Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was not written by one person, but by many medical scientists in the Qin and Han Dynasties who summarized, collected and sorted out the experience and achievements of pharmacology at that time. It is the first Chinese herbal medicine book systematically summarized in China.
Most of the pharmacological theories, compatibility rules and the principle of "harmony of seven emotions" stipulated in it have played a huge role in the practice of medication for thousands of years and are known as classic works of traditional Chinese medicine.
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The historical position of Shennong Herbal Classic cannot be underestimated. It systematically summarizes the scattered pharmaceutical knowledge before the Eastern Han Dynasty, and contains many contents with scientific value, which are cherished by doctors in past dynasties. And it has long been used as a compilation style of pharmaceutical works. As the first monograph on pharmacology in China, its influence is far-reaching.
Long-term clinical practice and modern research have proved that most of the knowledge about drug efficacy contained in Shennong Materia Medica Classic is correct, and many of them are still widely used in clinic, such as tonifying ginseng, stopping dysentery with coptis, stopping asthma with ephedra, stopping malaria with Changshan and stopping diarrhea with rhubarb. The drug 158 recorded in it was selected in People's Republic of China (PRC) Pharmacopoeia 1977.