MATERTA MEDICA OF THE ANCIENT CHINESE. om 
existed before his day, not a work of his compilation. He as 
well as other ancient authors when referring to the Pie lu 
call it sometimes Pen ts‘ao king, and thus seem to comprise 
both the Shen nung Pen ts‘ao and the Pie lu under this 
general appellation of Herbal Classic. In the History of the 
Sui dynasty [A.D. 589-618], Chap. 36, section on Literature, 
we find the title of a work Bi 22 SE Ac BER AE YR. i.e. the 
Pen ts‘ao king, collected and explained by T‘ao Hune-kina. 
This work contained probably the Shen nung Pen ts‘ao and 
the Pie lu with the commentary of T‘ao Huna-K1nc. 
~The Pre lu is an enlargement of the Herbal of SHen Nunc. 
We meet in it with notices of all the plants mentioned in 
the earlier work to which an account of the drugs used in. 
the Han and Wei periods is added. These accounts are very 
short, giving only in a few cases descriptive details of the 
respective drugs (plants). But the provinces or districts 
where the drug in question is produced are generally 
indicated. Nearly all these geographical names refer to the 
Ts‘in [3rd cent. B.C.] or Han periods, although some of 
them can be traced to the Chou dynasty [B.C. 1122 -249]. 
In a few cases they cannot be ascertained. The part of the 
plant which is used in medicine and the time of gathering 
it are also noticed. The Pie Iv uses generally four phrases 
to distinguish the localities in which the plants grow, viz. :— 
 ZE [ly & it grows in mountain valleys (in the mountains). 
AE JI & it grows in river be ba (the plain is probably 
meant, meadows). 
HA: FA BF it grows in fields. 
AE 2B 32 it grows in level marshes (low marshy land). 
As detailed accounts of the Pen ts‘ao kang mu, the great 
repertory of Chinese Materia Medica, published by Li Snr- 
CHEN in the second half of the 16th century, and of the authors 
and books quoted in this important work have been given 
