＞＞中文版＜＜

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.

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  • View the Entry
  • Browse and Search
    • Basics
    • Browse by Entry Number
    • Browse by Volume
    • Browse by Category
    • Browse by Family and Genus
    • Browse by Tag
    • Advanced Search and Preview
  • Appendix
    • Table of Contents of Jiuhuang Bencao
    • Preface to Jiuhuang Bencao
    • Dictionary
  • Annotation and Copyrights
    • Annotation Notes
    • Species Identification
    • References
    • Image Copyrights
    • Open Access
  • Release Notes
  • Resources
    • Famine and Food Security
    • Bencao and Botany
    • Other Resources
    • Digital Humanities
  • Contact

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

postClassification

To open Tag Analysis panel, click on Tag at the top right corner

tagAnalysis

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/-:"

Udef_Ecology/-:下濕地|下濕陂澤|久廢處|土山|山中|山谷|山坡|山崗|山野|山澗|山衝|川谷|川澤|水中|水田|水泊|水泊邊|水傍|水澤|水邊|丘陵|平原|平野|平澤|田庄窠（音科）上|田野|田園|石間|石磧上|江湖|池澤|沙堈|沙崗|坡野|坡塘|岸際|林下|肥土石間|城壘|郊野|海濱|荒野|高岸|高阜|高崗|崖坡|崗野|崗嶺|淺水|堤坂|園宅間|園圃|園籬邊|道傍|漸洳處|種蒔|澤中|澤田|澤傍

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

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