| The Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts are some of the most precious treasures of Chinese medical literature. As they have been copied a thousand years ago, they have not yet been altered by later generations, and have thus retained their original appearance. The amount of Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts is considerable, as it reaches over 100 items. So since they have been revealed, the workers in the field of Chinese medical literature have paid quite some attention to them. As the Dunhuang Turfan Medical manuscripts had all been copied by hand, they contain nonstandard forms and different styles of characters. Additionally, as the scrolls have passed from hand to hand, the degree of disorder and damage is quite considerable. This has caused difficulty in recognising, recording and collating the scrolls. Enduring great hardships in their pioneer work, former scholars have accomplished the arranging of a part of the scrolls, but there is still a part of the scrolls (mainly stored in Russia and Japan), that has not yet been collated and published.Regarding the already arranged medical scrolls, there are still a lot of textual errors, inaccurate identification of characters, lack of precision of annotations, and other problems; so there obviously is a large field for further research about the Dunhuang medical manuscripts. Therefore, this thesis mainly concentrates on giving a new collation to a selection of medical manuscripts stored in England, Germany,France and Russia, and completing the new recording of a part of scrolls (mainly stored in Japan and Russia). The targets of a new collation of the Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts are:To improve the quality of arrangement of the Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts, further broaden the scope of research about the Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts, try to achieve a definite arrangement of Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts, as well as differentiate the form and content of the medical scrolls, making it possible to restore parts of the original shape of the fragments. Furthermore, by comparing and collating the Dunhuang Turfan medical scrolls with other existing ancient medical documents, gathering scattered old manuscripts and doing textual research, we can offer precious original data. We can also establish a data base for clinical research in relation to the Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscrips.My tutor Professor Shunong Shen is in charge of a part of the scientific research project of the Philosophical and Social Sciences of the Universities of Jiangsu Province "New collation and lexical research about Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts (serial number:04SJB870001)", Ph.D. Tao Xu has completed the re-collation of a part of the medical manuscripts stored in France and England, Ph.D. Xin Peng has carried out in depth lexical research of Dunhuang medical manuscripts, on the base of arranging a part of the medical prescriptions. On this basis, this thesis emphasizes on the following aspects:1. The recollation of a part of the medical scrolls. Using Jixing Ma's "Philological Studies on Ancient Medical Texts of Dunhuang", "Compilation and Collation of the Medical Manuscripts of Dunhuang" as well as Chunyu Cong's "A Comprehensive Volume of the Medical Works of Dunhuang" and Yingcun Li's "Explanations on the Dunhuang Medical Manuscripts Stored in Russia" etc. as main comparison works, and facsimiles or photographs of the Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts as source; selectively referring to Song-and earlier handed down text versions; using the successful experience of textual criticism of past scholars; applying methods of collation and the knowledge of nonstandard characters forms and of the notation of ancient books; integrating the principles of medicine; seriously differentiating the Dunhuang scrolls; striving to find and correct the errors within the proofread editions; aiming at lifting the proofreading and collating of Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts to another level.2. Collating and recording some of the Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts for the first time. This is mainly pointing at scrolls stored in Russia and Japan. Using facsimiles or photographs of Dunhuang Turfan medical scrolls as source texts; selectively referring to Song- or earlier handed down text versions; applying all kinds of knowledge about collation and chinese medicine; arranging; in order to systematically deepen the research about Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts and establish a solid data base.3. Examples of collating textual errors within the Dunhuang Turfan medical manuscripts. The integration of principles of literature and medicine is the basic prinicple of collating medical documents, language is the means, medical principles are the objective. Frequent mistakes in the collation of the Dunhuang medical scrolls on the language side happen because:the form of the characters is similar, the pronounciation of characters is similar or identical, lack of knowledge of popular forms of characters or interchageable homophones, misunderstanding of the meaning of a word, etc. Frequent mistakes on the medical side happen because of:lack of understanding of the principles of medicine, failing to understand the technical terms of pulsetaking, acupuncture and moxibustion points, the methods and dosage of herbal formulae, etc.4. Documentary research about the Dunhuang Turfan medical scrolls. This mainly consists of the coming about, history and composition of the Dunhuang Turfan medical scrolls, their investigation and recomposing. The academic value of Dunhuang Turfan medical scrolls has many facets:They have tremendously enrichened the medical classics of the Sui and Tang dynasties, added pre-Han prescriptions, reflected the brilliant achievements of Sui-Tang medical health care, supplied a reliable foundation for the long-term dispute of certain questions about the collation, gathering and research about ancient medical works; all in all, they have exhibited the level of medical culture and treatment in the time of Sui-Tang and the Five Dynasties.
|
PDF Full Text Request