In the process of writing Compendium of Materia Medica, Li Shizhen found that pangolin was an ant-eating animal in the Notes of Materia Medica written by Tao Hongjing, a medical scientist in the Southern Song Dynasty. "It can land and water, leave the shore at noon, open scales like dead bodies, and lure ants into the armor, that is, income water, and bare-toed ants all come out to eat." Is the life habit of pangolin really like this? Li Shizhen is a little skeptical. In order to find out the truth, Li Shizhen followed the hunter into the depths of the forest, followed the trail of pangolin, made a field trip, and personally caught pangolin for dissection. It is found that pangolin's stomach is indeed full of undigested ants, which proves that the records in Tao Hongjing's Notes on Materia Medica are correct. However, Li Shizhen found that pangolin was not used to spread scales to trap ants, but "often spit out its tongue to lure ants to eat it", that is, open its mouth, put its long tongue on the ground, let the ants with sensitive sense of smell crawl all over it, and then suddenly contract its tongue and swallow all the greedy ants into its stomach. So he revised the wrong record about pangolin predation in Notes on Materia Medica.
People often say that "hearing is false, seeing is true". Li Shizhen's pursuit of truth is the embodiment of being meticulous and meticulous. It is with this spirit of seeking truth from facts that he abandoned the hypothesis and obtained a positive solution, thus avoiding embarrassment and mistakes. Seeking truth is a good quality, an attitude and an important symbol to measure one's efforts. Seeking truth is a person's skill, a person's accomplishment and a necessary accomplishment for a person to succeed.