Types of medicine paintings in herbaceous and woody medicines in Ben Cao Tu Jing

Abstract

A total of 568 paintings of herbaceous plants and woody plants as medicine were involved in Ben Cao Tu Jing, accounting for 60% of the total drug illustrations and 76% of the botanical medicine paintings. These medicinal paintings can be classified into four types: original plant paintings, medicinal material paintings, plant and medicinal material paintings, and plant and their habitat paintings. The original plant paintings can be specifically divided into five sections: the whole plant paintings with roots, partial aerial part paintings with roots, plant paintings with ground lines, rootless plant paintings, and broken branch paintings. Among them, the drawings of " the broken branch paintings " and " the whole plant paintings with roots " are consistent with the basic principles of collecting plant specimens. Additionally, "the plant and medicinal material paintings " and "the medicinal material paintings "reflect that they were drawn based on the market survey of medicinal materials or collected medicinal materials specimens. These medicine painting demonstrate rich characteristics of medicinal plants and medicinal materials and a high artistic quality with realistic details.These paintings in Ben Cao Tu Jing echoes Tu Jing, combine the art of painting with the cognition ofnatural science, as the rudiment of early paintings of plant science.