Tang Shenwei (; c.1056-1093),

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Shenyuan (), was a Chinese physician of the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

. He compiled an influential

pharmacopoeia A pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea (or the typographically obsolete rendering, ''pharmacopœia''), meaning "drug-making", in its modern technical sense, is a reference work containing directions for the identification of compound med ...

, ''Zhenglei bencao'' (證類本草).

Career

Tang Shenwei was born in a family of professional physicians from Jinyuan (晉原; in today's

Chongzhou Chongzhou ( zh, c=崇州, p=Chóngzhōu), known as Chongqing County ( zh, t=崇慶縣, s=崇庆县) until 1994, is a county-level city of Sichuan Province, Southwest China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Chengdu ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

). During the Yuanyou

era An era is a span of time. Era or ERA may also refer to: * Era (geology), a subdivision of geologic time * Calendar era Education * Academy of European Law (German: '), an international law school * ERA School, in Melbourne, Australia * E ...

(元祐; 1086–1094) of Emperor Zhezong's reign, he became a disciple of and moved to Huayang near

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

''Zhenglei bencao''

Tang spent several years on studying books on pharmaceuticals to create his own compendium. He merged the entirety of some existing works and added information researched on his own to the compilation. The book was ready about 1082–1083. Its full title, ''Jingshi zhenglei beiji bencao'' ( zh, t=經史證類備急本草, s=经史证类备急本草, first=t) translates as "Ready-to-use pharmacopoeia, classified as collected from the Classics and historiographical books". The compendium encompassed 1,748 different drugs (476 of which were not included in the previous texts) and beyond 4,000 treating methods. It quotes more than 240 ancient written sources, many of which are lost today. Part of the information hails from his own research. In the preface, Tang summarized the history of

materia medica ''Materia medica'' ( lit.: 'medical material/substance') is a Latin term from the history of pharmacy for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing (i.e., medications). The term derives f ...

books and explained the way in which he carried out the compilation. Every drug entry includes the description of usage, function in the

Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence of effectiveness or ...

framework, places or origin, methods of collection and preparation. 933 illustrations are included for easier identification. Some of the medical materials were not described before in any known book. The book has spawned many editions, including state-sponsored revisions. It stayed influential for several centuries, even if outshined by the even more monumental

Bencao gangmu The ''Bencao gangmu'', known in English as the ''Compendium of Materia Medica'' or ''Great Pharmacopoeia'', is an encyclopedic gathering of medicine, natural history, and Chinese herbology compiled and edited by Li Shizhen and published in the ...

of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. Its author,

Li Shizhen Li Shizhen (July 3, 1518 – 1593), courtesy name Dongbi, was a Chinese acupuncturist, herbalist, naturalist, pharmacologist, physician, and writer of the Ming dynasty. He is the author of a 27-year work, the '' Compendium of Materia ...

spoke about Tang Shenwei favorably.

Depictions

Song dynasty official Yuwen Xuzhong () described Tang Shenwei as "ugly in appearance and slow in demeanor and speech". ''The Strange Doctor Tang Shenwei'' (怪医唐慎微), a 2014 film produced by

CCTV6 China Movie Channel refers both to a government-affiliated production agency and to the movie-focused television channel CCTV-6 operated under its direction. The agency, officially known as the "Satellite TV Show Production Facility",, is a divi ...

and directed by Fang Junliang, depicts Tang Shenwei's life, with actor in the title role.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Chinese male non-fiction writers 11th-century Chinese physicians Song dynasty people Song dynasty science writers