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- Convenors:
-
Matthias Hayek
(EPHE-PSL)
Nicolas Mollard (Lyon 3 University)
Annick Horiuchi (Université de Paris)
Send message to Convenors
- Section:
- Intellectual History and Philosophy
- Sessions:
- Thursday 26 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
The panel focuses on different aspects of honzô-related knowledge in Tokugawa Japan: the impact of the Bencao gangmu (Classified materia medica; 1596), the stimulus from commercial production and the necessary adaptation to local conditions.
Long Abstract:
Books of honzô (materia medica) published in large numbers during the Edo period are privileged sources for understanding how Japanese scholars apprehended, represented and questioned nature. Like natural history in Europe, the study of honzô, inherited from China, was part of a long tradition of scholarship that left little room for innovation by individual authors. The main challenge Japanese scientists were faced with was to identify from Chinese sources the species in their immediate environment. In the 17th century, this field of study was given a strong impetus with the introduction of Li Shizhen's Bencao Gangmu (Classified Materia Medica, 1596), a monumental encyclopaedia, the culmination of several centuries of accumulating and ordering knowledge about plants, animals and minerals that had a practical use, especially in medicine. The present panel will examine the wide dissemination of this work in 17th century Tokugawa Japan through dictionaries and encyclopedias of various profiles, and then turn to the first signs of a shift in the configuration of knowledge at the beginning of the 18th century, when the possibility of using honzô for economic purposes emerged. Finally, we will look at how this knowledge is used when it comes to acclimatizing or producing medicinal plants in the particular case of the scholars working in Satsuma domain in the late 18th century.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 26 August, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This paper looks at the reception of the Bencao Gangmu in 17th century Japan. By doing so, I hope to show that its early influence relied mostly on its lexicological and illustrative aspects rather than on the application of its classification and worldview to the local flora and fauna.
Paper long abstract:
When reflecting upon the construction of an image of the natural world in early modern Japan, one cannot overlook the importance of Li Shizhen (1518-1593)'s masterwork, the Bencao Gangmu, or Classified Materia Medica (1596). Its value resides not only in the synthesis it provides regarding material used to fabricate remedies, but also in its scope that clearly exceeds the classical boundaries of bencao, leaning instead toward a form of natural history inspired by the "investigation of things", gewu zhizhi. It combines a lexicological approach, aimed at establishing the 'correct names' for its entries, with a new classification system for the entries, based on a hierarchical worldview, and with pictures for most entries, including beasts and minerals and not only herbs and plants.
The influence of the Bencao Gangmu on Japanese natural history has often been stressed out, mostly through the study of its local editions, partial translations, adaptation by Confucian scholars and physicians of the late 17th and early 18th century, such as Kaibara Ekiken, Inô Jakusui, or Ono Ranzan.
However, the early reception of Li's work has comparatively received little attention, aside from a few studies on Hayashi Razan's parallel glossary, Tashikihen. In this paper I will try to look at how it was used in different kinds of books, from lists of Japanese edible products such as Yamaoka Genrin's Shokumotsu waka honzô zôho (1667), to illustrated commentaries of technical texts, like the illustrated Hoki, Hokizu of 1667, as well illustrated vocabularies such as the famous Kinmôzui (1666), and subsequent works like the Nanji kinmôzui (1687). By doing so, I hope to show that the early influence of the Bencao, at least outside of its medical application, relied mostly on its lexicological and illustrative aspects, used to identify and legitimize Japanese textual tradition, rather than on the application of its classification and worldview to develop a functional knowledge of the local flora and fauna.
Paper short abstract:
The paper focuses on the changes in the knowledge of nature, as observed in the works of honzôgaku of the early 18th century. It shows that Japanese scholars were concerned with identifying local species and with informing about the diversity of regional products.
Paper long abstract:
Honzôgaku or the science of materia medica is a field of study which, like medicine, has developed in Japan since ancient times through constant interaction with Chinese knowledge. Interest in this field increased considerably from the Edo period onwards, as illustrated by the numerous encyclopedic works inspired by the Bencao gangmu (Classified materia medica; 1596), seen in both China and Japan as the most accomplished work ever written in this field. Japanese specialists generally agree that the honzôgaku gradually detached itself from the model of the Bencao gangmu which had a strong connection with medicine, to move towards a natural history (hakubutsugaku), driven by curiosity for the surrounding world and by the sense of observation (Yabe Ichirō, Edo no honzō; Ueno Masuzō, Nihon hakubutsugakushi). Here we would like to take a closer look at the transformation supposed to have taken place in Edo period. At what level did the change occur? What role did nature observation play in this change? From what perspective was nature observed? What use did Japanese scientists make of Bencao gangmu? Taking examples of entries devoted to fish from the Honchô shokkan (Food mirror of our empire; 1697) or Yamato honzô (Materia medica of Japan; 1709), I will show that the work of Japanese scientists specializing in honzôgaku has remained largely driven by the need for identification (especially of naming species), but that this need had also brought them closer to the field of observation and production, providing them with a great amount of practical information on the production process and the quality of products.
Paper short abstract:
During his lifetime, Shimazu Shigehide strived to foster botanical knowledge within his domain as an effort to produce materia medica on a large scale. This paper will discuss how Satsuma's naturalists gathered, identify, cultivate, and commercialized plant species.
Paper long abstract:
In the 1770s, Shimazu Shigehide, 8th Lord of Satsuma, founded several institutions (a fief school, a medical institute, an astronomical observatory, and a botanical garden) aimed at developing scientific knowledge. The newly created Yoshino Garden of Medicinal Plants in Kagoshima thus became a centre for the construction of botanical knowledge and the production of materia medica for commercialization. In a previous survey of natural resources in Satsuma and Ryûkyû, Shigehide had had to call upon experts from Edo (Tamura Ransui) or Ôsaka (Kimura Kenkadô) in order to analyse the samples and publish the results. But this time he intended to develop botanical skills and knowledge on a local level, by sending doctors to train with Ransui or inviting naturalists to Kagoshima. Botanical activities centred on Yoshino Garden under the patronage of Shigehide were a laudable scientific endeavour in itself as much as a desire to control and commercialize regional resources, and most notably the production of materia medica.
The link between the development of botanical knowledge (here understood as bussangaku) and the transition in the provincial domains from subsistence to commercial economy is well known. But little attention has been paid so far to the concrete practices of naturalists. What kinds of plants have they exactly been studying? How did they identify them? And correlate field experience with previous textual knowledge? How have certain species been acclimatized? In short, what is really going on between the initial surveys and the production of medicinal plants in botanical gardens?
Based on a close reading of the botanical manuscripts written under the auspices of Shimazu Shigehide (Ryûkyû sanbutsu shi, Shitsumon honzô, Seikei zusetsu in particular) and other documents, this presentation aims at shedding some new light on naturalists' ways of doing things in late Edo period, from field surveys to commercialization.