A miraculous restoration of Li Shizhen’s portrait

“China in the Classics,” an innovative cultural show produced by CMG, explores exciting stories from some of the most significant ancient Chinese classics through seminars, drama, and visualization. It brings ancient classics to “living” showing Chinese wisdom, ethos, and values.

This episode focuses on 1952, when the Soviet Union planned to display portraits of 60 world-famous scientists at Moscow State University, including Li Shizhen, a famous Chinese pharmacologist from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

But because Li’s portrait did not exist, Guo Moruo, the then president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave such a thing to the well-known artist Jiang Zhaohe.

Jiang found a vivid description of Li Shizhen in the preface Materia Medica collection and used it as a basis for his portrait.

The painting was handed over to Moscow State University, which presented it alongside images of Isaac Newton, Copernicus, Marie Curie and Charles Darwin.

It became a standard portrait of Lin, and became a familiar sight throughout China, including on stamps and statues.