Turkestan's medicine in China

Turkestan's medicine in China

The treatise «Muslim medicine» /»Hueyhuey yavfang»/ kept in the Beijing library /Beijing tushguan/ is considered the most valuable j source of information about the medicine of an Islamic world, I including Turkestan, which was widely spread in China in the
Middle Ages. Experts evaluate this source as a summarized Chinese j I translation of works in medicine written in the Turkic, Arabic and I Persian languages. The original of the source at first contained 36 j parts /chapters/, but some of them were later lost. At present there I I are chapters, among those preserved, devoted to internal and external diseases of women and children and also to optic diseases. This I treatise is supposed to have been translated into Chinese I approximately in the second half of the 14th century.
As some China's scientists believe «Hueyhuey yavfang» is in I J some degree a world medical encyclopedia of those times. The J I authors of the work are unknown. The original names from which j I translation was made are unknown as well. Nevertheless, it is I I possible to state that among the treatises translated into Chinese the I I works «Kitob al-Havi». by al Lachi, «Kamil at-tibbiya» by al- . I Mahjusiy, and «Kanun fit-tibb» by Ibn Sina deserve a special I
attention. According to Chinese scientists the treatise «Сапоп of I medical science « /Yidnya/ was brought to China as far back as the Mongolian period and one of its parts was included into the collection «Hueyhuey yavfang».
«Hueyhuey yavfang» contains the names of herbs and also the I names of different Muslim healers of the 9th- 10th centuries, including Husayn ibn Iskhak. Yakhya ibn Masuyi. Sabur ibn Sayhale, Sahar Bakhta, Marvazi, Salabi, etc. The Chinese scientists on the basis of that work confirm that in the period of Mongol' rule the Muslim medicine much surpassed the medicines of the West and China. In j this connection Yan Hyaychjung writes: « If we evaluate «Hueyhuey I yavfang» from the point of historical situation at the dynasty of I Yuan and compare its contents with the medicine of the West and I China, it may undoubtedly be believed that some aspects of medical ) science written in that book, especially therapeutic methods, are I quite modern*. A prominent work in medicine «Bentsao Gangmu» I1 I /medical herbs/ written during the dynasty of Ming by Li Shichjenne I was based on the works of Ibn Sina and «Hueyhuey yavfang». This I testifies to the influence of Turkestan's medical science on the
formation of Chinese medicine. The appearance of such significant [I I works in China at that period was not by accidence. It were just Mongolians who managed to put an end to the internecine strifes f which had been lasting in China for five centuries and to create in I that country a centralized state. They also paid a great attention to I the development of science, especially medicine. There was even j created a special chancellery «The Board of Muslim Medicine» that j I was later, in the period of the Ming dynasty, broken up. Being
deprived of state support, medical scientists and physicians launched I I wide activities among the people. For several subsequent centuries § the privilege of Muslim physicians, nevertheless, preserved, especially in the sphere of bone and external diseases. Many well-known I physicians from Turkestan are mentioned in Chinese sources. Thus, j I for example, in the beginning of the 13th century some Bay Zhingyuy I /his real name is left unknown/ arrived in China from Turkestan { I and settled in the Hebey province. He became famous for being an I j oculist and pharmacist. His descendents were also engaged in the I treatment of eye-diseases. A medicine for eye diseases «Bayzhinyuy yanhyao» /»Bay Jinyuy»/ having used in Chinese medical practice up-to-date, was invented by the mentioned dynasty of physicians.
There also lived in China an orthopedist from Turkestan named Lyang Chzhu. He worked as a court physician for the mayor of Kayfeng town in Henan province. Lyang Chzhu came to China from Arabia, when a northern dynasty Shengzung was in power, and was known among people as Lyangzhiyegu (bone-setter). His sons Lyang Ay and Lyang In and also his two younger brothers, whose names are unknown, left service at the court after Lyang Chzhu had died and got engaged in private practice. The descendents of Lyang Chzhu in the middle of the 16th century opened a private clinic in Nankin. There are known 27th-28th degree descendents of that dynasty: Lyang Chzhungting used to work in Kayfeng town j and Lyang Shuangting has worked in the railway clinic of the town I of Nankin till present days. Lyang Suyting used to work in the I I dkuc -L'dingchiyao •. In Kayfeyeng there used to live and work I Lyao Guy - traumatic expert and orthopedist from Turkestan. These and other facts earnestly confirm that physicians from Turkestan have made a significant contribution to the development of medicine in China