A Study On The Formation Of Tibetan Medical Classic Yuewangyaozhen And Its Academic System

A Study on the Formation of Tibetan Medical Classic Yuewangyaozhen and its Academic SystemYuewangyaozhen, Sman-dpypad Zla-bairgyal-po in Tibetan and Suomalazha in Sanskrit, is considered as one of the earliest Tibetan medical classics written in the early 8 century according to the present Tibetan medical references. This is also an encyclopedia medical book covering the content of Tibetan medical theory, practice and medicine.The writer made a deep and thorough study of classic Tibetan medical book of Tubo kingdom and studied Chinese medical book before 11 century, ancient Indian and Persian medical book. The writer compared Tibetan medical principles with Chinese, India and Arabic medical principles and adopted the approach of investigation, interrogation, research of references, comparison study, making note, summary and illustration by Thangka so that the characteristic of Tibetan medicine can be indicated while the background of the formation of this book, especially the influence of foreign medical principles, can be presented. The dissertation is written chronically by narration of some academic events in different historic stages in order to explore the development of Yue, analyze its academic system and the interacting relationship with other traditional medicines so as to observe the formation of this classic book and academic principle study.The dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter narrates the development of Yue including the written time, different editions, the author, the main content and the feature; the second chapter discusses its academic features and principles study, focusing on the development of the embryo and the physical conditions, pathology, diagnoses and general principles of common treatment; the third chapter is the comparison of guiding principles of Yue and other traditional medicines by analyzing the relationship among ancient Indian medicine, Chinese medicine, ancient Persian and Arabic medicine. The writer proposes his own conceptions of the formation, the author and the academic guidance of the book according to an analysis of the contents of different editions of Yue.By a thorough comparison study of the book, the dissertation assumes that the book is a summary of many authors during the period of 8 century to 12 century instead of a book of 8 century. During the reign of Tibetan king Trisong Dezan, Tibetan translator Biru Zhana absorbed the pulse diagnosing from Chinese medical book such as Neijing, Nanjing, Maijing and copied the part of ophthalmic puncture method from ancient Indian book Vagbhata and learned the theory of five-source(earth, fire, vapor, emptiness), five-part-of-cows(butter, milk, yogurt, urine, dung)and three-factor(huang, mkhris pa, bad kan). However, Vagbhata was translated and compiled by Tibetan translator Renchin Sangbu and Indian translator Jiaren Daran in 11 century. Therefore, it is one of the strong evidences that Yue was written during 8 century and 11 century. Yue also introduced the method of urine diagnosing from Hippocrades and was very similar with ancient Greek medical expert Galen in the respect of medical herbs coordination. In conclusion, the dissertation does not consider Yue as a medical book by only one author within one century. In the era of Tubo kingdom, Tibetan medical experts like Tibetan translator Biru Zhana, based on the introduction of the essence of ancient Indian, Chinese, Persian and Arabic medical books, continuously added and improved the content and finally this great ancient medical book came into being.As for its academic system, the book, on the basis of absorbing some other traditional medical principles, is involved in many branches of ancient Tibetan science and social studies, including astrology, philosophy, meteorology, geography, Buddhism medicine etc. Its basic theories are five-source and five-xing (water, wood, gold, earth and fire), but five-xing theory is only applied in the part of pulse diagnosing and urine diagnosing. The theory of five-source and three-factor are widely used to illustrate the change of human body and the growing of the embryo, physical conditions, ways of diagnosis, the principles of treatment and so on.On the aspect of the development of embryo and physical condition, the interaction of man and woman, that is, the combination of father's semen and mother's blood is the beginning of embryo' development and the status, opportunities and conditions of father's sperm and mother's blood are also thoroughly explained in the book. The development of the embryo is counted by week, 43 weeks will be a boy and 40 weeks a girl. This is different from the explanation in Sibuyidian. But among several ancient medical systems, it is the earliest and most advanced way that the growing of the embryo is counted and kept record by week. There are some similar ways recorded in Indian and Chinese medical systems, but it is a bit backward counting by montht anyway. The exposition in Buddhism medical theory is the same as it is in Yue whereas there is no such part in Ayur-veda medicine which originated from India. So we have to believe that the counting way of the development of embryo should be originated from Buddhism medicine, but when it was introduced into Yue, it bore the sheer Tibetan characteristic. This indicates the innovation of Tibetan ancestors.Yue keeps record of a detailed physical status, the maintenance principles, the stages of human body and the difference of sex, especially the deployment of bones, muscle, pulse pipe, ligament, organs, five sense organs, brain and encephalon, muscle tendon is in accordance with the modern medical theory and real human body itself, not influenced by some Buddhism principles which are in discrepancy with the real human body. The book also states the reasons and outside factors of the disease and the categories of the disease and its symptoms; the method of diagnosis, i. e. observation, inquiry and smelling and the specific checking methods like pulse diagnosing, urine diagnosing, tongue diagnosing, etc, which were cited by many Tibetan medical book like Sibuyidian. It can be said that Yue paved the solid foundation for the formation of Sibuyidian and used as a reference book for it.In the meanwhile, the dissertation applies the method of reference comparison. It analyzes some typical chapters of the book, comparing them with the same content from the same period or earlier Indian medical book, Chinese book Neijing Maijing and Avicenna's Yidian, analyzing the meaning and discussed the relationship. It concludes that Yue certainly absorbed the five-source, ophthalmic puncture operation, five-part-of-cows theories from Indian medicine. Yue introduced some part of Neijing, Maijing, such as cunguanchi, the time for checking pulse, the judgment of interval pulse, the relationship of five-xing and human organs and the theory of Ying-Yang pulse status. The book learned the method of checking urine from Greek medical expert Hippocrades; the coordination principles of medicine from Galen; the principle of shoulder dislocation from Avicenna's Yidian.To sum up, the dissertation assumes that Yue is the excellent book of Tibetan ancestors. Based on the physical conditions and humanity studies, they summarized the abundant experience of fighting against various diseases and created this unique medical system. During the process, they introduced the achievements of other traditional medicines, improved some theories, mixed with local medical principles and formed a new system, the theories in Yue.Through the research, the writer believes that there will be some new ideas about the formation process and guiding principles of Yue and it will set a firm base for its theory and practice study. The writer expects that the research will benefit for Tibetan medical reference study and Tibetan medical education and research.