Monkey and the Inkpot Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China

Name: Monkey and the Inkpot Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China
Price: 65.04 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780674035294

ISBN-10: 0674035291

ISBN-13: 9780674035294

Edition: 2009

Authors: Carla Nappi

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Description:

This is the story of a Chinese doctor, his book, and the creatures that danced within its pages. The Monkey and the Inkpot introduces natural history in sixteenth-century China through the iconic Bencao gangmu (Systematic materia medica) of Li Shizhen (15181593).The encyclopedic Bencao gangmu is widely lauded as a classic embodiment of pre-modern Chinese medical thought. In the first book-length study in English of Lirsquo;s text, Carla Nappi reveals a ldquo;cabinet of curiositiesrdquo; of gems, beasts, and oddities whose author was devoted to using natural history to guide the application of natural and artificial objects as medical drugs. Nappi examines the making of facts and weighing of…

Book details

Copyright year: 2009
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 10/15/2009
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 250
Size: 6.57" wide x 9.49" long x 0.88" tall
Weight: 1.100
Language: English

Carla Nappi is Assistant Professor of History at the University of British Columbia



List of Illustrations


Ex-Voto


Note on Conversions


Prologue: A Curious Instinct, A Taste for Ink



Conception: Birth of a Naturalist



Generation: Anatomy of a Naturalist


Interlude


Here Be Dragons: A Reader's Guide to the Bencao gangmu



Transformation: Elements of Change



Transformation: Sprouts of Change



Transformation: Bodies of Change



Transformation: Creatures of Change


Conclusion. Rot and Rebirth: The Afterlife and Reincarnation of a Naturalist



Li Shizhen, Lidai zhujia bencao [Bencao worksthrough the ages]



Contents of the Bencao gangmu [Systematicmateria medica]


Notes


Glossary of Chinese Characters


Index