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Book Cover
E-book
Author Nappi, Carla Suzan, 1977- author.

Title The monkey and the inkpot : natural history and its transformations in early modern China / Carla Nappi
Published Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, ©2009

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 234 pages) : illustrations
Contents Prologue -- Conception: Birth of a naturalist -- Generation: Anantomy of a naturalist -- (Interlude) Here be dragons: A reader's guide to the Bencao gangmu -- Transformation: Elements of change -- Transformation: Sprouts of change -- Transformation: Bodies of change -- Transformation: Creatures of change -- Conclusion. Rot and rebirth: The afterlife and reincarnation of a naturalist -- Appendices. A: Li Shizhen, Lidai zhujia bencao [Bencao works through the ages]; B: Contents of the Bencao gangmu [Systematic materia medica]
Summary "This is the story of a Chinese doctor, his book, and the creatures that danced within its pages. The Monkey and the Inkpot introduces natural history in sixteenth-century China through the iconic Bencao gangmu (Systematic materia medica) of Li Shizhen (1518-1593)." "The encyclopedic Bencao gangmu is widely lauded as a classic embodiment of pre-modern Chinese medical thought. In the first book-length study in English of Li's text, Carla Nappi reveals a "cabinet of curiosities" of gems, beasts, and oddities whose author was devoted to using natural history to guide the application of natural and artificial objects as medical drugs. Nappi examines the making of facts and weighing of evidence in a massive collection where tales of wildmen and dragons were recorded alongside recipes for ginseng and peonies." "Nappi challenges the idea of a monolithic tradition of Chinese herbal medicine by showing the importance of debate and disagreement in early modern scholarly and medical culture. The Monkey and the Inkpot also illuminates the modern fate of a book that continues to shape alternative healing practices, global pharmaceutical markets, and Chinese culture."--Jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-205) and index
Notes In English
Print version record
Subject Li, Shizhen, 1518-1593. Ben cao gang mu.
Li, Shizhen, 1518-1593 -- Influence
Li, Shizhen, 1518-1593.
SUBJECT Li, Shizhen, 1518-1593 fast
Li, Shizhen 1518-1593 Bencao gangmu gnd
Li, Shizhen. Bencao gangmu. swd
Ben cao gang mu (Li, Shizhen) fast
China Zusammenstellung gnd
Subject Natural history -- China -- History
Medicine, Chinese -- History -- 16th century
Naturalists -- China -- Biography
Physicians -- China -- Biography
Scholars -- China -- Biography
Learning and scholarship -- China -- History -- 16th century
Education -- history
History, Early Modern 1451-1600
Medicine, Chinese Traditional -- history
Physicians -- history
NATURE -- Essays.
NATURE -- Reference.
TRAVEL -- Special Interest -- Ecotourism.
HISTORY -- Modern -- 16th Century.
Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Intellectual life
Learning and scholarship
Medicine, Chinese
Natural history
Naturalists
Physicians
Scholars
Arzneibuch
Medizin -- China -- Geschichte 16. Jh.
SUBJECT China -- Intellectual life -- 960-1644. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85024142
China
Subject China
China
Genre/Form Biographies
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2009009041
ISBN 9780674054356
0674054350