Download or read book The Monkey and the Inkpot written by Carla Nappi and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-15 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of a Chinese doctor, his book, and the creatures that danced within its pages. The Monkey and the Inkpot introduces natural history in sixteenth-century China through the iconic Bencao gangmu (Systematic materia medica) of Li Shizhen (1518 - 1593). In the first book-length study in English of Li's text, Carla Nappi reveals a "cabinet of curiosities" of gems, beasts, and oddities whose author was devoted to using natural history to guide the application of natural and artificial objects as medical drugs.