[The Citation of Classified Materia Medica in Compendium of Medicine].

Abstract

Compendium of Medicine (Yi Xue Gang Mu) has forty volumes, compiled by Lou Ying in the Ming Dynasty. The classification of this book was based on the diseases of viscera and relevant treatment methods. It has unique literature research value because it involved a large number of medical literature before the Ming Dynasty including Inner canon of Huang Di and many great works of popular physicians after that. By comparing Compendium of Medicine (Yi Sue Gang Mu) with Classified Materia Medica (Zheng Lei Ben Cao), it can be seen that there are 577 references from Classified Materia Medica in Compendium of Medicine, involving 78 archive or physician abbreviation with 66 ancient books or works of doctors. This means that 78 abbreviation in Compendium of Medicine were out of 220 abbreviation in Classified Materia Medica. Therefore, it indicates that Classified Materia Medica plays an important role in Compendium of Medicine compiling. In the process of citing Classified Materia Medica, Compendium of Medicine made some mistakes of citation, such as wrong provenance because of the original sources unchecked or the trace unknown, wrong spelling of names, confusion because of abbreviation, misunderstanding because of similarity, and a book with different names. These issues of citation style of Compendium of Medicine and their utilisation in practice provide meaningful references for textual research.