The Newly-Compiled Materia Medica

The Newly-Compiled Materia Medica was completed in 659, Tang Dynasty. It is a significant medical compendium compiled by over 20 scholars including Su Jing, a prominent physician and pharmacologist, and organized by the government. Also known as Tang Materia Medica, the work consists of 54 volumes and catalogs 844 types of medicinal substances, divided into three sections: materia medica, illustrations, and medicinal explanations. It systematically summarizes the achievements of traditional Chinese medicine prior to the Tang Dynasty. The materia medica section records the properties, origins, harvesting notes, and therapeutic effects of various medicinal herbs. The illustrations provide depictions based on the actual appearance of the herbs, while the medicinal explanations offer written descriptions of their uses. The text includes some foreign medicinal products such as benzoin, borneol, and pepper, among others. It even documents the use of white tin and silver foil as dental filling material, marking the earliest records of dental filling in the history of world medicine.

A total of six copies of The Newly-Compiled Materia Medica were discovered in the Library Cave, and they are currently housed in various institutions including the National Library of China, Akinoya Bookstore in Japan, the National Library of France in Paris, and the British Library. Rich in content, the work spread rapidly upon its release. Japanese monks who came to China to study during the Tang Dynasty brought it back to Japan, influencing Japanese medicine at the time to such a great extent that there was a saying that "all doctors in Japan read Su Jing's Newly-Compiled Materia Medica". This book is richly illustrated and represents a comprehensive compilation of Chinese pharmacological knowledge accumulated across more than 1,000 years. As an official pharmacopeia compiled and published by the government, it predates Europe's earliest pharmacopeia, the Florentine Codex, published in 1498, by over 800 years. It is recognized as the world's earliest national pharmacopeia, showcasing China's leadership in the field of medicine at that time.

《新修本草》

《新修本草》成書于唐顯慶四年（659），是唐高宗時由政府組織蘇敬等20余人編寫的一部醫藥學大典，也被稱為《唐本草》。全書共54卷，收載了844種藥物，分為本草、圖經、藥解三部分，系統總結了唐以前中藥學的成就。本草部分記載了藥物的性味特點、產地、采集要點、治療功效等，圖經根據藥物的實際形態描繪出圖樣，藥解則是對藥物的文字說明。書中包括一部分外來藥品，如安息香、龍腦香、胡椒等；甚至還記載了用白錫、銀箔調配成補牙用的填充劑——這也是世界醫學史上最早關于補牙的文獻記載。

敦煌藏經洞出土的《新修本草》共6件，分別藏于中國國家圖書館、日本杏雨書屋、法國國家圖書館及英國國家圖書館等。《新修本草》內容豐富，一經問世立刻四散傳播。唐代來中國求法的日本僧人把它帶回日本，對日本醫學界影響很大，當時的日本“凡醫生皆讀蘇敬《新修本草》”。該書圖文并茂，是此前1000多年中國藥學知識的集大成之作。作為官方組織編寫并頒布的藥典，它比歐洲最早的藥典——1498年出版的《佛羅倫薩處方集》早了800多年，它是全世界最早的國家藥典，顯示了當時中國在醫學領域的領先水平。