Find thousands of books, manuscripts, visual materials and unpublished archives from our collections, many of them with free online access.
Search for free, downloadable images taken from our library and museum collections, including paintings, illustrations, photos and more.
Chinese Materia Dietetica, Ming: Winter frost water
- Anonymous
- Digital Images
- Online
Available online
Licence
Public Domain Mark
You can use this work for any purpose without restriction under copyright law.
Public Domain Mark (PDM) terms and conditions https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0
Credit: Chinese Materia Dietetica, Ming: Winter frost water. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark
Selected images from this work
About this work
Description
Illustration of 'winter frost water' from Shiwu bencao (Materia dietetica), a dietetic herbal in four volumes dating from the Ming period (1368-1644). The identity of the author and artists is unknown. It contains entries on over 300 medicinal substances and is illustrated by almost 500 paintings in colour.
Frost (shuang), i.e. frozen dew, was collected by brushing it up with chicken feathers, and was then sealed in bottles for later use. The illustration shows a man climbing a ladder to gather frost from a roof.
The text states: Winter frost water is cold in thermostatic character and non-poisonous. It is used to relieve alcoholic heat (jiure), cold damage and heat ailments.
Contributors
Lettering
Winter frost water (Dongshuang shui)