Jiuhuang bencao
The (1406) Jiuhuang bencao (Chinese:
Author
[edit]Prince Zhu Su (
Zhu received the title of Wuwang (吴王, "Prince of Wu") in 1370 and that of Zhouwang (
Zhu Xiao was a talented scholar and wrote a collection of poetry called the Yuangong ci (
Zhu Xiao wrote the Jiuhuang bencao from 1403 to 1406 after many years of careful research, presumably "in an effort to alleviate the sufferings and death that too frequently occur in China as a result of famine."[3] According to tradition, Zhu Xiao researched and chose potential famine foods, had them planted in experimental gardens, which Christopher[4] called "famine gardens," and commissioned scholars to observe and record the plants' developmental stages. For the woodblock-printed publication, Zhu had extremely true-to-life illustrations prepared to portray the respective famine plants. The German sinologist Emil Bretschneider praised the Jiuhuang bencao woodcuts as "tolerably true to nature" and "certainly superior to some European wood-cuts of the 17th century".[5] The American botanist Walter T. Swingle says that in spite of their primitive technique, these woodcuts "are of high artistic quality."[6]
Title
[edit]The title combines jiùhuāng (
There is no regular English translation of Jiuhuang bencao, and it has been translated as:
- "Relieve Famine Herbal"[7]
- "The Famine Herbal"[8]
- "Treatise on Wild Food Plants for Use in Emergencies"[9]
- "Materia Medica for Survival during Famines"[10]
- "Plants for Disaster Relief Food"[11]
- "Famine Relief Pharmacopoeia"[12]
- "Materia Medica for the Relief of Famine"[13]
Editions
[edit]In 1406, Zhu Xiao published the first edition Jiuhuang bencao in Kaifeng, with a preface written by a scholar in the prince's household, Bian Tong (卞同), who explained:
The Prince of [Zhou] set up private nursery gardens ([pu] 圃) where he experimented with the planting and utilisation of more than four hundred kinds of plants, collected from fields, ditches and wildernesses. He himself followed their growth and development from the beginning to the end of their seasons. Engaging special artists ([huagong]
畫工 ) to make pictures of each of the plants and trees, he himself set down details of all the edible parts, whether flowers, fruits, roots, stems, bark or leaves, and digested the whole into a book with the title [Jiuhuang bencao]. He asked me, [Tong], to write a preface, which I have done very willingly. Human nature is such that in times when food and clothing is plentiful nobody takes a thought for those who are, or may be, freezing and starving; then when the day comes that they meet with this themselves, they have not the slightest idea what to do and can only wring their hands. Therefore he who would govern himself in order to govern the people should never lose sight of this for a single moment.[14]
This original edition had two volumes, with four separately paginated parts. Beginning in the sixteenth century, many new and revised editions of the Jiuhuang bencao were published.[15]
In 1525, Bi Mengzhai (畢蒙
The climate and soil of the five regions (he said) is not at all the same, so the local plants are also quite different in form and quality. The names are numerous and complicated, and it is difficult to distinguish one from another, the true from the false. If one did not have illustrations and explanations people would confuse [shechuang (
蛇 床 "milk parsley")] with [miwu (靡蕪 "hemlock parsley")], or [chini (齊 苨 "ladybell")] with [renshen (人參 "ginseng")]. Mistakes of this kind can kill people. This is why the [Jiuhuang bencao] was written, with its pictures and descriptions to clarify the forms of the plants and to record the methods of their use. In each case the writer first states where the plant grows, then be gives its synonyms and speaks of its Yang properties, whether refrigerant or calefacient, and its Yin sapidities, whether sweet or bitter; finally he says whether one must wash the part to be used (and for how long), soak it, fry it lightly, boil it, steam it, sun-dry it, and so on, with details of whatever method of seasoning is necessary.... If in time of famine people collect (emergency plants) in accordance with the resources of the local flora, there will be no difficulty and many lives will be saved.[16]
In 1959, Zhonghua Book Company published a 4-volume photocopied version of the 2nd edition.
The third (1555) edition Jiuhuang bencao was printed in 4 volumes, one for each of the four original parts. It mistakenly identified the author as Zhu Xiao's son Zhou Xianwang (
Owing to frequent content revisions of the text, the number of chapters and plants in some editions no longer corresponded with the 1st-edition Jiuhuang bencao. In 1562, Hu Cheng (
The first Japanese edition of the Jiuhuang bencao (Japanese Kikin honzō) was published in 1716. It was compiled and annotated by Matsuoka Jōan (
In 1846, The French sinologist Stanislas Julien presented a copy of the Jiuhuang bencao to the French Academy of Sciences; and the Athenaeum (1846) said, "The Chinese government annually prints thousands [of this book], and distributes them gratuitously in those districts which are most exposed to natural calamities".[1]
Contents
[edit]The Jiuhuang bencao includes monographs on 414 famine plants, 138 that could function both as foods and drugs were from earlier texts like the Song dynasty Zhenglei bencao (
According to Read, at least 73 of Zhu Xiao's new food plants entered Chinese domesticated horticulture (e.g., taro, water-chestnut, bamboo shoot) and 16 more were adopted in the diet of Japan or Europe (watercress, wasabi, burdock).[18]
The Jiuhuang bencao entry for Sagittaria sagittifolia "arrowhead" exemplifies famine food plants that were first described by Zhu Xiao and later became normal Chinese crop plants. In the present day, this edible tuber, traditionally associated with Chinese New Year, is known as cígū ((慈菇, lit. "kindly mushroom"), also written
[Shuicigu] The common name for this is scissors herb [jiandaocao] or else [jiandacao] (hung-up arrows herb). It grows in water, the item is grooved on one side (wā [窊]) and squarish on the other, with stringy fibres. The leaves are three-horned, resembling indeed a pair of scissors. From amidst the leaf-stalks rise up scapes which fork and bear three-petalled white flowers with yellow centres. Each of these gives a blue-green fruit follicle ([gūtū 蓇葖]) like that of the [qīngchǔtáo
青 楮 桃 "paper mulberry"] but rather smaller. The (tuberous) root is of the same kind as that of the onion ([cōng葱 ]) but coarser and larger and of a sweet taste. In case of hunger collect the young and tender shoots near the (tuberous) roots and scald them, then add oil and salt, and eat.[19]
Needham remarks on the high degree of precision in 14th-century Chinese phytographic language (gūtū 蓇葖 for "fruit follicle" generally – Sagittaria has many carpels – rather than the modern specification of "one-carpelled unilocular ovary"). Both Read[20] and Needham[21] note it is curious that Xu Xiao only recommended the shoots or turions for food, and not the starchy corms as a whole.
Information in the ancient Jiuhuang bencao is not always reliable. For instance, the shānlídòu (
Esculentist Movement
[edit]The Jiuhuang bencao originated what Joseph Needham[24][9] called the "Esculentist Movement"—from the word esculent "edible; comestible"—of medieval Chinese botanical research into wild food plants safe to eat in an emergency. While this Ming dynasty movement only lasted from the late-14th century to the middle-17th century, Needham says it "gave rise to some veritable monuments and masterpieces of applied botany."[25] Notable examples include
- (1524) Yecai pu (
野菜 譜 , "Treatise on Wild Vegetables"), Wang Pan (王 槃), 60 plants; reprinted as Jiuihuang yepu (救 荒野 譜 "Relieve Famine Wild [Vegetable] Treatise"), and supplemented by the (c. 1630) Jiuhuang yepu buyi (救 荒野 譜 補遺 ) - (c. 1550), Shiwu bencao (
食物 本草 , "Food Herbal"), Lu He (盧 和 ), Wang Ling (汪 穎), 400 - (1591) Yinzhuan fushi jian (
飲 饌服食 箋 "Explanations of Diet and Nutrition"), Gao Lian高 濂, 164 - (1597) Rucao pian (茹草
篇 , "Book of Edible Herbs"), Zhou Lüjing (周 履 靖 ), 105 - (1622) Yecai bolu (
野菜 博 錄 , "Encyclopedia of Wild Vegetables"), Bao Shan (鮑 山 ) 438 - (1642) Jiuhuang yepu (
救 荒野 譜 , "Treatise on Survival in the Wilderness and During Famine"), Yao Kecheng's (姚可成 ) Shiwu bencao (食物 本草 , "Materia Medica of Nutrition"), 120 plants
Each of these texts contained some plants not included in the Jiuhuang bencao, the identification of which has not received much attention by modern botanists.[26] Bretschneider's study[27] botanically identified 176 of the 414 Jiuhuang bencao plants; Read identified 358, leaving 56 unrevealed plants.[17] Read's monograph notably includes annotated modern data on the chemical composition and nutritive value of some of the plants.
Joseph Needham concluded, "There can be no doubt that the esculentist movement constituted one of the great Chinese humanitarian contributions. We do not know of any parallel in European, Arabic or Indian medieval civilisation."[28] The first similar work in a European language was Charles Bryant's (1783) Flora Diaetetica, or History of Esculent Plants, both Domestic and Foreign.
Evaluation
[edit]The comparatively few Western scholars who have analyzed the Jiuhuang bencao have enthusiastically praised prince Zhu Xiao's 700-year-old famine herbal.
Bretschneider said the text "is not a simple compilation from earlier treatises, but for the greater part an original work based upon the author's own experience."[5] Swingle described it as "a valuable early treatise on Chinese botany", and the "earliest known, and still today the best" work on famine food plants."[29] The Belgian-American historian of science George Sarton[30] called it "the most remarkable herbal of medieval times".[31] said that looking back at the work of Zhu Xiao, "one is struck by an impression of great originality. Certainly no previous work of a similar kind has come down to us." The American anthropologist Robert L. Freedman (2008) said the Jiuhuang bencao is the "most well-known, and comprehensive study of famine food plants."[32]
See also
[edit]- Bigu (avoiding grains) – Daoist dietary techniques employing some famine foods
- Caigentan ("Vegetable Root Discourse") – a 1590 compilation of aphorisms
References
[edit]- Bretschneider, Emil (1895). Botanicum Sinicum. Kelly & Walsh.
- Needham, Joseph; Lu, Gwei-djen; Huang, Hsing-Tsung (1986). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 6 Biology and Biological Technology, Part 1: Botany. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521087315.
- Read, Bernard E. (1946). Famine Foods Listed in the Chiu Huang Pen Ts'ao
救荒 本草 , Giving their Identity, Nutritional Values and Notes on their Preparation (PDF). Shanghai: Henry Lester Institute of Medical Research. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-28. Retrieved 2015-02-05. - Swingle, Walter T. (1935). "Noteworthy Chinese Works on Wild and Cultivated Food Plants". Report of the Librarian of Congress for the year 1935. Library of Congress. pp. 193–206.
- Unschuld, Paul Ulrich (1986). Medicine in China, A History of Pharmaceutics
本草 . University of California Press.
Footnotes
- ^ a b Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, p. 331.
- ^ Unschuld 1986, p. 221.
- ^ a b Swingle 1935, p. 200.
- ^ Christopher, Thomas (1985). "The famine garden of Prince Chu Su". Garden. Vol. 9. New York Botanical Garden. pp. 18–21.
- ^ a b Bretschneider 1895, p. 50.
- ^ Swingle 1935, p. 194.
- ^ Swingle 1935.
- ^ Read 1946.
- ^ a b Needham, Lu & Huang 1986.
- ^ Unschuld 1986.
- ^ Chen, Chia-jui; Hoch, Peter C.; Raven, Peter H. (1992). Systematics of Epilobium (Onagraceae) in China. Systematic Botany Monographs. Vol. 34. American Society of Plant Taxonomists. pp. 1–209. doi:10.2307/25027806. JSTOR 25027806.
- ^ Ho, Peng Yoke (2007). Explorations in Daoism: Medicine and Alchemy in Literature. Routledge.
- ^ Losso, Jack N.; Shahidi, Fereidoon; Bagchi, Debasis (2007). Anti-Angiogenic Functional and Medicinal Foods. CRC Press.
- ^ Tr.Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, p. 332.
- ^ Swingle 1935, p. 195; Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, pp. 334–5; Unschuld 1986, p. 221.
- ^ Tr. .Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, pp. 334–5.
- ^ a b Read 1946, p. 3.
- ^ Read 1946, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Tr. .Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, p. 344.
- ^ Read 1946, p. 40.
- ^ Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, p. 344.
- ^ Tr. Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, p. 342.
- ^ Read 1946, p. 34; Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, p. 341.
- ^ Needham, Joseph; Lu, Gwei-Djen (1969). "The Esculentist Movement in Mediaeval Chinese Botany, Studies on Wild (Emergency) Food Plants". Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences. 2: 225–48. PMID 11613594.
- ^ Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, p. 328.
- ^ Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, p. 349.
- ^ Bretschneider 1895.
- ^ Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, p. 330.
- ^ Swingle 1935, pp. 194, 200.
- ^ Sarton, George (1947). Introduction to the History of Science. Vol. III, Science and Learning in the Fourteenth Century. Robert E. Krieger. p. 1170.
- ^ Needham, Lu & Huang 1986, p. 335.
- ^ Freedman, Robert L. (2008). "Notes on the Famine Foods Website". Purdue University. Archived from the original on 2015-10-08. Retrieved 2015-02-06.
External links
[edit]救荒 本草 , Jiuhuang bencao, 1778 Siku Quanshu edition, Internet Archive