Special Records of Famous Doctors

The original book was lost long ago, but its relevant contents can still be gleaned from later generations of "Daguan Materia Medica" and "Zhenghe Materia Medica". The contents of Tao Hongjing's "Compendium of Materia Medica", 365 species are recorded by Tao Hongjing from "Bielu of Famous Doctors". The number of medicines included in the original book should be more than 730, because this number was selected by Tao Hongjing when compiling it into two independent works. At that time, some medicines that were subjectively considered unnecessary may have been discarded. Judging from the classification method of drugs, it is still the three-class classification method of the "Compendium of Materia Medica", that is, the drugs are roughly divided into upper, middle and lower grades according to their therapeutic effects. At the same time, under each grade, plants, minerals, animals and other medicines are roughly classified.