Li Shizhen Memorial Hall 李时珍纪念馆

About Li Shizhen Memorial Hall

Li Shizhen spent thirty years on the Bencao Gangmu, the compendium of materia medica for which he is remembered. The county government built the memorial hall in 1980 on the lakeshore east of Qizhou, taking as its centre his tomb, which is protected as a national key cultural heritage site, and putting up a group of buildings in Ming style around it. Continuous work over nearly four decades has produced a site of 80,000 square metres, of which about 8,000 square metres are traditional-style buildings. It opened to the public in 1982, and Deng Xiaoping wrote the name plaques for the memorial hall and the pharmacy hall.

The complex divides into six parts: the Sixian square, a long corridor of materia medica stele carvings, the memorial hall itself, the pharmacy hall, the Baicao herb garden and the tomb garden. Two standing exhibitions cover Li Shizhen's life and his materia medica, supported by ten thematic displays; the county government describes it as the only museum in China devoted to collecting, researching and exhibiting relics and documents connected with him. Its standing has been recognised repeatedly: a national patriotic education base for schools named jointly by six national bodies in 1996, a national patriotic education demonstration base under the Central Propaganda Department in 1997, a Hubei science-popularisation demonstration base in 2002, a national base for promoting traditional Chinese medicine culture designated by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2006, and a third-grade museum in the State Administration of Cultural Heritage's grading in 2009.

What to look for

• The tomb garden built around Li Shizhen's grave, protected as a national key cultural heritage site and the reason the complex stands here
• The long corridor of stele carvings drawn from the Bencao Gangmu
• The two standing exhibitions, one on Li Shizhen's life and one on his materia medica, with ten further thematic displays
• The Baicao herb garden, the planted section of the grounds
• The name plaques for the memorial hall and the pharmacy hall, written by Deng Xiaoping

Location & getting there

Getting to Li Shizhen Memorial Hall

Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.

• Search for 李时珍纪念馆 with 黄冈市 and 蕲春县.