| Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medico.), was written by Li shizhen in 1578 and then published in 1593 in Ming Dynasty. This book had a total of 52 volumes, with 2 volumes of medicine pictures,1892 kinds of materia medical.330 kinds of materia medical had the explanations of "Xiu-zhi". In Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medico), "Xiu-zhi" meant "Pao-zhi". There did not have "Pao-zhi(炮制)" in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica). "Pao-zhi(炮 炙)" was used for the name of the book Lei gongpao zhi Lun (Master Lei’s Discourse on Drug Processing). It had 350 "Xiu-zhi" in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), far more than "Pao-zhi". Li shizhen chose "Xiu-zhi" as a special name to explain materia medicals. So "Xiu-zhi" could be the title of the paper.The key point of this paper was to systematically investigate various terminologies of processing in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica). In order to discuss the terminologies of processing, it extracted all the processing term in the book, and then grouped into Excel and Access software. Using this form, I could search and summarise the relevant processing terminologies from different conditions. The paper mainly divided into generic terminologies of processing and terminologies of the specific method processing, and then discussed the value and limitations of terminology of processing in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica).The first part of the paper was generic terms of processing. It analyzed the time of their emergence, meaning and situation of generic terms of processing in the medical books.In herbal monographs in Song and the former Dynasty, Li shizhen mainly quoted generic terms of processing in Tao hongj ing’s Ben caojingji zhu (Collective Notes to the Canon of Materia medica). Because Ben cao jing ji zhu (Collective Notes to the Canon of Materia medica) involved generic terms of processing of Tao himself,Shen nong ben cao Jing (Shen nong’s Classic of Materia Medica) and Mingyi bie lu. First, Li shizhen used "Zao" and "Cai" and other related terms steming from Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Shen nong’s Classic of Materia Medica). The meaning of the term "Zao" was processing. After Tang Dynasty, "Zao" was instead of "Zhi". So, "Zhi-zao", "Xiu-zao", "Zao-zuo" also meant processing. Second, Li shizhen used "He-yao", "Fen-ji" steming from Ben cao jing ji zhu (Collective Notes to the Canon of Materia medica). The meaning of the term "He" was reconciling. Then, there were terms of "Xu-he", "He-he", "He-he" for reconciling. Lei gong pao zhi Lun (Master Lei’s Discourse on Drug Processing) was the first processing monograph in Song and the former Dynasty. It had proved that "Pao-zhi(炮炙)" was used before Six Dynasties. "Xiu-shi", "Xiu-zhi", "Xiu-he" were also meant processing in the book. Li shizhen mainly used "Pao-zhi(炮炙)" for the name of the book. In the Southern Song Dynasty, "Pao-zhi(炮制)" firstly appeared in Zhi nan zong lun, written by Xu hong. By analyzing "Pao-zhi(炮制" in the original usage of the term, I found that it was a generic term of processing. Li shizhen did not use the word "Pao-zhi(炮制)", but it was very important. So it still needed to be investigated.There did not have new terminologies of processing in Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Ben cao pin hui jing yao (Revised Materia Medica) was the official herb book in the Ming Dynasty, written by Liu wentai. In this book, "Zhi(炙)" was changed for "Zhi(制)",and "Pao-zhi(炮制)" was popular as a terminology of processing from that time.Li shizhen quoted the generic term of processing "Shui-zhi", "Huo-zhi", "Shui-huo-zhi" from Ben cao meng quan (Materia Medica Companion). It was the first classification of herbal medicine processing method in history. Another general term first appeared in Ming Dynasty was "Lei gong’s seventeen methods of processing", it summarized the concrete processing method before, but this kind of inductive did not appear in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica).During Li shizhen’s period, "Pao-zhi(炮制)" was very popular as a terminology of processing, but it did not appear in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica). "Pao-zhi(炮炙)" appeared 75 times in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), but Li shizhen did not want to use it as a generic term of processing and referring to the entire Chinese medicine processing technology and knowledge. Only the term "Xiu-zhi" was used as a general term for traditional Chinese medicine processing.The second part, it could be divided into six parts in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), such as terminologies of cleaning processing, terminologies of cutting processing, terminologies of water processing, terminologies of fire processing, terminologies of water and fire processing, terminologies of other processing.Terminologies of cleaning processing and its correlations could be divided into two parts. "Jian" was selecting appropriate medicinal part, "Jing" meant cleaning. So it involved cleaning, sorting, sieving, moping, scraping clean, brush, picking, removing the hair, removing the head, removing the heart, removing the bone, and so on. Terminologies of cutting processing its correlations could be different forms with different tools. In Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), it involved fuju, cuo, cuting, splitting, ramming, pestling, grinding, etc. For example, "Fu-ju" was a term and its meaning has much controversies. By investigating its meanings, I found that its meanings included frittering, biting, crushing, chopping and so on. Li shizhen used the meaning of chopping in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica). "Cuo" was widely used in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), it meant that with the cutting tool, cutting, spliting, or filing tenacity of medicinal materials. Then the medicinal materials came into pieces, or chip. Terminologies of water processing and its correlations could divide into leaching, steeping, floating and levigating. "Jin-zao" was leaching medicines with different liquor. Terminologies of fire processing meant that it needed fire to heating drugs. Terminologies of fire processing and its correlations involved stir-frying, roasting, calcining, simmering, refining, etc. Stir-frying could be divided into many different kinds of methods with accessories or not. Roasting could use accessories, such as wine, vinegar, honey, oil and so on. Terminologies of water and fire processing could divide into steaming, boiling, stewing and so on. Such as "Zha", it meant "fried" in the dictionary. But in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), it usually used as putting the drugs into the boiling water. "Yue" in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica) also meant putting the drugs into the boiling water. Terminologies of other processing were coping, frosting, fermentation, germination, extraction, etc.The research of the terminology of processing in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica) had a great academic value. Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica) was the most ancient content-rich herbal medicine masterpiece, which not only including all the herbal medicine works before Li shizhen, but also including hundreds of recipe books and hundreds of history books. The material of drugs processing it contained was the most widely in the ancient books, and it firstly used "Xiu-zhi" in history of explanation for the drugs. Li shizhen not only attached great importance to the former processing technology, but also paid attention to the new methods. However, there also had some limitations in the research. Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica) had the disadvantage of "change previous book". The terminology of processing quoted form the ancient content-rich herbal medicine masterpiece had changed. Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica) was a herbal monograph, Li shizhen paid attention to comments and complements of the classic works of herbal medicine, but he did not pay enough attention to content besides this range.The research of the terminology of processing in Ben cao gang mu (Compendium of Materia Medica) could provide more supporting for the modern traditional Chinese medicine and references for the development of processing. At the same time, the study was the basis of TCM terms of processing. It had great value for making TCM terms by modern standards and translation of related documents. It also had great value for the popularization and application of traditional Chinese medicine processing. |
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