Volume I is divided into two parts. Part B of volume I in the Ben cao gang mu series offers a translation of portions of chapter 3 and the complete chapter 4, devoted to pharmaceutical drugs for diseases. This volume is a continuation of volume I, part A. The first portion of chapter 3 is found in part A. The Ben cao gang mu is a sixteenth-century Chinese encyclopedia of medical matter and natural history by Li Shizhen (1518-1593). The culmination of a sixteen-hundred-year history of Chinese medical and pharmaceutical literature, it is considered the most important and comprehensive book ever written in the history of Chinese medicine and remains an invaluable resource for researchers and practitioners. This nine-volume series reveals an almost two-millennia-long panorama of wide-ranging observations and sophisticated interpretations, ingenious manipulations, and practical applications of natural substances for the benefit of human health. Paul U. Unschuld's annotated translation of the Ben cao gang mu, presented here with the original Chinese text, opens a rare window into viewing the people and culture of China's past.
Biografie (Paul U. Unschuld)
Prof. Dr. phil. Paul U. Unschuld, M.P. H. studierte Pharmazie, Sinologie und Politische Wissenschaften in München, sowie Public Health in Baltimore/USA. Er begann seine Universitätslaufbahn 1977 im Department of Behavioral Sciences an der Johns Hopkins University und ist seit 1986 Professor und Vorstand des Instituts für Geschichte der Medizin der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in München. Im Mittelpunkt seines wissenschaftlichen Wirkens liegt der Vergleich der Geschichte, Theorie und Ethik der Medizin in Europa und China.
