Research On "Medical Treasure Materia Medica"

Among all the extant ancient Tibetan medicine works,Medical Treasure of Materia Medica is a profound theoretical masterpiece which deserves further study and is of great value in practice.It is no exaggeration to say that Medical Treasure of Materia Medica has relatively completely inherited the essence of Tibetan medicine and is the most comprehensive and influential works in the field of Tibetan herbalism.Due to some objective reasons such as the produce date of this works is very old and its extant version is fragmentary,nobody has studied this masterpiece systematically.Therefore,there are various issues on the writing backgrounds,basic contents and the author.However,many scholars believe that it is the lost Drolma Materia Medica and name it as Drolma Materia Medica.In order to fill the vacancy on the study of this works and add more to the study of history of Tibetan medicine,the author of this paper has collected three block printing versions of Medical Treasure of Materia Medica and made some correction.Besides,the author has made full use of methods such as literature contrast analysis,field survey,comparison of physical and specimen and consulting experts to verify the writing backgrounds and time of this works,and then has further studied the its unique contents and academic value,made a comparison on 217 kinds of herbs noted in this works through verification of literature,physical and specimen to identify Plant Names and Family&Genus of the noted herbs.At last,the author has made a deep analysis on the profound influence of this works on the verification of herbs and the development of Tibetan Herbalism.In a word,this paper makes contribution to the study of the unique academic value of Medical Treasure of Materia Medica.The author has put forward to several views in this paper as following:Firstly,Medical Treasure of Materia Medica is the most comprehensive extant works on Tibetan Medicine.The author has seriously verified that Medical Treasure of Materia Medica is the most comprehensive and complete one which was finished during 16th century when Tibetan medicine came to its peak age and was complied on the base of Rinchen Materia Medica,Drolma Materia Medica and Jade Emperor Materia Medica.The main theories of Medical Treasure of Materia Medica was originated from the three works mentioned above which were earlier masterpieces with great influence in the field of Tibetan medicine and were complied during 12th century.The author has found that the compiling of Medical Treasure of Materia Medica was tightly connected with society,culture and religion at that time.What's more,the author has put forward his idea on the writer of this works which is different from many scholars' view that Drolma was the one who created it,and he has corrected the time of compiling and its author.Secondly,the author of this paper has found that Medical Treasure of Materia Medica has a unique academic view and its noted herbs deserve to be verified.This works has four pieces of unique academic value:a.it is the most comprehensive works in herbalism;b.it has noted the richest categories of herbs and the most complete prescriptions;c.it has the broadest influence in the field of Tibetan medicine;d.it has the most unitized verification of herbs and therapy theories.Besides,the author of this paper has made deep analysis on 217 kinds of herbs noted in this works through verification to identify Plant Names and Family&Genus of the noted herbs and views of different scholars on these herbs.Thirdly,Medical Treasure of Materia Medica has a great influence on herbalism ever since.Finished in the 16th century when Tibetan medicine was at its peak age,Medical Treasure of Materia Medica made some correction on herbs that cannot match with names so that is offers classical theoretical base for the verification of Tibetan medicine.What's more,the author of this paper has studied its influence on Tibetan medicine classics such as Baidurga-sngon-po and Jing Zhu Materia Medica.In the 17th century,Medical Treasure of Materia Medica was collected into Tibetan Medical Thangka,as a result,many scholars do not study it separately and the identification of its writer is still an issue.Besides,many scholars prefer to study Jing Zhu Materia Medica,which affects the study of this works.To sum up,Medical Treasure of Materia Medica is a piece of classic works in Tibetan medicine which is the most complete one in theories and is of great academic value,and it is the integration of all the Tibetan medicine works and has the greatest influence on later works since 17th century.