神農本草經
Shénnóng Běncǎo Jīng
Divine Farmer's Materia Medica

Three hundred and sixty-five substances in three grades — the earliest materia medica.

The Shennong Bencao Jing classifies 365 drugs into three grades — superior, medium, inferior — by whether they can be taken long without harm. The number is not accidental: it matches the days of the year.

For a reader it is the most tractable text in the corpus: entries are short, formulaic, and each is a self-contained unit. Nothing is transcribed yet.

Chapters

Chapters are listed in the order of the base text. Those already transcribed open into the three-layer reader.

Quick facts

Original title
神農本草經
Pinyin
Shénnóng Běncǎo Jīng
English title
Divine Farmer's Materia Medica
Compiled
Han, attributed to the culture hero Shennong; a compiled text with no single author.
Extent
365 entries in 3 juan
Rights status
to_confirm
Period
Han

Base text & rights

Rights status for the base text, facsimiles and any modern critical edition is recorded in the Rights & sources register. Entries still marked 待最終確認 are not cleared for reproduction.