[Study on carving workers of Chong xiu zheng he jing shi zheng lei bei yong ben cao (Revised Prepared Materia Medica Classified under Syndromes in Zhenghe Period) published by Huiming Xuan (Huiming Sanctum)].
The ancient carving workers have made a great contribution to the xylographic printing art in ancient China, so the studies on them are significant for a survey of ancient Chinese printing history, and for the identification of ancient Chinese books edition. Zheng lei ben cao published by Huiming Xuan (Huiming Sanctum) in the Jin and Yuan dynasties, which is the earliest extant edition of Zhenghe version system of Zheng lei ben cao and has important literature value. Thirty carving workers were involved in its printing process. On the whole, these workers had a relatively high technique and completed a remarkably fine work. In addition to lettering, 28 persons of them also made a total of 536 pages with 900 exquisite engraving illustrations on Chinese materia medica included in this book. Because of the high levels on carving, this precious book has been the representative of Pingshui edition, which has a great reputation but has very few works now.
Graduate School, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100029, China.
Fei
F
Liang
Jian
J
Li
Wei
W
Zhang
Rui-Xian
RX
Zhang