Li Shizhen

3 July 1518 – 1593

Li Shizhen (1518-1593) was a Chinese physician, naturalist, and pharmacologist of the Ming dynasty. He is best known for compiling the Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica), a monumental encyclopedia of medicine and natural history that became the most comprehensive pharmacopoeia of premodern China.

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Life events

Born in Qizhou, Hubei province
3 July 1518

Li Shizhen was born into a family of physicians in Qizhou (modern Qichun County, Hubei) during the Ming dynasty.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Passed the county-level imperial examination
c. 1531

At around age fourteen Li passed the local examination, but he subsequently failed the provincial examination three times.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Abandoned the examination path to study medicine
c. 1540

After his third failure at the provincial examinations, Li devoted himself fully to medicine under his father's instruction.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Served as physician to the Prince of Chu
c. 1543

Li's growing medical reputation led to an appointment at the palace of the Prince of Chu in Wuchang.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Worked at the Imperial Medical Institute in Beijing
c. 1549

Li was recommended to a post at the Imperial Medical Institute but resigned after a short tenure and returned home to practice and research.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Began compiling the Bencao Gangmu
1552

Li started his systematic revision of Chinese materia medica, traveling widely to collect specimens and consulting hundreds of earlier texts.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Completed the draft of the Bencao Gangmu
1578

After roughly twenty-seven years of work and three major revisions, Li completed his Compendium of Materia Medica, describing nearly 1,900 drugs in 52 volumes.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Sought publication of the Bencao Gangmu in Nanjing
c. 1590

In his final years Li worked to arrange the printing of his compendium; the first edition was published in Nanjing shortly after his death, in 1596.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in Qizhou, Hubei
1593

Li Shizhen died in 1593, three years before the first printed edition of the Bencao Gangmu appeared.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓