A Preliminary Study of Plant Morphological Characteristics of Tao Hongjing’s A Variorum of Medicinal Properties of Plants (Bencaojingjizhu) and Influence of the Book

Huayu LU, Anhui HU

Abstract


Tao Hongjing (456-536 AD) lived in the Southern Dynasty of China. His book A Variorum of Medicinal Properties of Plants (also called Bencaojingjizhu) made a lot of achievements in morphological records of plants. The book has some characteristics, for example, it provided the largest number of plant forms and relevant structures, had detailed observation on plant organs, recorded and identified more plant forms and relevant structures, paid special attention to forms and structures of integral parts of plants and so on. These characteristics not only enriched content of medicinal substance books, laid a solid foundation for researching the history of plant morphology and had the influence on such book content, botanical research, spirit of academic research and so on at the time and later, but also provided an important reference for identifying medicines. Although the book has shortcomings, its function and status should not be ignored in the development history of plant morphology.

Keywords


Tao Hongjing; A Variorum of Medicinal Properties of Plants; Bencaojingjizhu; Plant morphology; Characteristics; Influence

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/%25x

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