Darwin did call Compendium of Materia Medica "China Ancient Encyclopedia", but he didn't seem to know the title of Compendium of Materia Medica because of indirect access to information. It may also be that the title of the book is not easy to be translated and understood by the English world, so he chose to call it "China Ancient Encyclopedia". In a word, he didn't mention the words Compendium of Materia Medica.
Extended data:
Darwin used some fragments from Compendium of Materia Medica provided by his friends in his writing. He called all the ancient books in China, including Compendium of Materia Medica "China Encyclopedia", probably for the convenience of writing and reading-he also quoted part of the Japanese Encyclopedia without mentioning the specific title. From the pronoun "Encyclopedia of China", we can also know that Darwin's reference to Compendium of Materia Medica focuses on the book's "natural history" and has nothing to do with medical skills.
Compendium of Materia Medica is based on the proof of materia medica. The preface (volume 1, 2) is equivalent to the general introduction, which describes the main references of materia medica and the theory of medicinal properties. Volume 1 Materia Medica of Past Dynasties introduces 4 1 species of main materia medica before the Ming Dynasty.
The second time, I collected the discourses about the yin-yang smell of drugs, five taboos, specimen yin-yang, ups and downs, reinforcing and reducing, quoting classics, and various drug taboos before the Ming Dynasty, most of which were in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties. Volumes 3 ~ 4 are "Indicating Drugs for All Diseases", which follow the old example of "General Drugs for All Diseases" in "Herbal Medicine of Syndrome Types", and list the names and main functions of indications with pathogens as the key link, which is equivalent to a manual of clinical medication. Volumes 5-52 are all about the theory, including 1892 kinds of drugs, and the attached figure is 1 109 kinds.