Tang Shenwei

Tang Shenwei was born in a family of professional physicians from Jinyuan (晉原; in today's Chongzhou, Sichuan).

During the Yuanyou era (元祐; 1086–1094) of Emperor Zhezong's reign, he became a disciple of Li Duanbo [zh] and moved to Huayang near Chengdu.

In the preface, Tang summarized the history of materia medica books and explained the way in which he carried out the compilation.

Every drug entry includes the description of usage, function in the Chinese medicine framework, places or origin, methods of collection and preparation.

[citation needed] Song dynasty official Yuwen Xuzhong (宇文虛中) described Tang Shenwei as "ugly in appearance and slow in demeanor and speech".