Chen Jiamo

Chen Jiamo

Chen Jiamo, named tingcai and yuepeng, was born in Shishu of Xixiang (now the second capital of Qimen in Anhui Province) and was an imperial physician of Ming Dynasty. When he was young, he was weak and ill, so he studied medicine knowledge. He was intelligent and learned. He made great achievements in poetry, Fu and calligraphy, especially in medicine.

Character experience

Chen Jiamo studied medicine, especially Materia Medica, and wrote two books: medical guide and Materia Medica Mengyao. The latter is Chen Jiamo's important work, the title of which is "Mengluo", which was written for children. This book is a 12 volume manuscript of Materia Medica used by Chen Jiamo to teach his disciples. It contains 742 kinds of drugs. It systematically describes the origin, collection, storage, authenticity identification, processing and processing, incompatibility, seven prescriptions and ten preparations, and taking methods of all kinds of drugs. Among them, 447 kinds of medicinal materials are illustrated with pictures. They are Jineijin, qingmuxiang and XUEYUTAN, which have the function of digestion, qi circulation and pain relief. Many of the contents of the book are written in rhyme antithesis, which is easy to memorize.

Character works

Materia medica Mengluo had a great influence on the development of traditional Chinese medicine processing in later generations. Chen Jiamo made a clear exposition on the role of adding excipients to process drugs. In addition to introducing the ancient and contemporary experience, he often put forward his own original opinions. Some valuable experiences have been included in Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica and Miao Xiyong's processing Dafa. Whether Chinese medicine is processed properly or not has a direct impact on the clinical efficacy of Chinese medicine. Chen Jiamo put forward the principle of processing in theory for the first time: "if the medicine is made moderately, it is difficult to obtain the efficacy if it is not enough, and if it is too much, it will lose the odor." Fire is one of the core basic theories in the field of traditional Chinese medicine processing. He summed up the previous experience of using fire, absorbed the local cooking fire methods, and advocated the use of "tight fire". The tight fire is the continuous and fierce open fire. Before the Ming Dynasty, there was a lack of data on the classification of processing methods of traditional Chinese medicine. In order to master and use all kinds of processing methods, Chen Jiamo summarized the processing methods and put forward three kinds of methods: "fire system 4: calcination, artillery, roasting and stir frying; water system 3: soaking, soaking or washing; water and fire co production, if steaming, if cooking, and there are two Yan, although the rest of the system is multi-faceted, it is not separated from the two." This is the beginning of the classification of Chinese medicine processing methods. "Materia medica Mengyao" has a great influence on the cause of traditional Chinese medicine in future generations. Li Shizhen commented that this book is "called Mengyao, which is a true name". Therefore, Chen Jiamo is called a famous ancient pharmacist.