Heo Jun, who is the main compiler of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine (東醫寶鑑), states to applicate Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica (神農本草經), Rihuazi(日華子)’s annotations and Li Gao (李?) and Zhu Zhenheng (朱震亨)’s opinion to arrange materia medica on the introductory notes of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine. While Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica and Rihuazi’s annotations are both conventional texts dealing with materia medica, Li Gao and Zhu Zhenheng are just clinical practitioners. Not only Li Gao has no authorship on materia medica, but also Zhu Zhenheng’s Supplement to the Elucidation of Materia Medica (本草衍義補遺) is assessed to have no distinctive achievements. Nevertheless, Heo Jun shows positive considerations for their achievements of materia medica.
Specifically, on the Decoction Section in Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine, theories of lift, lower, float, sink (升降浮沈) and Channel Entry (歸經), both representative achievements of Yishui school (易水學派)-including Li Gao-are adopted as it is, and Zhu Zhenheng’s expressions are frequently utilized for conclusive remarks of medicinal effect. Furthermore, applications of both clinicians can be found within nature & flavour which is one of the principal terms of understanding materia medica.
While being based on the conventional materia medica text Classified Emergency Materia Medica (證類本草), the Decoction section in Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine is not restrained by the intricate traditional compositions and shows a new aspect of depiction by adding clinical information. And I think it is a important meaning of the Decoction section, which is the herbal chapter of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine.