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Title:: Name and Birthplace of Chen Jingyi, the Compiler of theBotanic Monograph Quan Fang Bei Zu

Abstract:: The title, preface and the byline of each volume of Quan fang bei zu全芳备祖(The Foliage)all indicate that the botanic dictionary was compiled by Chen Qingyi of the Song Dynasty. However, during the Jiaqing period, Qing Dynasty, Qi Xuebiao held the view that the compiler was his fellow townsman Chen Yong, with Jingyi as his courtesy name, from a village named Jing’ao in Taiping County(now Wenling in Zhejiang Province)based on the genealogy of the Chen clan. But it is documented in the genealogy that its 9^th ancestor Chen Yong lived at the turn of the Northern and Southern Song dynasties, while the actual complier Chen Jingyi lived in the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty. It is just a coincidence that one’s name happened to be the same as another’s courtesy name. Moreover, there is another opinion that the book was compiled by Wu Yong, whose courtesy name was Jingyi, in Tiantai County(now in Zhejiang Province). This mistake is due to the fact that the genealogy of the Wu clan copied that of the Chen clan. Without adequate evidence, the book should be attributed to Chen Jingyi from Tiantai County as indicated in the book itself. It is rather unscientific to hold a different view without sufficient reliable evidence.