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He was called Mr. Seclusion in Huayang or Mr. Seclusion in Huayang after his death. He was born in Moling, Danyang (now Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province). Tao lived in the Southern Dynasties and passed through the Song, Qi and Liang dynasties. He was a very influential figure and naturalist at that time, and he made great contributions to material medicine.

Mr. Tao was born as a doctor. Both his grandfather and father practiced medicine and had martial arts. He was smart since he was a child. He read Ge Hong The Legend of Immortals when he was about ten years old. He was deeply influenced by it. At the age of thirty-six, he resigned from office and lived in seclusion in Maoshan, Jurong. He traveled to famous mountains in search of elixirs. At that time, he was deeply trusted by Emperor Xiao Yan of Liang Dynasty. Although Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty gave him many official posts and was not accepted, Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty always consulted him on major national affairs, so people at the time called him "Prime Minister of the Mountains".

Tao's thought is a representative figure who integrates Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

As far as medicine is concerned, he is one of the early figures who made the greatest contribution in the history of the development of material medicine in our country. In the time when he lived, there were more than 10 books on materia medica, but there was no unified standard. In particular, the ancient materia medica was inconvenient for clinical application due to its late expiration date, scattered content, indistinguishability between grass and stone, and indistinguishability between insects and animals. He took on the important task of "comprehensive all the classics and studied them thoroughly" and organized all the materia medica works at that time into Shennong Bencao Jing and Mingyi Bielu, and then further Combining the two into one, and adding personal experience in this area, the book Bencao Jing Jizhu was collected, with a total of 730 kinds of medicines. It has become a milestone in the development history of material medicine in my country.

The main feature of this book is to create an all-encompassing natural history for material medicine in my country. He also created some original inventions, such as the creation of a classification system of "universal medicines for all diseases" classified according to the therapeutic properties of medicines. In terms of style, he also pioneered the practice of dividing materia medica works into general chapters and separate narratives. This was a historical phenomenon at that time. Under certain conditions, he also used the methods of Zhu Shu and Mo Shu to distinguish the original texts of Benjing and Bielu, etc. He has made indelible contributions in the history of the development of material medicine in our country.

Tao Hong-jing has a scientific exploration spirit. Under the conditions at the time, he dared to propose a new classification of materia medica without being limited to the original three-category classification. He himself was originally a Taoist, but he was able to proceed from reality and break the three-category classification, which is enough to prove his pragmatic attitude on the road of science. He has the exploratory spirit of "I don't know anything and am deeply ashamed of it", which is the driving force for his achievements in science. For example, he personally inspected the nest of the slender-waisted wasp (i.e. Ying) many times, and finally came to the correct conclusion, thinking that the statement in The Book of Songs "is fallacious. The person who selected the poems has not reviewed it, so how can Master Why is it so idiosyncratic? Sages have shortcomings, and many of them are like this." Frankly criticize the fallacies of the ancient sages.

According to records, Tao Hong-jing wrote many works throughout his life. Jia Song of Song Dynasty's Huayang Residence in Seclusion records that Tao Hong-jing wrote 233 volumes in 32 categories. In terms of health maintenance, there are Nurture and Prolong Life Record and Health Preservation Classic. In terms of material medica, in addition to the above, there are also Herbal Secrets and so on.

Tao Hong-jing also made outstanding achievements in medicine. Ancient medicine was not divided into different branches. It was a master of material medica, and he must be proficient in medical science. This was the case with Tao Hong-jing. He first compiled Ge Hong's Zhouzhou Fang into Filling the gap, and wrote Effective Fang.

In addition, Tao Hong-jing also conducted research in other subjects such as astronomy, calendar, and health care. It is said that he also created the "Hun Wu Yi", but unfortunately there is no trace of it.