Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.33.2

v1.c6.33.2

A large quantity of medicines were recorded and applied in Chinese medicine from Su Jing’s *Xin xiu ben cao* (*Newly Revised Materia Medica*), Chen Cangqi’s *Ben cao shi yi* (*Compendium of Materia Medica*), Zheng Qian’s *Hu ben cao* (*Hu Materia Medica*) in the Tang Dynasty, Li Xun’s *Hai yao ben cao* (*Overseas Materia Medica*) in the Five Dynasties, Su Song’s *Ben cao tu jing* (*Illustrated Classics of Materia Medica*) and Tang Shenwei’s *Zheng lei ben cao* (*Classified Materia Medica*) in the Song Dynasty to Li Shizhen’s *Ben cao gang mu* (*Compendium of Materia Medica* in the Ming Dynasty. India’s ‘piperis longi’, ‘haritaki’, ‘terminalia billerica’, asafoetida, amlaphala, borneol oil, litharge, refined sugar, rhinoceros horn, radix curcumae, sal ammoniac, logwood, birthwort root, dipterocarpaceae, mastic, spica nardi and various kinds of aromatic drugs, were widely used in traditional Chinese herbal and prescription classics and some of them became common traditional Chinese medicines without foreign colourings. From the Han dynasty, the trade in medicine between India and China had continued without any interruption. This provided necessary material foundations for the development of India-China exchanges in medical sciences.