1, Li Shizhen's name origin

Li Shizhen was born on the day his father Li Yanwen was fishing on the rainy lake. He was usually quite lucky, but this time he caught nothing in several nets, and Li Yanwen was very frustrated. The last net pull up feel heavy, heart secretly happy, thought it was a big fish, turned out to be a big stone. Li Yanwen sighed: stone ah stone, I have nothing to do with you, why are you teasing me today? Called me sad on top of sad.

Stone suddenly also spoke: stone ah stone, come to congratulate without worrying. Mr. mother quickly fall moon, I do not know what Mr. request? It turns out that this stone is the rain lake God.

Li Yanwen rushed home, just as Li Shizhen gave birth to the ground, so he named him "Shi Zhen". That night, Li Yanwen had a dream, dreaming of the immortal iron crutch Li came to congratulate, said: "Shi Zhen Shi Zhen, can diagnose all diseases. Be my senior apprentice and spread my fame.

2, skillfully identify the authenticity of the medicine

Li Shizhen was 20 years old, herb state had a serious flood. Just after the flood, the plague began to spread.

On this day, Li Shizhen was diagnosing a disease, when suddenly a group of people made a racket and pulled a charlatan into the clinic. The leader of the young man angrily told Li Shizhen, his father took the medicine prescribed by this charlatan, the disease did not see good, but worse. He went to find him to settle the score, the bone-setter insisted that the prescription is correct. He told Li Shizhen to take a look at it.

Said the decoction of the pot of medicine handed over, Li Shizhen grabbed the dregs of the medicine, carefully smelled, and put in the mouth to chew, told him that this is the ancient medical books of the error, "Rihua Materia Medica" record of the leakage of blue and tiger paw mixed up. The crowd lamented for a while, but had to let the jianghu langzhong go.

Soon after, another doctor prescribed medicine for a mentally ill man, using a medicine called anthemis, and the patient died soon after taking it. There was also a physically weak person who took a tonic medicine called Huang Jing prescribed by a doctor, and he was also inexplicably killed.

Originally, several ancient medicinal books describe anthemis and wolfsbane, yellow essence and hookah as the same drug, and wolfsbane and hookah are both very toxic. There is no doubt that the ancient medicine books contain a wealth of knowledge and valuable experience, but it is also true that there are some omissions. If not revised early, the medical profession to use them as the basis for the blackmail, the light delay in the treatment of disease, the serious harm to people's lives.

3, verify the medicinal properties of animals

Herb snake, that is, herb produced by the white-flowered snake, this medicine has a cure for wind paralysis, convulsions, jock itch mange and other functions, Li Shizhen has long had a study, but began to observe only from the snake vendors there. He was warned by insiders that the snake was caught from the mountains of Xingguo Prefecture (present-day Yangxin County) in Jiangnan and was not a real herp snake. In order to find the real herp snake, he asked a snake catcher for advice, and he was told that the herp snake's teeth are highly poisonous, and when a person is bitten, he has to amputate his limbs immediately, or else he will be poisoned to death.

In the treatment of all diseases have special effects, because it is very expensive. The state officials forced the masses to risk their lives to catch it so that they could pay tribute to the emperor. Herb is so big, in fact, only on Longfeng Mountain in the north of the city is there a real herp snake. Li Shizhen pursued his quest to observe the herps with his own eyes, so he asked the snake catcher to take him up Longfeng Mountain.

There is a mythical beast (Suānní) cave on Longfeng Mountain, surrounded by jagged rocks, bushes, and the Shi Nan vine that twines around the bushes. Herb snakes like to eat the flowers and leaves of the Shi Nan vine. With the help of snake catchers, I finally saw the herbs with my own eyes and saw the whole process of catching and making snakes. The Compendium of Materia Medica is concise and accurate when it writes about the white-flowered snake...?

The pangolin, or pangolin, is a commonly used Chinese medicine. Tao Hongjing said it could be amphibious, climbing up rocks during the day, opening its scaly armor and pretending to be dead to lure ants into the armor, then closing it and diving into the water, then opening the armor to allow the ants to surface and then swallowing it. In order to understand whether Tao Hongjing's statement is right, Li Shizhen personally went up the mountain to observe.

And with the help of woodcutters and hunters, he caught a pangolin. From its stomach dissected out about a liter of ants, confirming that the pangolin animal this point, Tao Hongjing is right. However, from the observation, he found that the pangolin ant eating, is to scratch open the anthill, licking food, rather than luring ants into the armor, under the water to swallow, Li Shizhen affirmed the Tao Hongjing right side, but also corrected its mistakes.

4, and granny cure

Li Shizhen all the way to visit, all the way for the folks to cure the disease, by the people respect and rely on. There is an old woman, suffering from habitual constipation for 30 years, although many treatments, but not effective. Li Shizhen used from the folk to learn from the recipe, to the right amount of petunia seeds into a medicine, and soon cured her disease.

There was also a woman who had a nosebleed that wouldn't stop for a day or night, and she couldn't be cured. Li Shizhen used garlic slices to paste the patient's foot, not much work blood will not flow. This formula, he also picked up from the folk.

5, tasted all the herbs

Ming Shizong Jiajing thirty-one years (1552), 34-year-old Li Shizhen began to repair the Materia Medica according to plan. As well-prepared, the beginning is relatively smooth, but writing, writing, the problem comes: the so-called materia medica, is the ancient pharmacology of the pronouns. It includes a wide range of plant, animal and mineral medicines such as flowers, plants, fruits and trees, birds, animals, fish and insects, and lead, tin, sulfur and mercury.

Because the vast majority of them are plants, it can be said that the plant-based, so people will also be the drugs directly called "herb". Li Shizhen realized its weight, but still did not expect, the drug is so diverse, on their traits, habits and growth, it is difficult to all have a good idea.

For example, the white-flowered snake, with bamboo, mugwort leaves, is the three specialties of the herbs, can be the main treatment of wind paralysis, convulsions, mange, etc., is a flavor of the precious life medicine. Li Shizhen had followed the snake catcher personally on the mountain, captured a white-flowered snake, take a closer look, it is exactly the same as the book.