The three juan edition of Bencao jizhu and excavated sources 1

Bencao jizhu 本草集注 (An Annotated Collection of the Pharmaceutical Canon), the text that laid the foundations of mainstream Chinese materia medica, was edited by Tao Hongjing 陶弘景 (456–536), sometime around ce 500. ² On the basis of the Dunhuang 敦煌, Turfan 吐魯番 and Japanese editions of this book, discussed below, we know that this work was widely distributed. However, with the circulation of Xinxiu Bencao 新修本草 (Newly Revised Pharmacopoeia), a materia medica compiled by Su Jing 蘇敬 at the imperial edict of the Tang government in 659, Bencao jizhu fell out of use and gradually disappeared. ³ Despite serious scholarly debate about the number of scrolls and circumstances of the construction of Bencao jizhu, in the absence of original manuscripts it was not possible to draw definitive conclusions. By throwing new light on excavated materials stored in Japan and other locations, this chapter attempts to resolve the debate.