HackMD
Welcome to the Famine Foods Database!
This is the annotated and tagged full-text of Jiuhuang bencao 救荒本草 [Materia Medica for Famine Relief, 1406], containing 414 entries of edible plants with original Ming illustrations and photographs of plants. The database is powered by DocuSky and supports full-text search, browsing, analyzing and exporting. The markup was done with MARKUS.
＞＞ENTER＜＜
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View the Entry
Click on DocMeta at the top right corner to view 12 types of metadata of each entry.
| Metadata | Meaning | Metadata | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ORDER | Number of order (contents) | ENTRY | Entry name (Revised) |
| VOLUME | Number of volume | SPECIES_CH | Scientific name (Chinese) |
| DRUG | Medicinal name | CATEGORY | Category in bencao |
| EDIBLE_PART | Edible part | RECORD | "Known" or "Newly added" |
| FAMILY | Plant family | GENUS | Plant genus |
| SPECIES_EN | Scientific name (Latin) | CREDIT | Photo credit |
To enlarge the image, click on the image.
To view external references, click on the URL of the metadata.
To view annotation comments, click on Comment at the top right corner and open the comment panel.
To resize the panels, drag the border between the content panel and comment panel.
Browse and Search
Basics
Search
Boolean Logic
.all All entries
or OR
Space AND
- (minus sign) NOT
縮小範圍 or Enter filter by keywords
重新查詢 new query by keywords
reset reset the query
undo return to the previous query
Query： [the keywords]
Matches： [number of entries in query results]
only show entry title and hide the content show both title and content
下一篇 scroll to the next entry Shift+上一篇 scroll to the previous entry
下個詞 scroll to the next phrase，Shift+上個詞 scroll to the previous phrase
The query does not support conversion of Traditional/Simplified Chinese. Please input Traditional Chinese except for the simplified and alternative characters used in the original text.
To open Post Classification panel, click on Metadata at the top right corner
To open Tag Analysis panel, click on Tag at the top right corner
To close all panels on the left, click on Search at the top right corner
select
↴ scroll to the next entry by this filter
tf show the total frequency of this tag
Example: “70 75” 70=total entry of this tag; 75=total frequency of this tag
清除 clear selected 反向 invert selected
過濾 filter by selected conditions
新查詢 new query by selected conditions
arrange by title (ascendance)
arrange by frequency (descendance)
visualize by Pie Chart
visualize by Tag Cloud
→ TableView - view the table
→ ChartView - view the graphics
Click on → TableView to view the statistics of current tags/conditions.
click on a new condition after another will filter the results. Use reset to reset the query.
The content panel can disply maximum 20 entries; scrolling is enabled only within the displayed. To navigate between pages, use 
at the top or bottom.
Browse by Entry Number
Click on Metadata to open Post Classification panel, use to view the entry number.
To view a specific entry, use to search by entry number (reference: ＞＞救荒本草目錄＜＜)
Entry number would enhance searchability. For eample, query "414" will return all entries that mentions "414.山藥", whether the plant is mentioned by "山藥" or its alternative name "薯蕷".
Entry number must be input in three digits. Example: entry 1→001; entry 11→011.
Browse by Volume
Click on Metadata to open Post Classification panel, use to browse by volume.
Or input the following phrase in to query a specific volume.
| Phrase | Total |
|---|---|
卷上之前 |
122 |
卷上之後 |
123 |
卷下之前 |
84 |
卷下之後 |
85 |
Browse by Category
The original book classifies the 414 entries by the Five Categories of bencao tradition (Grass, Wood, Cereals, Vegetables, Fruits); within each category, plants are further grouped by the parts edible. Among all the entries, 138 were "known" and compiled with reference to former bencao works, and 276 were claimed to be "newly added".
Click on Metadata to open Post Classification panel, use 
to browse by category.
Or input the following phrase in to query a specific category.
| Phrase | Total | Phrase | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
.all |
414 | 草部 |
245 |
本草原有 |
138 | 木部 |
80 |
新增 |
276 | 米穀部 |
20 |
果部 |
23 | ||
菜部 |
46 |
| Phrase | Total | Phrase | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
葉可食 |
237 | 花可食 |
5 |
實可食 |
61 | 花葉皆可食 |
5 |
葉實皆可食 |
43 | 花葉及實皆可食 |
2 |
根可食 |
28 | 葉皮及實皆可食 |
2 |
根葉皆可食 |
16 | 莖可食 |
3 |
根及實皆可食 |
5 | 笋可食 |
1 |
根笋皆可食 |
3 | 笋及實皆可食 |
1 |
根及花皆可食 |
2 |
Combine phrases to query specific results. Example: input "笋可食 or 根笋皆可食 or 笋及實皆可食" to view all the entries that contain an edible part of "笋".
Entries grouped by edible parts in categories are not identical to that in tags. To view detailed information on edible parts, please use Browse by Tag.
Browse by Family and Genus
Click on Metadata to open Post Classification panel, use 
to browse by family and genus.
Or input the family/genus in to query specific results.
Combine phrases to query specific results. Example: input "草部 Apiaceae -Foeniculum" to view all the entries that belong to the category of "Grass" and the family of "Apiaceae", excluding those from the genus of "Foeniculum".
Browse by Tag
Click on Metadata to open Tag Analysis panel and browse by tags.
Plant names recorded in bencao, or already mentioned in this book
Formal drug names recorded in bencao.
Newly recorded plant names
Places of origin recorded in bencao
Place names recorded in bencao
Newly recorded place names
Distribution of the plant
Ecology of growth
Information on cultivation
Taste of the plant
Medicinal nature of the plant
Toxicity of the plant
Items of medicinal interaction
Edible part
Information on culinary use
Person names
Book names
Information on non-culinary use
Advanced Search and Preview
Combine phrases in a query and preview the results.
Example
To view all the entries from the family "Apiaceae" that contain an ecology tag of "田野", input "Apiaceae" in the query and view the results:
Query： Apiaceae .all
Matches： 14
Open Tag Analysis panel and use
田野 4 ↴
Click on the number "4" to preview the post classification information of the selected results
The preview window (BC) can display maximum 100 entries; the post classification panel (BC) can display all entries.
Use Boolean Logic to query specific results.
Example
To view all the entries from the family "Apiaceae" that do not contain an ecology tag of "田野", input "Apiaceae -Udef_Ecology/-:田野" in the query:
Query： Apiaceae -Udef_Ecology/-:田野
Matches： 10
Example
To view all the entries from the family "Apiaceae" that not only contain an ecology tag of "田野" or do not contain an ecology tag, input "Apiaceae" in the query, invert selection 反向 the tag of "田野" in the Tag Analysis panel, and then click on 過濾
Query: Apiaceae Udef_Ecology/-:山野|川谷|山谷|川澤|荒野|水…
Matches: 12
Example
To view all entries that do not contain an ecology tag, select all tags in , click on 過濾 and view the results
Query: .all Udef_Ecology/-:下濕地|下濕陂澤|久廢處|土山|山中|山…
Matches: 383
Open the source file of the page, copy all the values under "Udef_Ecology/-:"
and then use logic "-" to initiate a new query
Query: -Udef_Ecology/-:下濕地|下濕陂澤|久廢處|土山|山中|山谷|山坡…
Matches: 31
Appendix
Table of Contents of Jiuhuang Bencao
＞＞救荒本草目錄（查詢碼）＜＜ (Chinese only)
Preface to Jiuhuang Bencao
《救荒本草》永樂四年序文（1406） (Chinese and English)
Dictionary
(Coming soon)
Annotation and Copyrights
Annotation Notes
Annotation was based on the 1525 edition of Jiuhuang bencao. In principle, all the alternative characters, simplified characters, vernacular characters and loan characters were kept, except for the characters that could not be displayed in the Unicode system. To enhance searchability, while kept the original scripts of plant names in the body text, we revised those in entry titles and comments to standard traditional Chinese.
The pronunciation denotation in the original text were kept in brackets in lines. They will be occasionally displayed in tags (e.g. 鹻（音减）蓬、宕（音蕩）昌) .
Species Identification
We tried to identify every entry with a species in the APG system according to the visual and textual description, with reference to modern studies in plant morphology, distribution, and ethnobotany. However, for the purposes of identification and utilization, the pre-modern systems of plant taxonomy were different from that of today; there are cases of unidentifiable entries, single entry with multiple species, and divergence between the illustration and accompanying text. All the discussion of identification were listed in the comment panel Comment.
The scientific names (Latin and Chinese) were revised according to the recently updated ICN. Click on SPECIES_CH or SPECIES_EN in the metadata to visit an external site and view synonyms and other information of the plant.
All the information given for plant identification and culinary/medicinal use is for research purposes only. DO NOT collect and try unfamiliar species.
References
Key references for annotation and species identification:
- 王錦繡，湯彥承：《救荒本草譯注》，上海：上海古籍出版社，2015年。
- 王家葵，張瑞賢，李敏：《救荒本草校釋與研究》，北京：中醫古籍出版社，2007年。
- 倪根金，張翠君：《救荒本草校注》，北京：中國農業出版社，2010年。
External sites：
Medicinal Plant Image Database, HKBU
iPlant.cn 植物智 - 中國植物＋物種信息系統
Plants of the World Online (POWO)
Markup tool:
- Ho, Hou Ieong Brent, and Hilde De Weerdt. MARKUS. Text Analysis and Reading Platform. 2014- http://dh.chinese-empires.eu/beta/ Funded by the European Research Council and the Digging into Data Challenge.
Image Copyrights
The original illustration of plants were reproduced from a facsimile of the 1525 edition in former Zheng Zhenduo's collection (中國古代版畫叢刊，1959). The facsimile has been published for more than 50 years, thus entering the public domain confirming to the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China. With confirmation from the former copyright holder Zhonghua Shuju (Beijing), the images were digitized and published in this database.
A part of the plant photo was reproduced from Medicinal Plant Image Database, HKBU with the consent of the copyright holder. HKBU School of Chinese Medicine reserves all rights on these images, and any conduct of copying, publishing, reproducing, and disseminating of the images, without prior consent from the School, is prohibited.
Other photos were reproduced under Creative Commons licenses.
Key sources:
Wikimedia Commons
iNaturalist.org
多識植物百科 (Archived)
Click on CREDIT in the metadata to visit an external site and view the copyright information of the photo. For unidentified entries and species without HD photos, no plant photo is provided.
Open Access
This database is operated and published under DocuSky Terms and Conditions.
All the materials of this database and the accompanying User Manual, except the materials operated under other copyright terms, could be used under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
print current query results
Release Notes
Famine Foods Database powered by DocuSky 數位人文學術研究平台
Author 黃梣 HUANG Chen (Sarah) Version beta Date 2021.12.30
How to cite:
http://doi.airiti.com/LandingPage/NTURCDH/10.6681/NTURCDH.DB_DocuSkyJiuhuangBencao/Text
DOI: http://doi.org/10.6681/NTURCDH.DB_DocuSkyJiuhuangBencao/Text
Famine Foods Database User Manual (English ver.)
Author 黃梣 HUANG Chen (Sarah) Version 1.0 Date 2021.12.30
Permanent link: https://hackmd.io/@faminefoods/introduction_en
Upcoming features
【Database】
- Authority Phrase of tags
- Layers of plant and place names
- Reference ID of person, place, and book names
【User Manual】
- Dictionary of plant morphology and culinary information
Resources
Famine and Food Security
The Famine Foods Website (PURDUE)
上杉鷹山公の知恵から生まれた食べられる草木｜かてもの (Archived)
Famine and Dearth database (Exeter)
Irish Famine Archive (Archived)
中國災荒史論壇 - 中國人民大學清史研究所
Alliance Biodiversity International CIAT
Bencao and Botany
本草經集注
Medicinal Plant Image Database, HKBU
iPlant.cn 植物智 - 中國植物＋物種信息系統
Flora of China - eFlora.org
Plants of the World Online (POWO)
iNaturalist.org
多識植物百科 (Archived)
Plants For A Future
The Biodiversity Heritage Library
Other Resources
epocamoderna.org
HKBU History in Data: Tribute Data Curation
Northeast China Non-Han Name Lexicon (NCNHNL)
ChinaKnowledge.de
Digital Humanities
DocuSky 數位人文學術研究平台
MARKUS
LoGaRT: Local Gazetteers Research Tools
Chinese Text Project
漢リポ Kanseki Repository
CrossAsia ITR Explorer
Contact
For any inquiry and suggestion, please email us at faminefoodscommons@gmail.com
Or
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