Customer Reviews

The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica: A Translation of the Shen Nong Ben Cao (Blue Poppy's Great Masters Series)

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It is true that this is one of the three foundation texts of Chinese traditional medicine. Why, then, would the author find it necessary to add foot notes "correcting" the text. TCM biases were used in order to make these corrections. There were numerous places that footnotes could have been added to explain why characters and groups of characters were translated the way they were. This was completely absent. The original Chinese is not included as it is by serious academics such as Wiseman and Unschuld. Much of the information was combined with more modern information nonexistant at the time of the Ben Cao. This translation is arrogant and dishonest. I use it as an example of how not to interpret the classics in my courses.

First off despite its flaws it is still the best English translation available. Below is a list of some of the books strengths and weaknesses.


HISTORY of the <<SHENNONG BENCAO JING>>

The <<Shennong Bencao Jing>> is a reconstructed text giving short descriptions of the properties and uses of 365 substances. It includes many substances that are hardly used today such as various types of jade and other minerals. The substances are classified in an ancient threefold scheme: superior, medium and inferior.

Chinese scholars for ages have attempted various reconstructions of this work. This is possible because it was quoted in later texts and sometimes in different colored ink or in different sized characters. The original text is believed to have been composed around the time of the Han dynasty approximately eighteen to nineteen hundred years ago. It is the first materia medica in the sense that it is the one all subsequent materia medicas were based on.

While earlier materia medica type works existed they have all been lost or only recently rediscovered. For example, there is the Mawangdui silk text <<Wushier Bing Fang Prescriptions for Fifty Two Diseases>> which predates the <<Shennong Bencao Jing>> by two to three hundred years, but this work was lost and unknown until the silk text was discovered at the Mawangdui archaeological site circa 1973.

(Likely the earliest still extant fragment of the <<Shennong Bencao Jing>> dates to around the early Tang dynasty (618-907 CE). It is stored at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz Orientabteilung and is part of a fragment of the Turfan edition of the << Bencao Jizhu >> , with the <<Shennong bencao Jing>> text written in different colored ink within the text.)

Lastly, the <<Shennong Bencao Jing>> is Daoist text and permeated with Daoist terms and philosophy. Daoism reached its peak during the Tang dynasty and began a gradual and uneven decline thereafter. The current widely used TCM system of classifying herbs and related terminology has lost much of its ancient Daoist influence. However, from reading other Daoists works and histories I get the distinct impression that despite the <<Shennong Bencao Jing>> being mainly viewed as a historical curiosity in modern TCM circles, many traditional Daoists, on the other hand, still consider it useful and relevant nineteen hundred years later.


STENGTHS and WEAKNESSES of CURRENT TRANSLATION

1) It follows Wiseman's and Boss' terminology <<Glossary of Chinese Medical Terms and Acupuncture Points>> for English equivalents of Chinese medical terms. The good part is this is a published standard. The not so good part is sometimes another English word would be closer in meaning in certain contexts and unless one refers to <<Glossary of Chinese Medical Terms and Acupuncture Points>> and learns the full meaning of the Chinese term, one will may not understand the true intent of the passage.

2) This book was first published in 1998 and since then Wiseman has updated his terminology and clarified his choices.

3) The original Chinese has not been included. This is a major drawback as there are several versions of the <<Shennong Bencao Jing>> available.

4) No effort has been made to attempt to understand the references to "ghosts" and "flying in the sky" and so on. These are Daoist stock terms and set phrases and no effort was made to explain what they meant from a Daoist point of view 1800 hundred years ago, they are just translated literally, same goes for ethereal and corporeal souls (hun-po) and essence-spirit (jing-shen).

5) Biased translation. For example, many entries are translated as "may prolong life" or "may sharpen the ears and eyes" whereas in the original Chinese it doesn't say "may."

6) Footnotes include later corrections. For example, Tian Men Dong (Tuber Asparagi Cochinensis) is described as being "bitter and balanced." Whereas it is now (as stated in the footnote) (unequivocally) considered cold. Note, ping2 is translated as "balanced," a better translation would be "neutral" (literally: level or even) which means the tuber is neither hot nor cold.

7) Interesting footnotes containing translated commentary and related explanations by both ancient and more recent Qing dynasty Chinese scholars. It would have been helpful if the scholars were identified as to being Daoist or Confucius and so on as this is a Daoist text and any commentary by a Confucist, Neo-Confucist, or non Daoist in general may be prone to bias.

8) Footnotes for some entries explaining doubtful species identification and alternate possibilities.

9) Footnotes containing comments that are unattributed so one doesn't know from what time period or perspective the comments are written from. Is it a classical view, a modern TCM view or the author's opinion?


EXAMPLE TRANSLATION

Ren Shen (Radix Panacis Ginseng) is sweet and a little cold. It mainly supplements the five viscera. It quiets the essence spirit, settles the ethereal and corporeal souls, checks fright palpitations, eliminates evil qi, brightens the eyes, opens the heart, and sharpens the wits. Protacted taking may make the body light and prolong life. ...

My translation for comparison purposes.

Renshen [Panax ginseng Meyer], taste: sweet, slightly cold. Mainly for supplementing-mending the five internal-viscera, quiets the essence-spirit, settles the superior [and] inferior souls, stops fright palpitations, does away with evil qi [and] brightens the eyes [set phrase meaning: sharpens the eyes]. Opens the heart [and] increases wisdom [alternate translation: increases intelligence]. Long term consumption [makes] the body light [and] delays aging. ...

Note, the last sentence is written jiu3 fu2 qing1 shen1 yan2 nian2 which glosses as 'Long-time consumption light body delay person's-age.' There is no "may" or "makes" for that matter.

Unfortunately, no explanations are given in this book as to what the set phrases "superior [and] inferior souls" (aka ethereal and corporeal souls) and essence-spirit means. In truth these are very ancient and technical Daoist terms with deep and detailed meanings and would require lengthy commentary to fully understand.

The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica Classic,the first English translation of Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, provides the perfect historical foundation for my study of Chinese herbal medicine. The book is written clearly and concisely; it removes the veil that has been covering the root of Chinese herbal medicine. The book is organized logically, and it includes a table of contents, insertions within the text, and a commentary that makes the meaning clear. Additionally,the book has a general index and medicinal indices in both Latin and pinyin, which makes it easy to find a specific herb, in the text. I am very pleased to make this book a permanent part of my personal library.

Let's be clear about what this book is and what it is not...

The back cover of the book presents itself as a translation of one of the "foundation books" for the contemporary practitioner of TCM. This it is. The editors overreach, however, in asserting that this book is of value to studying the "historical roots of Chinese medicine" and "the Taoist contribution to Chinese medicine." While the book may provide some value to the contemporary practitioner of TCM wishing to get an overall sense of his/her "roots" by reading the contents of the Shennong bencao jing, this is not a book with much value for historical research as the footnotes are based on contemporary TCM practice. The biggest problem, however, is the lack of Chinese characters and the (incomprehensible to me) omission of an index of Chinese plant-names or symptoms. For me, these omissions make the book unusable as even a basic reference.

Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing is a book where the physician finds important informations on chinese materia medica, and the scientist finds something to explore. It is a book that everyone interested in these two subjects has to read.

This is the oldest book of Chinese Herbalism, from circa 100 AD, translated into English for the first time. An excellent contemporary trnaslation renders the book still fresh and useful reading for those familiar with Chinese herbs.