What is Bencao Dian?
Bencao Dian (本草典 — literally \"Materia Medica Canon\") is a bilingual knowledge graph of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The first two characters, běncǎo, name the long lineage of Chinese pharmacological treatises and have come to denote the entire field of Chinese herbal knowledge; the third, diǎn, carries the meaning of \"canon\" or \"foundational reference.\" The platform records six classes of entry — herbs, formulas, patterns, meridians, acupoints, and classical texts — and explicitly models the relationships among them as a traversable graph.
Where a conventional materia medica reads like a dictionary, Bencao Dian aims to present knowledge relationally. An herb is not an isolated entry — it has its channel tropism, its uses across formulas, its synergistic and antagonistic companions. A formula is not a mere list of ingredients — it has its sovereign, ministers, assistants, and envoy; its modifications; its classical source. Each page is meant to be read not only on its own but as a node in the larger graph.
Mission
The core knowledge of Chinese medicine has long been transmitted primarily in Chinese, leaving Western readers a double barrier of language and technical vocabulary. The mission of Bencao Dian is to render the core textbook knowledge of Chinese medicine — not the diluted and misleading versions that circulate in popular sources — in clear, searchable, bilingual form. Accurate bilingual presentation is, we believe, the precondition for any genuine cross-cultural conversation in medicine.
Sources
The content of Bencao Dian draws principally on the following authoritative sources:
- Zhōngyàoxué (Chinese Materia Medica), 7th/8th edition, People's Medical Publishing House — the standard pharmacology textbook of PRC TCM colleges.
- Fāngjìxué (Chinese Formula Studies), 7th/8th edition, People's Medical Publishing House — the standard formula textbook.
- Zhōngyī Zhěnduànxué (Chinese Medical Diagnostics), People's Medical Publishing House.
- Zhēnjiǔxué (Acupuncture and Moxibustion), People's Medical Publishing House.
- WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region.
- Classical sources: the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic (《黃帝內經》), the Treatise on Cold Damage (《傷寒論》), the Divine Husbandman's Classic of Materia Medica (《神農本草經》), the Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach (《脾胃論》), and the Imperial Grace Formulary of the Tai Ping Era (《太平惠民和劑局方》).
How the platform is structured
The core of Bencao Dian is a graph. Every herb, formula, pattern, meridian, acupoint, and classical text is a node, and the relationships among them — \"astragalus enters the Lung channel,\" \"Four Gentlemen Decoction treats Spleen-qi vacuity,\" \"the Treatise on Cold Damage records Cinnamon Twig Decoction\" — are explicit edges. From any entry point a reader can traverse outward to the rest of the related material; the platform is designed to be read laterally as well as linearly.
Layered on top of the graph is the Concepts section: fifteen long-form articles that explain the foundational categories of Chinese medical theory — the zang-fu organs, yin and yang, the five phases, the eight principles, the four natures and five flavors, the sovereign-minister-assistant-envoy hierarchy of formula composition, and so on. These articles supply the conceptual ground that the rest of the platform stands on.
How to read an entity page
Take an herb page as an example. At the top of each page are the Chinese name, pinyin, English name, and Latin name. Just below is the line of three primary attributes — nature, flavor, and channel tropism — which compresses the herb's most basic properties into a single row. To read this line meaningfully, you should first read the concept articles on the four natures and five flavors and on channel tropism.
Below that come the actions (what the herb does), indications (the patterns it treats), processing methods (the different prepared forms and their uses), dosage range, and safety notes. Further down is a list of the formulas in which the herb appears, marked with its role (sovereign, minister, assistant, or envoy) in each. The page closes with classical references — representative passages from historical materia medica works.
Formula, pattern, and acupoint pages follow a similar pattern: basic attributes, functional description, composition and relationships, classical sources. The shape is consistent so that as you move from one entity type to another, you always know where to look for what you need.
Medical disclaimer
This platform is for educational and scholarly reference in Chinese medicine only. It is not a substitute for diagnosis, prescription, or treatment by a qualified TCM practitioner.
Chinese herbs are not safe simply because they are \"natural.\" Many have powerful pharmacological effects, and some are frankly toxic. An incorrect diagnosis, an incorrect prescription, an incorrectly processed herb, or an incorrect dose can all cause serious harm. The dosage ranges given on this platform are traditional reference ranges; they are not personalized prescriptions.
If you are ill, or if you are taking any medication, please use Chinese herbs and acupuncture only under the guidance of a qualified TCM practitioner working in coordination with your treating physician.
Open source
Bencao Dian is an open-source project. The source code is MIT-licensed; the editorial content and seed data are released under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the license page for details. The complete seed dataset is downloadable from the open data page. We warmly welcome bilingual contributors with TCM training to help correct and extend the content.
Acknowledgments
The display typeface used throughout this platform is LXGW WenKai (霞鶩文楷), generously released by the typeface designer Lxgw (落霞孤鶩 — \"the lone wild goose against the setting glow\"). LXGW WenKai is based on the Japanese Klee typeface and distributed under the SIL Open Font License. We are grateful for a Chinese display face that can carry the tradition's classical atmosphere onto the web with this much grace.