Supplement to the Compendium of Materia Medica, Volume 1

Could it be that even within the ClassicThe Shennong Bencao Jing (Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica). itself, there are still errors in the arrangement of its scrolls? original: cuojian (錯簡). This refers to the physical displacement of bamboo or wood slips in ancient manuscripts, which led to textual passages being out of order.

Sal Ammoniac original: Nao sha (硇砂). A mineral salt, ammonium chloride, used in traditional medicine for its "corrosive" or "breaking" properties to treat masses or hardened blockages. has two varieties. One is Salt Sal Ammoniac, which comes from the Western FrontierHistorically referred to as the Xirong (西戎), the nomadic peoples to the west of ancient China.; it looks like salt blocks and turns to liquid if it gets damp or is left to seep away. The other is Foreign Sal Ammoniac, which comes from Tibet and appears in five colors. The large red variety is considered the highest quality; its texture is like stone, and it has no smell of brine. The descriptions cited by BinhuLi Shizhen. all refer to the "Salt" variety. The true Tibetan Sal Ammoniac is capable of dissolving flesh and blood into water. Even if it is calcinedA process of heating a substance to high temperatures in a crucible to purify it or change its properties., it must not be ingested.

Mountain Arrowhead original: Shan ci gu (山慈姑). A medicinal plant, typically identified as the orchid Cremastra appendiculata or Pleione bulbocodioides.: People from ChuzhouIn modern-day Zhejiang province. say that the variety with white flowers is the best. In appearance, it looks exactly like Stone Garlic original: Shi suan (石蒜), or the Red Spider Lily (Lycoris radiata)..

In his "Collected Comments" on the Mountain Arrowhead, Binhu noted: "In the winter months the leaves grow; in the second month they wither, then the stems emerge and bloom. The flowers come in red, yellow, and white."

However, in his "Collected Comments" on Stone Garlic, he noted: "In early spring the leaves grow; in the seventh month the shoots wither, then the stems emerge and bloom with red flowers."

There is another variety that blooms in the fourth or fifth month with yellowish-white flowers. In the past, when I was staying at the Xiantang TempleLocated in Pinghu, Zhejiang., Daoist Shen brought some specimens from Sui'anA historical county in Zhejiang....