and was influenced by the Neo-Confucian beliefs of the time. He was born in what is today Qizhou, Qichun County, Hubei on July 3, 1518, AD. As a child, Li suffered from an eye disease that was supposedly caused by an overconsumption of peppercorn seeds.

Li Shizhen's grandfather was a doctor who traveled the countryside and was considered relatively low on the social scale of the time. His father was a traditional physician and scholar who had written several influential