Library

All medicinal materials used by the Imperial Medical Bureau are received by the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing and processed from herbs transported by the Provincial Administration Commissions of Huguang and other regions.
For all military camps in Nanjing requiring medicinal supplies, medical officers (Yishi) are assigned to accompany patients and provide treatment as needed.
Medical officers (Yishi) and physicians (Yisheng) are selected from descendants of families with a hereditary profession in medicine; they undergo examination and selection before being assigned to various departments.
The monthly grain rations for medical officers (Yishi) and physicians (Yisheng) follow the precedent set by the Northern Imperial Medical Bureau.

The *Huainanzi* states: "Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs, encountering seventy types of toxins in a single day." I have read this book, and whenever I reach this passage, I cannot help but sigh at Mencius's saying, "To believe everything in books is worse than having no books at all." Shennong was a Great Sage who established fundamental principles. Pitying that the common people could not be free from disease, he investigated the properties of substances capable of curing diseases to leave them for future generations. It was certainly not necessary for him to taste every single substance individually to know its effects. If he had to taste each one to know it, he would not qualify as a Sage born with knowledge (Sheng zhi). Speaking of a Sage born with knowledge, even without tasting, he could understand. Suppose his knowledge indeed depended on tasting; then the efficacy of curing diseases could only be known through contracting them. Did Shennong suffer from all kinds of diseases and test them one by one? Moreover, for filthy or unpalatable substances that should not be tasted, did he taste them too? Although flavor can indeed be known by tasting, can the Qi (vital energy), nature, meridian tropism, primary indications, and relationships of mutual fear, aversion, opposition, and incompatibility among herbs also be known merely by tasting? If one tastes only what can be tasted and avoids what cannot, and if the latter are already understood, then the former need not wait for tasting to be known. To say he never tasted anything is impossible; to say he tasted everything is also impossible. However, in the classics, under the names of various herbs, terms like Qi and nature are not specified, but only "flavor" is placed at the beginning. This is because when herbs enter the mouth, flavor is the primary sensation. Furthermore, although herbal medicines include minerals, stones, insects, and animals, the most numerous category consists of grasses/herbs. Thus, it is said he "tasted hundreds of herbs," which implies more than just grass! Regarding toxic substances, some may indeed cause poisoning upon tasting. But must there necessarily be seventy poisoned individuals per day? If these seventy toxins were recorded as occurring accidentally in one day, those with mild toxicity would not die and could be rescued; those with severe toxicity would result in death. Who could rescue them? And who could bring them back to life? Ancient scholars stated that the *Huainanzi* contains many allegories. Is this not true? (From *Suhui Ji*)