UC Press Blog

This interview was originally published here, and is reposted with permission.

The Ben Cao Gang Mu is not only an ancient pharmacopoeia, but also a living museum.

In the 16th century, after 27 years of work and three revisions, Li Shizhen finally completed this monumental work at the age of 60. 

Over 400 years later, a German scholar poured his heart and soul into translating and annotating the Ben Cao Gang Mu, creating a version that could serve as a museum in another language.

That German scholar is Paul U. Unschuld. After embarking on the study of Chinese medicine in the late 1960s, Dr. Unschuld translated several ancient Chinese medical texts, including the Huang Di Nei Jing and Ben Cao Gang Mu. His translation of the latter, filled with meticulous annotations and rigorous research, was published by the University of California Press (UC Press, founded in 1893) and has become the most influential version in the English-speaking world.

Now in his 80s, Dr. Unschuld has not ceased his research into Chinese medicine. Recently, French sinologist and the founder of the China-Europe-America Global Initiative, David Gosset, conducted an interview with Dr. Unschuld. In this conversation, the two sinologists discussed many topics related to the Ben Cao Gang Mu, from Chinese medicine to Chinese thinking, from political concepts to the dialogue between civilizations.

Dr. Unschuld believes that medicine is humankind’s reaction to existential threats. To study the history of medicine is to study the history of reactions to threats. China has developed over two or more millennia a world-wide unique culture of reacting to crisis and threat. This culture underlies Chinese health care and it is also a foundation of Chinese politics. Therefore, the history of Chinese medicine offers a new approach to understanding Chinese political thought and strategy.

The Ben Cao Gang Mu brings together ancient medicine, wisdom, and culture. As Dr. Unschuld said at the end of the interview: "This is exactly what the BCGM is: a museum of items considered benevolent in former times."

About Paul Unschuld

Born in 1943, Paul U. Unschuld is a German medical historian, translator and sinologist. Since the late 1960s, he has been engaged in the research of Chinese medicine. To date, he has translated several ancient Chinese medical texts such as the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon(Huang Di Nei Jing) and Compendium of Materia Medica (Ben Cao Gang Mu), which generously facilitates the communication between different civilizations in the field of medicinal science. His translation of the Ben Cao Gang Mu, filled with meticulous annotations and rigorous research, was published by the University of California Press (UC Press, founded in 1893) and has become the most influential version in the English-speaking world.

Gosset: Your work holds tremendous significance. Thanks to your translation, the Ben Cao Gang Mu (BCGM) is now available in English, published by the University of California Press. What impact do you hope your translation will have on global knowledge about China and on the dialogue between civilizations? This question relates to another question: What global knowledge about China is available? 

Unschuld: The BCGM is a unique source of knowledge about China that has been hidden from a global perspective so far. The availability now of an English version, resulting from a first-time strictly philological translation from the original Chinese text, offers countless insights beyond the promise given by the title Ben Cao: “natural and pharmaceutical knowledge”. As if I had anticipated your question, I have compiled a reader, A Catalog of Benevolent Items: Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Classical Chinese Knowledge to be issued by U. C. Press on October 1. This “reader” is designed to present the BCGM as offering insights into numerous facets of pre-modern Chinese civilization that should significantly contribute to a better understanding of China’s past and present.

The BCGM includes data on social structures, on religion, on technology, on world views, on Chinese interactions with neighboring and foreign regions and many non-medical arenas more, and it is this heritage on which contemporary China is built as much as it is built on what it has acquired in more recent times. The Ben Cao Gang Mu is a wonderful example of historical and specifically Chinese data and information management—an issue that is as timely today as it was in the 16th century. The BCGM informs us of a culture of discussion and a quest for knowledge more complex than is imagined today. Once a larger public worldwide is aware of this essential heritage, the perception of Chinese contributions to world knowledge and natural science will be significantly broadened, and this will provide a basis for an informed dialogue between China and non-Chinese civilizations that should continue on a level more demanding and more substantial than before.

Gosset: As one of the foremost experts in Chinese medicine, what insights does Chinese medicine offer into Chinese thought and even strategy?

Unschuld: To answer this question, I have written The Fall and Rise of China. Healing the Trauma of History (available in English, German, Italian and Greek). China has developed over two or more millennia a world-wide unique culture of reacting to crisis and threat. This culture underlies Chinese health care and it is also a foundation of Chinese politics. As I have outlined in more detail in my book What is Medicine? Western and Eastern Approaches to Healing (U. C. Press), the conceptual foundations of medicine, regardless of whether we speak of so-called Western medicine or Chinese medicine, are formed by both the morphological and physiological facts of the human organism, and, second, the social, political and natural environment influencing those who think about the causes of illness, the foundation of health, and the best ways to prevent the former and stabilize the latter. A view on two millennia of the ideas underlying Western and Chinese medicine shows that they reveal also the history of Western and Chinese political concepts. That is, medicine is humankind’s reaction to existential threats. To study the history of medicine is to study the history of reactions to threats. Concepts of health and illness of the human organism correspond to concepts of order and chaos in the state. The history of Chinese medicine offers a new approach to understanding Chinese political thought and strategy. In addition, knowledge of Chinese medicine, past and present, enables insights into perceptions of nature, into holistic concepts, and many more facets that lend themselves to a comparison with non-Chinese civilizations.

Gosset: André Malraux has deepened our understanding of museums with his concept of the “imaginary museum”. In what way can the Ben Cao Gang Mu be considered a museum?

Unschuld: We go into museums to be confronted with our identity. Our identity today rests on bygone decades, centuries, millennia. In a museum we expect to see in what ways our lives have improved, and we see with amazement how capable in past times our predecessors were in managing their conditions.  We may be happy to be informed in a museum of past realities we are glad to have left behind, and we are proud to see how past generations have laid the grounds for achievements that have improved our lives today. Museums offer information stimulating comparisons of the past with the presence, and at the same time of one’s own past with the past of other civilizations. 

The BCGM is such a museum. If offers all that has been said above. Just look at its reflection of a millennia-long culture of dispute, of Li Shizhen’s handling of controversies, of a culture of multiple explanatory models applied to handle existence, etc. To visit the museum Ben Cao Gang Mu should be a most valuable experience. The BCGM suggests to pose innumerable questions and may offer answers unobtainable elsewhere. I have termed the forthcoming reader A Catalog of Benevolent Items compiled by Li Shizhen. This is exactly what the BCGM is: a museum of items considered benevolent in former times