《新修本草》
《新修本草》成书于唐显庆四年（659），是唐高宗时由政府组织苏敬等20余人编写的一部医药学大典，也被称为《唐本草》。全书共54卷，收载了844种药物，分为本草、图经、药解三部分，系统总结了唐以前中药学的成就。本草部分记载了药物的性味特点、产地、采集要点、治疗功效等，图经根据药物的实际形态描绘出图样，药解则是对药物的文字说明。书中包括一部分外来药品，如安息香、龙脑香、胡椒等；甚至还记载了用白锡、银箔调配成补牙用的填充剂——这也是世界医学史上最早关于补牙的文献记载。
敦煌藏经洞出土的《新修本草》共6件，分别藏于中国国家图书馆、日本杏雨书屋、法国国家图书馆及英国国家图书馆等。《新修本草》内容丰富，一经问世立刻四散传播。唐代来中国求法的日本僧人把它带回日本，对日本医学界影响很大，当时的日本“凡医生皆读苏敬《新修本草》”。该书图文并茂，是此前1000多年中国药学知识的集大成之作。作为官方组织编写并颁布的药典，它比欧洲最早的药典——1498年出版的《佛罗伦萨处方集》早了800多年，它是全世界最早的国家药典，显示了当时中国在医学领域的领先水平。
The Newly-Compiled Materia Medica
The Newly-Compiled Materia Medica was completed in 659, Tang Dynasty. It is a significant medical compendium compiled by over 20 scholars including Su Jing, a prominent physician and pharmacologist, and organized by the government. Also known as Tang Materia Medica, the work consists of 54 volumes and catalogs 844 types of medicinal substances, divided into three sections: materia medica, illustrations, and medicinal explanations. It systematically summarizes the achievements of traditional Chinese medicine prior to the Tang Dynasty. The materia medica section records the properties, origins, harvesting notes, and therapeutic effects of various medicinal herbs. The illustrations provide depictions based on the actual appearance of the herbs, while the medicinal explanations offer written descriptions of their uses. The text includes some foreign medicinal products such as benzoin, borneol, and pepper, among others. It even documents the use of white tin and silver foil as dental filling material, marking the earliest records of dental filling in the history of world medicine.
A total of six copies of The Newly-Compiled Materia Medica were discovered in the Library Cave, and they are currently housed in various institutions including the National Library of China, Akinoya Bookstore in Japan, the National Library of France in Paris, and the British Library. Rich in content, the work spread rapidly upon its release. Japanese monks who came to China to study during the Tang Dynasty brought it back to Japan, influencing Japanese medicine at the time to such a great extent that there was a saying that "all doctors in Japan read Su Jing's Newly-Compiled Materia Medica". This book is richly illustrated and represents a comprehensive compilation of Chinese pharmacological knowledge accumulated across more than 1,000 years. As an official pharmacopeia compiled and published by the government, it predates Europe's earliest pharmacopeia, the Florentine Codex, published in 1498, by over 800 years. It is recognized as the world's earliest national pharmacopeia, showcasing China's leadership in the field of medicine at that time.
