Posted 2017/4/16
Quan Fang Bei Zu (The Foliage) is an all-encompassing book of the anthography category in the Song Dynasty written by Chen Yong (1035 - 1112). According to the famous scholar Mr. Wu Deduo, it is "the first botanical dictionary in the world". In the book name, "Fang" refers to all plants since the book is all about the data of foliage, or especially the cultivated plants; meanwhile, it also tells about knowledge and origin of each plant, hence the name "Bei Zu". Thus the outline of the book and naming are clearly presented in front of us.
