明代五種畫家所繪彩色本草圖譜及其傳摹本共有一萬零七百零九幅插圖存世。其中以《本草品彙精要》繪成時間最早。該書一千三百六十七幅插圖中，據《證類本草》墨線插圖敷色仿繪者七百幅，新增圖或改繪的插圖六百六十七幅。該書的寫生插圖學術價值很高，但也存在憑文字或想像繪製插圖的弊病。此後四種彩色本草圖譜均在《本草品彙精要》的基礎上摹繪或增刪而成。《金石昆蟲草木狀》、《本草圖譜》係摹繪本。《食物本草》有圖四百九十二幅，內新增二百七十九圖，以百餘幅水液類輔助圖和飲食物品種圖為特色。《補遺雷公炮製便覽》存圖一千一百五十三幅，新增人部藥輔助圖和二百二十四幅炮製圖是其特色，後者前所未有地展示了諸多古代炮製技術實施的場景和器具。鑒於畫家缺乏藥學知識，忽視本草圖的科學屬性，以致憑文字和想像創造出許多缺乏本草學術意義的藝術品，並賦予古代本草插圖每多輔助圖（包含人物活動）的特性。因此，明代畫家彩色插圖雖然有很高的藝術價值，但其本草學術價值仍不可高估。

Among the five types of colored pictures of Bencao drawn by the artists and their copies, 10,709 illustrations can be found today, with those in Bencao Pinhui Jingyao dated the earliest. 700 of the 1,367 illustrations were copied and colored from the black-and-white illustrations of Zhenglei Bencao, with another 667 newly added or revised. The pictures from nature are of high academic value but also have some flaws; for instance, the illustrations were based on the texts or imagination. Thereafter, all of the four Bencao illustrations with colors are drawn, added or omitted on the basis of the Bencao Pinhui Jingyao, while Jinshi Kunchong Caomuzhuan and Bencao Tupu are copies. Shiwu Bencao includes 492 illustrations and 279 newly added illustrations, which include over one hundred appendix illustrations of the Liquid Category and the breeds/strains of the Edible Category. Buyi Leigong Paozhi Bianlan includes 1,153 illustrations, including newly added illustrations of the group of Human Drugs and 224 illustrations of Processing Drugs, which unprecedentedly show many techniques and instruments used in the processing of medicines in ancient times. Due to their lack of medical knowledge, the artists ignored the scientific nature of Bencao illustration. As a result, they fabricated many pictures that lack the academic value of Bencao and added many appendix pictures based on the ancient Bencao illustrations (including people’s activities). Therefore, although the colored illustrations drawn by the artists in Ming Dynasty are of very high artistic value, They fail to convey the academic value of Bencao learning.

本草；本草插圖；《本草品彙精要》；《食物本草》；《補遺雷公炮製便覽》；《金石昆蟲草木狀》；《本草圖譜》

Bencao (Herbal foundation); Illustrations of Bencao; Bencao Pinhui Jingyao; Shiwu Bencao; Buyi Leigong Paozhi Bianlan; Jinshi Kunchong Caomuzhuang; Bencao Tupu