Compendium of Materia Medica embodies the highest achievement of ancient Chinese medicine, is an inexhaustible treasure house of Chinese medical knowledge, and enjoys the reputation of "the deep sea of medicine" and "the dictionary of all things". It covers a wide range of subjects such as biology, chemistry, astronomy, geography, geology, mining and history, so it can be said to be a natural history book with worldwide influence.
Compendium of Materia Medica is a natural history book with world influence, and is praised as an encyclopedia of China by foreign scholars. Li Shizhen's life's energy, personal experience and extensive knowledge are all records of medicinal materials, which are self-contained, not the diagnosis and treatment of traditional Chinese medicine.
Huangdi Neijing summarized the medical achievements before the Warring States Period and provided theoretical guidance for the medical development of China after the Warring States Period. It has laid a theoretical foundation for traditional Chinese medicine in the aspects of holistic view, contradictory view, meridian science, viscera imaging, etiology and pathogenesis, health care and preventive medicine, diagnosis and treatment principles, and has far-reaching influence. Most of the innovations and achievements in theory and practice of physicians in past dynasties are closely related to Huangdi Neijing.
Four classic novels, Huangdi's Internal Classic, Treatise on Febrile Diseases, Synopsis of the Golden Chamber and Syndrome Differentiation, are needed if we want to explore the etiology, nature and location of the disease, analyze the pathogenesis, and the changes of viscera, meridians, joints, qi and blood and body fluid, judge the rise and fall of pathogenic factors, and then get the name of the disease and summarize the syndrome types for syndrome differentiation and treatment.