Tao Hongjing: Having Read Over Ten Thousand Scrolls, to Miss One Thing Was a Deep Shame
Chinese history had a naturalist named Tao Hongjing; the History of the Southern Dynasties calls him "having read over ten thousand scrolls; to miss one thing was a deep shame." Tao Hongjing was expert in astronomy and calendrics, mountains and geography, medicine and materia medica, and Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist doctrines—showing how broad his learning was. The ancient idiom "master of heaven and man" fits him perfectly.Tao Hongjing was a famous physician and health-preservation scholar of the Liang dynasty in the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. A native of Danyang, Jiangsu, style name Tongming, he became reader-in-attendance to princes at 19 and resigned at 41 to live in seclusion on Maoshan, known as the Hermit Tao. After he withdrew to the mountains, the court still sent people to consult him on affairs of state, so he was also called the "Wall-Hidden Prime Minister."He wrote a famous poem, Written in Reply to the Edict Asking What Is in the Mountains: "What is there in the mountains? Many white clouds on the ridges. They are for my own delight; I cannot hold them out to you." He used it to reply to Emperor Gao of Qi, Xiao Daocheng, who had asked what was in the mountains, expressing through poetry his love of the hermit life.Many of Tao Hongjing's deeds recorded in history involve immortals and are too legendary to be true. But it is certain that he read widely, loved writing, and was prolific. He left many works; among those deeply influential on Chinese medicine are Bencao Jing Jizhu (Collective Notes on the Classic of Materia Medica), Yao Zongjue, Xiaoyan Fang, Bique Zhouhou Baiyi Fang, He Dan Fashi, Yangsheng Yanming Lu, and Yangsheng Jing. Bencao Jing Jizhu quotes extensively from Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica, marking quoted passages in different script, preserving many lost important texts for us.Tao Hongjing was both a Taoist figure and a medical scientist, renowned in both Taoism and Chinese medicine. Since he also practiced alchemy and was the first to discover distinguishing compounds by flame color, he may be counted as one of China's earliest chemists.Chinese ruling classes of all ages appreciated learned scholars, especially those of high moral character and broad erudition; thus it is understandable that Tao Hongjing could influence court affairs in his time. Born in 456 and dying in 536 at age 81, he was posthumously titled "Master Zhenbai (Chaste and Pure)," reflecting his upright, chaste life.Tao Hongjing's understanding of clinical drug effects was insightful. He said: "Today's drug indications state only a disease name; yet wind-stroke has dozens of types, cold-damage patterns over twenty... the varied manifestations of disease cannot be covered by one rule, which is why even a thousand scrolls of formulas still do not exhaust the principle." Such insight shows rich clinical experience and a deep grasp of the broad, loose flaws in bencao literature; he was among the earliest physicians pursuing precision medicine.With broad learning and rich clinical experience, Tao Hongjing explored the most definite therapeutic effects of drugs. He held: "One drug, though treating several diseases, has biased tendencies in its nature." All his life he explored these "biased tendencies," seeking definite efficacy, saying once you "find the drug governing the disease root, you can treat right there"—very similar to the thinking of our modern medical scientists.So although Tao Hongjing was a Taoist, he was not like later physicians sunk in yin-yang and five-phase theory. He valued practical experience, carefully observed subtle differences among diseases, sought specific drugs, and strove for precise dosing—the seek-truth-from-facts spirit a clinician should most have. The literature he left is worth studying, and his exploratory spirit is worth learning.