Recto (Fig. 1)

The recto has 5 lines of writing. Lines 4-5 are in smaller writing, and the last three words are squeezed in one above another. Near the bottom right corner of the recto is a faint trace in red which Reck regarded as a Chinese sign to indicate the direction for reading the text. She gave a transliteration of lines 3 and 5 in her brief description of So14822, and listed the unknown words of the other three lines in her index (2016, pp. 204–205, 444).

Fig. 1.

Depositum der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Orientabteilung.

Text

1. 1 wn'y yxs’ kšp'prs’k cwš’ xykšyn wrz’

2. 2 ptmc'r mγwn nx'w’y ptwyc'y ‘M zwtk pr'yw

3. 3 xwyr xyδ prtr βwt ⁘ βyš’mcβr

4. 4 ms wn'y β’γyw txmy δry s w'mry’n snkrp'r wrz’ nym'k styr'nc

5. 5 z'm nx'w’y ptwyc ‘M ’’pyh pr'yw kt'r ‘M c'nkšw'y xwyr βstysmry s't py'mt

Translation

1. 1 You should take musk, kšp'prs’k, cinnabar (?), xykšyn, wrz’ (and)

2. 2 ptmc'r, pound (them) together (and) sieve (them), and make (the patient) drink (it) with alcoholic liquor,

3. 3 then it will be better. ⁘ Irregular fever.

4. 4 Also, you should take 3 staters of the seed of β’γyw, (and) w'mry’n, snkrp'r (and) wrz’ to the amount of half a stater,

5. 5 pound (them) finely (and) sieve (them), make (the patient) drink (it) with water or with qingjiu, (it) will completely cure the bladder stone.

Commentary

The recto of the document appears to contain two prescriptions: one (lines 1-3) is for treating irregular fever (βyš’mcβr), and the other (lines 4-5) is to deal with a disease involving the urinary bladder (βstysmry). The names of diseases indicate that the text is closely related to the Indian medical tradition, specifically Āyurvedic medicine. Unfortunately, parallel texts in Sanskrit or in any other language have not been found, and several of the drugs used have not yet been identified.

Line 1. There are a few unknown words in this line. Given the context, apart from the initial verb wn'y “you should take” (2 sg. opt.), the other words should be the names of various drugs.

yxs’ nom.-acc. sg. of yxs- “musk”. Musk is attested as early as the 4^th Century in the Sogdian Ancient Letter 2 discovered by Aurel Stein near Dunhuang in northwestern China, but we do not know whether it was used by the Sogdians as a medicine at that time. In a Sogdian rain-invoking text from Dunhuang (P 3, line 174), musk and camphor, sandalwood, safflower etc. were mixed for use in the ritual.Footnote ⁴ Musk is used generally in a similar way in Āyurvedic and Chinese medicine,Footnote ⁵ though the specific conditions for which it is prescribed differ greatly.Footnote ⁶ At least from the time of Shennong bencao jing 神農本草經 (The Divine Farmer's Canon of Materia Medica, c. 4^th or 3^rd Century bce), the first Chinese pharmacopoeia, musk (shexiang 麝香) has been widely used in the Chinese medicine. Shennong bencao jing classifies it as the “middle class” of the animal drugs and says it can keep off malign Qi (xieqi 邪氣) and kill demons etc.Footnote ⁷ Musk is also attested in the medical texts from Turfan and Dunhuang. In a Chinese document from Turfan (Дх 09170), it is used in a recipe for treating heart pain caused by the guizhu 鬼疰 “demon attachment-illness”.Footnote ⁸ A Khotanese medical text from Dunhuang (P.2889v) shows that the Khotanese used musk to cure diseases including fever.Footnote ⁹

kšp'prs’k is an unknown word (Reck 2016, p. 444), which looks like a compound: the first component kšp’- is probably cognate with or a loanword from Sanskrit kaśyapa “tortoise”,Footnote ¹⁰ elsewhere written kyšph (cf. also Tocharian B kaccāp “turtle, tortoise; skull”Footnote ¹¹), and the second part -prs'k possibly corresponds to Sogdian prs'kh “side”.Footnote ¹² Animal substances are widely used as drugs not only by the Chinese, but also by Indians, Uighurs and Tibetans, as well as the peoples of the oases in the Western Regions. In the Chinese medical documents from Dunhuang guijia 龜甲 and biejia 鳖甲 “carapace of (soft-shelled) turtle” are widely attested,Footnote ¹³ and the latter also occurs as an ingredient in a Chinese recipe from Turfan.Footnote ¹⁴

Reck interpreted the next word, cwš’, as a disease related to dryness (“Trockenheit, Brennen”), deriving it from Sanskrit coṣa (2016, p. 205), but this hardly fits the context. Here it should be the name of a drug, perhaps a transcription of Chinese zhusha 朱砂 (EMC *ʨua ʂaɨ/ʂɛ) “cinnabar”.Footnote ¹⁵ In the Shennong bencao jing, where it is referred to by its other name dansha 丹砂, cinnabar is listed in the “upper class” of mineral drugs and claimed as “the master of the hundred illnesses in the body and Five Viscera”.Footnote ¹⁶

xykšyn is another unknown word in this line (Reck 2016, p. 444). The reading is uncertain, and x'kšyn or xykš’n are also possible. It seems likely to be a loanword from Chinese, probably the name of a traditional Chinese drug, and the first part xyk seems to transcribe Chinese hei 黑 (LMC *xəə̆k)Footnote ¹⁷ “black”.

The following wrz’ is also unclear. Although Reck's reading wrn’ is possible, wrz’ seems more likely since wrẓ’ [waržā] occurs as an ingredient in a Manichaean Sogdian medical text.Footnote ¹⁸ Whether the form is wrz’ or wrn’, it is probably related to the unknown ingredient wrz’’pch (read as wrn’’pch by Henning) in the Sogdian medical text P 19 from Dunhuang (line 6, 9).Footnote ¹⁹

Line 2. The unattested ptmcʾr looks like a compound with a first component ptm- from Sanskrit padma “lotus”.Footnote ²⁰ White lotus and the filament of the lotus (Skt. padma-kesara) serve as ingredients for removing fever, as attested not only in the recipes in the Siddhasāra, but also in the remedies recorded in the Buddhist sūtras.Footnote ²¹ Unfortunately, the second component -c'r is unclear.

For nx'w’y ptwyc'y “pound and sieve” cf. nx'w’y ptwyc in line 5. Here nx'w’y may be 2 sg. opt. for *nx'w’y'y given the form of ptwyc'y (suggested by Prof. Sims-Williams), while in line 5 both verbs nx'w’y ptwyc are 2 sg. impv. The reason for the insertion of the first aleph of nx'w’y is not clear.Footnote ²² This phrase corresponds to the Chinese phrase daoshai 搗篩 “id.” in prescriptions. Both the two individual verbs and their combination are well attested in the Sogdian medical texts, cf. šyr nxwʾy zʾm ptwyc “pound well and sieve finely” (P 19, line 9), zʾm nxwʾy “pound finely”, (P 3, lines 175, 273), Man. j'm ptw(y)c “sieve finely” (M746cR3).Footnote ²³

zwtk “alcoholic liquor”, is related to Greek ζῦτος etc. as recognised by Henning, who suggested that it denotes the Sogdian variety of “beer”Footnote ²⁴ (as opposed to mδw “wine”, of which the earliest example appears in Ancient Letter 4, line 6),Footnote ²⁵ but Sims-Williams has pointed out that there seems to be no basis for this in the Sogdian texts.Footnote ²⁶ As a medical ingredient it is attested in the Sogdian fragment L47＋48.Footnote ²⁷ Sogdian zwtk seems to be employed as the equivalent of jiu 酒, a drink made of rice and fermented by yeast, which is used in Chinese medicine.Footnote ²⁸

Line 3. xwyr (also in line 5), causative of the verb xwr-/xwrt “to eat, drink, consume”.

As for xyδ, judging from the context, it is better to understand it as an adverb “then” (equivalent to Chin. ji 即 “id.”), as suggested to me by Prof. Yoshida, rather than a dem. pron. “that, those”. The sentence xyδ prtr βwt “then it will be better”, corresponding to jiyu 即愈 “id.” (or “then it will be cured”) in the Chinese recipes, is also attested in P 19 (line 12), indicating that it may be an idiomatic expression in the Sogdian medical texts.

βyš’mcβr was read as β’š’mcβr reckoned as an unknown word by Reck (2016, p. 205). As the last word of this line, divided by decorative punctuation (⁘) from the previous words, it should be the name of a disease. The word is certainly derived from Sanskrit viṣama-jvara “irregular fever”, vaiṣmajvara in Khotanese.

In modern medical parlance, fever is a symptom rather than a specific disease, but in antiquity, as medical historians point out, the fever itself was regarded as the disease.Footnote ²⁹ According to the Siddhasāra, fever is “the king of all diseases, therefore the method of healing it is the first to be taught”.Footnote ³⁰ Chapter 5 of the Siddhasāra is thus devoted to all sorts of fevers, among which irregular fevers are fivefold: (1) continuous fever, (2) double quotidian fever, (3) quotidian fever, (4) (tertian) fever that rises once after two days and (5) (quartan) fever that rises once after three days.Footnote ³¹ Remedies for treating irregular fevers are given in Nos. 82, 109, 110, 111 and 115, in which common drugs or products include long pepper, honey, sugar, ghee, milk, and so on.Footnote ³² In the Jīvaka-pustaka there are also a few recipes for irregular fevers.Footnote ³³

Line 4. Beginning with the adverb ms “also”, this line and the next constitute a prescription for curing a kind of urinary disease.

The previously unattested word β’γyw, followed by txmy “seed”, must be a plant with a medicinal seed.

The single letter s here, as Reck (2016, p. 205) pointed out, is the abbreviation of the measurement “stater”, which is a loanword from Greek στατήρ. In Sogdian medical prescriptions from Dunhuang and Turfan, styr (also 'styr, in Manichaean script styr) and δrxmδnk (“drachm by weight”) are used as measures for ingredients.Footnote ³⁴ The last word of this line, nym'k-styr'nc, is the feminine form of a compound adjective *nym'k-styry, meaning “to the amount of half a stater”.

This line contains another unknown word w'mry’n, which Reck reads wymry'n (2016, p. 444). It is perhaps a misspelling for w'myr’n, an ingredient attested in a Christian Sogdian pharmacological text (E38) from Turfan.Footnote ³⁵ It is probably related to the Khotanese vą̄mīrāṃ in the medical text IOL Khot S.9 = Ch.00265(C2), where it is one of the ingredients used to remove red swelling and constipation of urine.Footnote ³⁶ It probably corresponds to the Chinese herb huanglian 黃連 (other name wanglian 王連) “golden thread rhizome”. Huanglian can remove damp heat and cure abdominal pain.Footnote ³⁷ The Chinese documents from Turfan show that huanglian and the above-mentioned musk, zhusha are common commodities in the local markets.Footnote ³⁸

The following snkrp'r is another unknown word. It seems likely to be a compound, the first component of which snk probably transcribes Chinese sang 桑 (LMC *saŋ) “mulberry”. The meaning of the second part, rpʾr, which Reck takes as a single word (2016, p. 444), is unclear. The leaves, bark, and fruit of mulberry are all used medicinally.

Line 5. For c'nkšw'y, Reck's reading is c'ykšwγ or c'ykšwx. Being a substance with which the drugs are taken, it should be an adjuvant such as water, wine or vinegar. It is tempting to derive it from Chinese qingjiu 清酒 (LMC *ts^hiajŋ tsiw’),Footnote ³⁹ lit. “clear wine”, which is widely attested in the prescriptions. Qingjiu is a kind of rice wine brewed in winter and ready to drink in summer, which functions in various ways in different remedies.Footnote ⁴⁰ If so, the Sogdian form is perhaps the oblique case of a stem c'nkšw or cynkšw, which would be a plausible rendering of the Middle Chinese form (suggested by Professor Sims-Williams).

βstysmry is Reck's reading which I follow, though its last letter looks like aleph. It should be a disease involving the bladder, βsty- from Sanskrit vasti “bladder, lower abdomen”, as already suggested by Reck 2016, p. 205. The second part of the compound, smry, may be from Sanskrit aśmarī or aśmari “calculus” (suggested by Professor Sims-Williams). If this is correct, the prescription is for bladder stone, one of the common diseases of the urinary system. Bladder problems figure prominently in ancient medical works.Footnote ⁴¹

The last word of this line py'mt is 3 sg. pres. of the transitive verb py'm “to cure”.

In the Siddhasāra, Chapter 18 is devoted to the disease of the retention of urine and a few passages explain or offer remedies for bladder stones.Footnote ⁴² The Jīvaka-pustaka also contains several recipes for treating them. It is worth noting that when enumerating urinary diseases in the Jīvaka-pustaka, they are always mentioned together with fever (especially irregular fever).Footnote ⁴³ In general, urinary disease, fever and other diseases often appear in the same prescription.Footnote ⁴⁴ Judging from this feature, the content of the recto might have some connection with the Jīvaka-pustaka.

Based on the analysis above, it is unquestionable that the recto is closely linked to Indian medicine, especially Āyurveda. Despite this, we failed to find in the Siddhasāra or Jīvaka-pustaka prescriptions parallel or similar to those present in the Sogdian text. In view of the fact that some of the items used are presumably Chinese drugs, these two prescriptions are very likely the local creation of the Sogdians in Turfan. In other words, it may well be that no parallel text ever existed.

Verso (Fig. 2)

On the verso there are only three lines of writing followed by a blank space; apparently the text was left unfinished.

Fig. 2.

Depositum der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Orientabteilung.

Text

1. 1 ʾʾph rʾβ δsʾ-znkʾn βwt prtmy δmʾk cnn ryt cšmy δmʾst γyrtr prw

2. 2 CWRH βwt ʾynʾk rʾβ prw ykry βwt nʾm ʾwsʾγtk ʾʾph xcy ⁘

3. 3 δβty ʾʾph cnn δʾrzy δmʾst

blank space

Translation

1. 1 Water disease: there are ten kinds. The first swelling: it swells from the face (and) eye, afterwards, over

2. 2 the (whole) body, this disease is in the liver. The name is pure water. ⁘

3. 3 The second (kind) of water (disease): it swells from the heart.

Commentary

Reck has pointed out that the verso deals with “water disease (ʾʾph rʾβ)”. The context implies that “water disease” actually refers to water-swelling, i.e. dropsy.Footnote ⁴⁵ Chapter 10 of the Siddhasāra is specifically concerned with dropsy, but neither the name of the disease nor the description of its classification and origin have anything to do with the present Sogdian text.

To find out what the text is, we need to resort to the text itself. At the beginning it says that “water illnesses” are of ten kinds, but the following text only lists two kinds and then stops unexpectedly. Even so, these three lines give a good description of the signs and origin of at least one kind of dropsy, though without providing a remedy for it. In view of this, it is probably a passage from a theoretical medical work. In traditional Chinese medicine, there is indeed a famous work focusing on the symptoms and causes of diseases, i.e. Zhubing yuanhou lun 諸病源候論 (Treatise on the Origins and Symptoms of Various Diseases, hereafter Bingyuan lun) compiled in 612 ce under the supervision of Chao Yuanfang 巢元方 (605–616), the imperial physician of the Sui Dynasty (581–618). Unlike most traditional Chinese medical works focused on remedies, this is the first systematic treatise on diseases and their etiology. In Chapter 21, under the heading shuizhong bing zhuhou 水腫病諸候 (lit. “Various Symptoms of the Disease of Dropsy”), there is a passage almost identical with the Sogdian text of So 14822, in which dropsy is variously named shuizhong bing 水腫病 (lit. “disease of water-swelling”), or shuizhong 水腫 (lit. “water swelling”), or shuibing 水病 (lit. “water disease”). This last is an exact equivalent to the phrase ʾʾph rʾβ in our Sogdian text. Of the twenty-two treatises on the symptoms of dropsy, one is titled as shi shuihou 十水候, lit. “Symptoms of Ten Kinds of Water (Swelling)”, here the single character shui 水 is the abbreviation of shuizhong 水腫 “dropsy”. For the convenience of analysis, I quote here the relevant Chinese text of Bingyuan lun (the underlined part roughly corresponding to the Sogdian text):

With the help of the Chinese text, two words in the Sogdian text previously misread can be easily identified. The first is ykry “liver” (line 2), Christian Sogdian yqr-,Footnote ⁴⁷ read as ’kry by Reck 2016, p. 444. The second is δ’rzy “heart” (line 3), transcribed as δ’rny in Reck 2016, p. 444, for which cf. BSogd. δrzy, MSogd. δrjyy,Footnote ⁴⁸ also Sogd. δrzyh in the medical text P19, line 11. Apart from these two, there are no other difficult words and the meaning of the text is quite clear.

Although the Sogdian translation and the Chinese original text are fairly close, there are three obvious differences:

1. 1. The content. It is evident that the Sogdian version is only a partial rather than a full translation of the Chinese text. The Chinese text starts with a collective term shishui 十水 “ten kinds of water (swelling)”, followed by an enumeration giving the name of each kind. The Sogdian text, on the other hand, mentions that dropsy has ten kinds and then goes on immediately to describe them individually, without giving the complete list of names.

2. 2. The meaning of the vocabulary. For example, ʾwsʾγtk ʾʾph “pure water” in line 2 of the Sogdian text should correspond to a Chinese phrase qingshui 清水 “pure/clean water”. However, the Chinese text has qingshui 青水 “blue water”.Footnote ⁴⁹ In view of the following phrases chishui 赤水 “red water”, huangshui 黃水 “yellow water”, baishui 白水 “white water” and heishui 黑水 “black water”, it is apparent that here the Chinese text uses the concept wuse 五色 “Five Colours” to refer to the first five sorts of dropsy. Despite the fact that qing 青 “blue”Footnote ⁵⁰ and qing 清 “pure, clean, clear” have the same pronunciation in Late Medieval Chinese (*ts^hiajŋ),Footnote ⁵¹ their meanings are quite different. The fact that the Sogdian text employed “pure water” 清水 rather than “blue water” 青水, reveals a misunderstanding by the translator (who perhaps knew the text only in oral form as suggested by Professor Sims-Williams) or a mistake in the Chinese text he was using.

3. 3. The order. Although the Sogdian version is only a partial translation of the Chinese text, i.e. the passage on the “blue water” and part of the “red water”, the formula is clear: when describing each type of dropsy, the text begins with an ordinal number, then the symptoms and the cause, and finally the name of the dropsy. In this respect the Sogdian text resembles the text of Zhi shishui wan fang 治十水丸方 (Pill Formula for Treating Ten Kinds of Dropsy) in the lost work Fan Wang fang 范汪方 (Remedies of Fan Wang, c. 370) which survived in the Japanese compilation of mediaeval Chinese medical texts Ishimpō 醫心方 (Formulas of the Heart of Medicines, 984) by Tamba no Yasuyori 丹波康賴 (912–995). Here is the Chinese text and its translation:

   第一之水，先從面目腫，遍一身，名曰青水，其根在肝，大戟主之；

   第二之水，先從心腫，名曰赤水，其根在心，葶藶子主之。Footnote ⁵²

   The first kind of water (swelling) swells from the face and eye, then all over the whole body. It is called blue water, the origin of which is in the liver, and daji 大戟 (Knoxiae or Euphorbiae Radix) is the cure.

   The second kind of water (swelling) swells from the heart. It is called red water, the origin of which is in the heart, and tingli zi 葶藶子 (lepidium seed) is the cure.

This passage also appears in the text of shishui wan: youfang 十水丸：又方 “Pill for Ten Kinds of Water (swelling): Another (one)” of the lost work Gujin lu yanfang 古今錄驗方 (Tried and Tested Remedies from Antiquity to the Present Day) quoted by Wang Tao's 王焘 (670–755) Waitai miyao 外臺秘要 (Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library, 752).Footnote ⁵³ Although the two texts are slightly different, the text in the Gujin lu yanfang is very likely taken from Fan Wang's work.

As for the Sogdian text, though it is fairly close to the text from Fan Wang fang and Gujin lu yanfang, the differences are still noticeable. For example, in the Sogdian text, the name of each dropsy appears in the end, while in the two Chinese works of prescriptions the name of the dropsy is put ahead of the main organ involved. Moreover, unlike the theory-oriented Bingyuan lun, the two books of prescriptions are supposed to be of practical use; accordingly, at the end of each sentence the drug (e.g. daji or tingli zi) to be used against each dropsy is indicated. Due to this special feature, I suggest the Sogdian text is translated from Bingyuan lun rather than from the prescription works such as Fan Wang fang or Gujin luyan fang.

Although only three lines survive, the Sogdian text is of great importance as the first attested Sogdian document translated from the Chinese classics.Footnote ⁵⁴ Prior to the identification of this text, almost all the Sogdian translations from Chinese sources known to us are Buddhist texts.Footnote ⁵⁵ The Sogdian version of Bingyuan lun not only sheds light on the medical tradition of the Sogdians in Turfan, but also provides significant materials for studying the spread of this Chinese medical classic in the Western Regions.

As stated above, among the substantial medical works of ancient China, Bingyuan lun is the first systematic treatise on diseases and their etiology, and the descriptions of the origins and symptoms of diseases in many Tang and Song dynasty works containing prescriptions may be traced back to it. It not only occupies an important position in traditional Chinese medicine, but also has been transmitted to other areas in ancient Asia.

To the east, Bingyuan lun was introduced into Korea and Japan not long after its completion.Footnote ⁵⁶ In the early 8^th Century, it was introduced into Korea.Footnote ⁵⁷ In the later Korean medical work Ui'bang’ryuchui 醫方類聚 (Classified Collection of Medical Remedies, 1477) compiled by Kim Yemong 金禮蒙 et al., Bingyuan lun was quoted under this name Chaoshi bingyuan 巢氏病源. In Japan, the earliest medical work, the aforementioned 9^th Century Ishimpō, frequently quotes Bingyuan lun and many other Chinese medical works from Wei and Jin to Tang and the Five Dynasties. Statistics show that about 540 passages and 640 items of Bingyuan lun were cited by Ishimpō.Footnote ⁵⁸

In the west, Bingyuan lun spread even as far as the Persianate world by the 14^th Century. In Tanksūqnāma-yi Īl-khān dar Funūn-i ‘Ulūm-i Khatā’ī (The Treasure Book of the Ilkhan on Chinese Science and Techniques) compiled by Rashīd al-Dīn (1247–1318), when translating another Chinese medical work maijue 脈訣 (Chants of the Pulse),Footnote ⁵⁹ Bingyuan lun (abbreviated as Bingyuan) was quoted many times.Footnote ⁶⁰ Obviously it became known in ancient Iran via the translation of Maijue, although it is not known whether the whole work was translated into Persian.

To the best of my knowledge, this Sogdian fragment of the Bingyuan lun represents the first ever translation of the text into any foreign language, a fact which is surely significant for our understanding of its transmission and impact on the society of mediaeval Turfan.

It has been noted that the Chinese medical manuscripts discovered in Turfan include very few medical classics, such as Zhenjiu jiayi jing 針灸甲乙經 (AB Canon of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) by Huangfu Mi 皇甫謐 (215–282), Liu Juanzi guiwei fang 劉涓子鬼遺方 (Liu Juanzi's Remedies Bequeathed by Ghosts, dating from the Jin 265–420), Bencao jing jizhu 本草經集注 (Notes to the Canon of materia medica) by Tao Hongjing 陶弘景 (456–463).Footnote ⁶¹ Unfortunately, no fragments of Bingyuan lun have been found yet. There is no trace of it even in Dunhuang, where many more Chinese medical texts are preserved.Footnote ⁶² Nevertheless, the Sogdian translation demonstrates that this Chinese medical classic was introduced into Turfan and even extended its influence amongst non-Chinese people.

It is worth noting that the Sogdian text even provide valuable evidence to look into the early version of Bingyuan lun. For example, when describing the “red water”, the Chinese text of Bingyuan lun states that “it swells from the heart, and its origin is in the heart”. Probably because “heart” appears twice, some scholars suspect the first character xin 心 “heart” might be an error for xiong 胸 “breast, chest”.Footnote ⁶³ However, the Sogdian text definitely has “heart” rather than “breast”, indicating that the character xin 心 in the text of Bingyuan lun should be correct.

Now that we have clarified the text, two important questions remain to be considered: why did the Sogdians translate a theoretical Chinese medical text on dropsy? and what is the relationship between the two sides?

Let us look at dropsy first. Historical sources and modern researches show that not only in mediaeval but even in modern times untreated dropsy is always fatal.Footnote ⁶⁴ In Dunhuang and the Western Regions this is supported by the prevalence of certain Buddhist apocryphal sūtras in the Tang and Five Dynasties. The existence of numerous copies of these sūtras reveals the great panic caused by several prevalent deadly diseases in northwest China at the time of their copying.Footnote ⁶⁵ For example, among the ten fatal diseases mentioned in the numerous copies of Xin Pusa jing 新菩薩經 (New Bodhisattva sūtra) and Jiu zhu zhongsheng kunan jing 救諸眾生苦難經 (Sūtra of Salvation of All Living Beings in Adversity),Footnote ⁶⁶ the fourth is zhongbing 腫病, lit. “swelling disease”, which is thought to refer to dropsy.Footnote ⁶⁷ Hence one can see that to contemporary eyes dropsy was probably a very common nasty disease,Footnote ⁶⁸ which may be confirmed by its appearance in an Early New Persian pharmacological text (M 7340 = T II Toyoq) from Turfan.Footnote ⁶⁹ Interestingly enough, in the same text fever(s) is also mentioned.

Like fever, dropsy was also viewed as a disease in ancient times, even though in modern medical terms it is only a symptom and one of the indications of a specific disease. Among the most common and hazardous diseases causing dropsy are those of the kidneys and bladder: nephritis, uremia, etc.Footnote ⁷⁰ Interestingly, of the ten kinds of dropsy above mentioned, one is called shishi 石水 “stone water”, the origin of which, as Bingyuan lun explains, is in the bladder. This connection may be the reason why the Sogdian text on dropsy appears here together with the two prescriptions for bladder disease and fever.