Medicines are essential in daily life. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, in the absence of official pharmacopoeias, herbal books written by local elites became the mainstream. Drawing on earlier medical texts, these authors put forward their own innovations while adapting from past knowledge. This study aims to investigate how Ming and Qing physicians, as local elites, understood the interactions between the body, medicine, and environment in their daily medical practices by examining the emerging dichotomous descriptions of the medicinal properties of substances based on their northern and southern origins. This phenomenon of north-south differentiation of medicinal substances occurred within the broader intellectual context of geographic dichotomies, such as 'northwest-southeast' or 'north-south' in Ming-Qing medical thought. It was closely related to the contemporary trade and circulation of medicinal materials, while also subtly connected to the debates among different medical schools since the Jin and Yuan dynasties. This study comprehensively examines these factors, focusing on the production process of knowledge surrounding the north-south dichotomy of medicines, and explores how local elites developed a cosmological coherence within this process.

Yin Shan Zheng Yao 饮膳正要(YSZY), the first systematic nutritional monograph with a total of three volumes, was compiled by Husi Hui 忽思慧(Hu), a Yuan imperial physician and printed in 1330AD in China. Based on the textual research of the original plant species of the 39 fruits in the third volume of YSZY, a comparison between the fruits described in the YSZY with the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was conducted by referring to a wide range of TCM literature. The results indicated that 26 kinds of fruits described in YSZY are considered as Chinese medicinal plants. The similarities and differences between the records on the properties, flavors, effects, medicinal treatments, and toxicity of the ingredients in YSZY and those of the traditional Chinese medicinal plants were compared and listed. Although YSZY is categorized as a classic in nutrition, the ingredients recorded actually adhere to the theories of TCM. This indicates that the author Hu possesses a profound foundation in TCM theory, and he holds the belief that a balanced diet not only ensures nutrition but also contributes to strengthening the body and maintaining health. Therefore, YSZY which inherits the ancient Chinese medical concept of homology of medicine and food, has a significant impact on the development of TCM and traditional nutrition.

The magazine "Science", founded in 1980 in Inner Mongolia, China, was the first one to popularize science in Uighur Mongolian version. Before 2014, its audiences for popularization of science were non-specific, while middle and primary school students became its main readers afterwards. Through the analysis of the publication content of the magazine, the following conclusions are drawn: (1) By 2020, the magazine has published totally 235 issues, 214 columns, and 6,103 articles by original writing, editorially translation and directly translation. (2) The top 5 columns with the most articles are "Encyclopedic knowledge", "Science Today", "Medical health", "Agriculture and breeding" and " Acquire wealth". (3) The published articles involved varieties of disciplines. The top 5 disciplines with the most articles are medicine, animal science, veterinary science, agriculture, biology, accounting for 41% of the total. (4) 412 articles are related to native knowledge, accounting for 6.7% of the total, mainly covering the fields of traditional medicine and pharmacy knowledge, traditional animal husbandry knowledge, ethnobotany, ethnozoology. It can be revealed that the Mongolian magazine "Science" cast an important impact on improving the scientific literacy of the Mongolian people. The articles related to local knowledge published have played a positive role in the exploration, protection and inheritance of Mongolian traditional knowledge and culture.