cannot be read as a catalogue of safe remedies [4].

It is true that modern researchers have sometimes used old records as leads for new investigation — the antimalarial drug artemisinin is often mentioned in this connection — but a lead is a reason to test something, not proof that it works or is safe; the specific link between a classical text and that discovery is not confirmed here [15]. Readers who want to understand how traditional records and modern evidence answer different questions can begin with the related articles below.

6. What this page does not do

This page is a historical and cultural explanation. It gives no prescriptions, doses or treatment plans; it does not repeat the book's entries as advice; it does not present historical claims as modern evidence; and it does not tell a reader to use, buy or avoid any substance. Decisions about health belong with a qualified practitioner and your own circumstances.

Sources

1. National Library of China (中国国家图书馆), 《本草纲目》导读 (electronic book, 2023), on Li Shizhen's life, the composition of the work, its structure and its editions. https://www.nlc.cn/migrated/www.nlc.cn/bbjd/202108dzyd/zxyd/no5/202308/P020230801353599421356.pdf
2. Same source as [1], on Li Shizhen's education and posts; and the Baidu Baike entry 「李时珍」 (used only for the disputed imperial-medical-office title, unverified).
3. Same source as [1], on the twenty-seven-to-thirty-year compilation, the "eight hundred" sources and the three drafts; and UNESCO, Memory of the World, on "a period of 27 years." https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/ben-cao-gang-mu-bencaogangmu-compendium-materia-medica
4. Same source as [1] (52 juan, 16 divisions, 60 categories, 1,892 substances, 374 additions, 11,096 formulas, 1,109 illustrations); Qichun County Government, 《医圣故里》 (illustration totals "1,100 余幅"); and WikiProjectMed, Bencao Gangmu (illustrations up to 1,160). https://www.qichun.gov.cn/zjqc/csmp/11483032.html
5. 《本草纲目·凡例》 (the book's own guide to its use), as in the Shidian Guji text of the Bencao Gangmu; and the National Library introduction [1]. https://www.shidianguji.com/book/HY1557/chapter/1kw0wxj9sxmgw
6. Same as [5], on the "from the small to the large / from the lowly to the noble" ordering; and a discussion of the bencao natural-history tradition quoting the same preface, Institute of Chinese Medical Literature and Culture, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. https://wenxian.sdutcm.edu.cn/info/1015/1568.htm
7. 《本草纲目·凡例》; the Han Dian (汉典) entry 「本草纲目」 (the model Zhenglei Bencao, the 41 earlier works); and the National Library introduction [1].
8. Same source as [1], on Wang Shizhen and Hu Chenglong; and Guangming Daily (光明日报), 《〈本草纲目〉珍贵祖本的发现与研究》, 25 April 2013. https://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2013-04/25/nw.D110000gmrb_20130425_3-12.htm
9. Same source as [1], on printing begun 1590 and completed 1596; China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (中国中医科学院), on its holdings as the "1593 Jinling edition"; Library of Congress / Biodiversity Heritage Library catalogue records dating the edition to 1590. Exact date unverified. https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_13551/ ; http://www.cintcm.ac.cn/news.thtml?id=8810
10. Same source as [1], on the Jiangxi, Wulin Qianya and Weiguzhai editions and the "more than sixty editions" count. Edition count unverified.
11. Same source as [1] (Li Jianzhong / Li Jianyuan and the "drawn from life" description); and a scholarly study of illustration limits in the Bencao gangmu. https://scispace.com/pdf/the-limits-of-illustration-animalia-and-pharmacopeia-from-t26h173k6d.pdf ; https://kokubunken.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/4208/files/PW0405.pdf
12. China News Service (中国新闻网), 《不只是医书！带你了解真正的〈本草纲目〉》, 26 September 2023 (Darwin's "ancient Chinese encyclopaedia," and Pan Jixing's identification); and the Macau ICM journal, "The Diffusion of Chinese Medicine in the West," on Darwin's citations.
13. Same source as [1], quoting Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 1, Introductory Orientations; and World Scientific, Introduction PDF. https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/suppl/10.1142/12309/suppl_file/12309_intro.pdf
14. UNESCO, Memory of the World Register, Ben Cao Gang Mu — Submission Year 2010, Registration Year 2011, submitted by China. https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/ben-cao-gang-mu-bencaogangmu-compendium-materia-medica ; State Archives Administration of China (国家档案局), 《中国入选〈世界记忆名录〉的文献遗产》. https://www.saac.gov.cn/daj/lhgjk/201808/08851f0258e24944b7249efa1f4f19ee.shtml
15. The general claim that classical Chinese medical records have served as leads in modern drug research, and the particular link between a classical text and the antimalarial drug artemisinin — unverified on this page (the specific textual source was not confirmed here).
16. Same source as [1], on the multi-language translations and the "reissued more than a hundred times" claim. Reissue count unverified.

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