Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing(The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica)

Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing was written by Shen Nong(not his real name) about the second century A.D. It is esteemed one of four classic of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

It describes the Siqi and Wuwei(four qi and five flavors), poisonousness or non-poisonousness combining principles, applications of materia medica on basis of syndrome differentiation, medicinal usage and many forms of formula such as pills, powders, ointments and wine. It firstly introduces Chinese Materia Medica's producing areas, collection, processing, stockpiling and differentiating real medicinals from false ones. In this book, 365 kinds of Chinese medicinals are recorded, and according to their efficacies, they are divided into three kinds of qualities: Top grade quality, medium grade quality and low grade quality.

In a words, this book laid a theoretical foundation for the all-rounded development of Chinese Materia Medica.