Profile

Author of Wu Pu's Materia Medica, the earliest source to record Eucommia's alternative names 'Sizhong' and 'Mumian'.

Story

Wu Pu, a native of Guangling in the Wei state of the Three Kingdoms period, was a disciple of the famed physician Hua Tuo and was noted for his devotion to materia medica. His Wu Pu's Materia Medica compiled the drug-property doctrines of various schools before and during the Han–Wei era and is an important source for studying the early transmission of Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica. The original was lost after the Song dynasty; modern scholars reconstruct it from quotations in works such as the Taiping Yulan and Zhenglei Bencao.

For the Eucommia entry, juan 991 of the Taiping Yulan quotes Wu Pu's Materia Medica: 'Duzhong, also called Mumian, also called Sizhong.' These two synonyms were inherited by later materia medica such as the Mingyi Bielu and Zhenglei Bencao, and the name 'Mumian' matches the identifying trait of silvery threads connecting the broken bark—an important link in the drug's 2,000-year naming history.

Milestones

• In the first half of the 3rd century studied medicine under Hua Tuo and wrote Wu Pu's Materia Medica in six juan
• The book drew on the drug-property teachings of Shennong, the Yellow Emperor, Qibo, Leigong, Tongjun, and other traditions
• After the original was lost, entries such as the one on Eucommia survived through quotation in leishu encyclopedias like the Taiping Yulan

Key Contributions

• Studied under Hua Tuo and compiled Wu Pu's Materia Medica drawing widely on various schools' theories of drug properties—an important materia medica of the Three Kingdoms period
• Wu Pu's Materia Medica records: 'Duzhong (Eucommia), also called Mumian, also called Sizhong'—one of the earliest textual sources for Eucommia's synonyms
• The book was long ago lost; its Eucommia entry survives through quotation in juan 991 of the Taiping Yulan (Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era)
• The name 'Mumian' ('tree cotton') it records derives from the silvery, cotton-like threads seen when Eucommia bark is broken—later a basis for morphological identification