The Systematic Materia Medica
Bencao gangmu is the most famous Chinese reference work on drug substances. Li Shizhen worked on the first draft from 1552 to 1578. He continued to revise the manuscript until he died in 1593. This is the first edition, block printed in Nanjing in 1596. It includes 1892 kinds of material medica divided into 62 categories. It was reprinted 72 times up to 1975, and has been translated into Japanese, with partial translations or summaries in English, French, German, and Latin. First edition. (Collection of Library of China Academy of TCM.)