Dual evidence for herbalism studies: Herbal textual research and Bencao archaeology

Abstract

Chinese Materia Medica is one of the most complete traditional pharmaceutical systems in the world, and in recent years, herbalism studies have successfully focused on collating and studying the herbal literature and textual research. These studies have mainly relied on the compilation of historical documents. More than 1000 types of ancient herbal books have been recorded, and over 400 of these are still accessible. Textual studies have been receiving increased attention from herbalists recently compared to that during the past generations, especially after the introduction of modern plant taxonomy, which had made textual research increasing easier. Through extensive literature studies, medical practitioners have been able to better identify medicinal plants and evaluate their properties. Scientific herbal textual research can determine the origin and compositions of herbal medicines, based on historical facts, and unveil ancient drug production processes and the clinical applications of traditional Chinese medicines, which will provide a referential basis to the scientific and medical community. However, conclusions derived solely based on reviewing ancient literature are sometimes controversial. It is also important to obtain evidence to support these conclusions. Detailed herbal textual research of traditional Chinese medicine would include medicinal properties and characteristics of the plants or drugs, their sources and distribution, cultivation techniques, processing methods, resistance, efficacy, and use in ethnic medicine, which can facilitate objective evaluation of the quality of the traditional Chinese medicines. Traditional Chinese medicine provides equal importance to tradition and innovation, thereby not considering inheritance to be imitation but innovation. Modern archaeology has contributed to the discovery of a variety of important medicine-related sites and relics. Many scholars have come to realize the importance of such cultural relics in terms of the history of medicine, pharmacology, and herbalism. To study ancient drug development, drugs and drug-related artifacts must be recovered from archaeological sites. Bencao archaeology is an important branch of archaeology that involves the development of research on herbs, including both herbalism and archaeology. In order to ensure the progress of Chinese Materia Medica research, researchers should keep pace with time, actively incorporate the achievements of archaeology, and even participate in archaeological research, to promote its development. The limitations of archaeology can be overcome by extensive literature research. Therefore, by including both indirect and direct historical evidence, simultaneous application of literature research and Bencao archaeology can be considered as dual evidence for herbalism research. The two components are complementary in promoting the preservation and development of traditional Chinese medicine. This paper details the development, methods used, and limitations of literature textual research. It is considered that the Bencao archaeology is the base for the development of textual literature research.