Full citation see: Ad Dudink & Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-Database).

JapSin II, 86
Bencao bu 本草補.
By Shi Duolu 石鐸琭 (Pedro de la Piñuela).
One juan, bamboo paper in one ce with a paper case. No date or place of publication.

The cover bears a Latin inscription: “Medicinae herbariolum | a p. Petro Piñuela | franciscano.”

In his preface Liu Ning says that de la Piñuela not only looked after the spiritual welfare of the people but also gave help in their physical needs. He then goes on to say that the medicine mentioned in the book were foreign to China. The missioner brought in seeds from Spain, from the Philippines, and from Europe. Besides the medicine, the book also gives prescriptions. Among the plants introduced from the Philippines to China were 香草, 臭草, and 穵弄果. There were also ready prepared medicines from Europe: 避驚風，保心石，吸毒石, and 日精油, which are no longer known in China. By going through the preface one can get an idea what the book is about.
Pedro de la Piñuela intended his book to be a supplement to the Bencao gangmu 本草綱目 (fifty-two juan), written by Li Shizhen 李時珍 (zi 東璧, hao 瀕湖). Not only does this work constitute one of the chief sources of knowledge of proto-scientific development in China up to his day, it also records the author’s attitude toward his subject, which distinguishes him from preceding and contemporary writers of comparable works. The Bencao gangmu contains 1,892 entries, 275 of which deal with the mineral kingdom, 444 with the zoological, 1,094 with botanical species, and seventy-nine with miscellaneous substances. Of these, Li himself added 374. He died in 1593, when the printing of his book was barely completed.

Cf. DMB 1:859–865; ICL, pp. 86–88; Zhao Pushan 趙璞刪, Zhongguo gudai yixue 中國古代醫學 (Beijing, 1983), pp. 179–182; Wang Huifang 王慧芳, “Li Shizhen yu Bencao gangmu” in: Yiyao shihua 醫藥史話 (Shanghai, 1982), pp. 157–167; Zhang Huijian 張慧劍, Li Shizhen 李時珍 (Shanghai, 1956); Li Shizhen (Zhongguo lishi xiao congshu 中國歷史小叢書 series, Beijing, 1960); Zhong Yi 鍾毅, Li Shizhen yu Bencao gangmu 李時珍與本草綱目 (Shanghai, 1973).

The Bencao bu of de la Piñuela was later copiously used by Zhao Xuemin 趙學敏, when he compiled the Bencao gangmu shiyi 本草綱目拾遺 (Addenda and corrigenda to the Bencao gangmu). This book (ten juan) was intended to bring the Bencao gangmu up to date and at the same time to correct the errors. Zhao Xuemin (zi 依吉, hao 怒軒, ca. 1719–1805) was a native of Hangzhou (Zhejiang). A man well-versed in the classics, he was particularly interested in medicine. Of his collected works, known as Liji shi’er zhong 利濟十二種, only the Bencao gangmu shiyi, the Chuanya neibian 串雅內編, and the Chuanya waibian 串雅外編 are extant. The general form of the Bencao gangmu shiyi follows that of Li Shizhen. It contains 921 entries, 716 of which had not been mentioned by Li Shizhen. By then communications between the East and the West had become more frequent. Zhao’s book recorded a good number of medicines that had come from foreign countries, such as ginseng, produced in America, sago, and quinine. He was not satisfied with studying solely from books and preferred to go around among the people from whom he could learn directly about popular medicines that were not often mentioned in books. The Bencao gangmu shiyi was written in 1765. However, it was not printed until nearly a century later (1864). Cf. Zhongguo gudai yixue (see above), pp. 183–184; Yiyao shihua (see above), pp. 168–176; ICL, p. 93; Wang 1983, p. 259.

Pedro de la Piñuela (Shi Duolu 石鐸琭, zi 振鐸) was born in Mexico City in 1650 of Spanish parents. He joined the Franciscan Order in his native city and soon left for the Philippines (1671). He was ordained to the priesthood in Manila. In 1676 he left for China where he learned the Chinese language and started to work among the Chinese. He founded a number of churches in Fujian province and died in Zhaozhou (29 July 1704). He wrote a good deal in Spanish (some of this was about the activities of the Franciscans in China) and drew up a catalogue of individual Franciscans who had come to China from 1579 to 1700. Among the books he wrote in Chinese are:

1. Moxiang shengong 默想神功 (Spiritual exercises), a book of meditation, see Jap-Sin I, 118.
2. Yongzhan dingheng 永暫定衡 (The difference between the temporal and the eternal).
3. Dashe jielüe 大赦解略 (A brief explanation of the indulgences).
4. Chuhui wenda 初會問答 (A first meeting between a missioner and a man of letters), see Jap-Sin I, 119.

Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 396-398.