Woodblock Portrait of Li Shizhen
Li Shizhen (ca.1518-1593), styled Dongbi and later Pinhu Shanren, an outstanding medical expert of the Ming dynasty. He was a native of Qi Prefecture (now Qichun, Hubei). He served in the Medical Office of the King of Chu, and later held an office in the Imperial Academy of Medicine. His Systematic Materia Medica was a masterpiece of ancient materia medica and natural history. He also wrote books on pulse diagnosis and the eight extraordinary circulation channels, and a work on poetry. This portrait is from Pictures and Elegies of the Immortals of Medicine.