约汉代成书 · 原书已佚 · 主要依赖后世辑本
Compiled in the Han dynasty · Original lost · Known mainly through later reconstructions
《神农本草经》是现存最早的系统本草著作的源头。原书已佚，其内容主要保存在梁代陶弘景《本草经集注》的「朱书」部分，以及后来的《证类本草》等书中。成书年代学界多定于汉代（西汉末至东汉），而非先秦。书中将药物分为上、中、下三品，共载药物约三百六十五种。
The *Shennong Bencao Jing* is the earliest systematic materia medica text whose content can still be substantially recovered. The original is lost; its text survives mainly in the “red-ink” portions of Tao Hongjing’s *Bencao Jing Jizhu* (c. 500 CE) and later works such as the *Zhenglei Bencao*. Most scholars date its compilation to the Han dynasty rather than the pre-Qin period. It classifies drugs into upper, middle and lower grades and records about 365 substances.
首次以「三品」对药物进行系统分类，并记录性味、主治与采集等信息，奠定了后世本草学的基本体例。它本身不是临床方书，而是药物学的早期框架。
It introduces the tripartite (“three grades”) classification of drugs and records properties, indications and collection notes, establishing the basic formal structure of later materia medica literature. It is a framework of drug knowledge rather than a clinical formula manual.