The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Whereas no one seem to care about Starred Parags section -- which I suspect will turn out o be the true Rosetta Stone.  Because I think I know which "Chinese" book it was copied from...

And which book would that be? 

The You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (SBJ).

My reasons for this guess are

1. If the hypothetical Author asked a local scholar "which is the most important medical text you have here", the answer would very likely be the SBJ.
   (The author Shénnóng is believed to be mythical, but in spite of this handicap he made more world-changing inventions than a Soviet scientist, such as the plow and tea.  He studied the health effects of hundreds of plants by trying them on himself. As a side effect of these tests, his belly became transparent, so he could see the effect of the drugs on various organs visually and in real time.  How could anyone possibly question or belittle his authority in the matter?)
   
   
2. Quire 20 of the VMS, which contains the Starred Parags section, has 323 entries; but the central bifolio is missing, so originally there may have been anywhere between 323  and ~400 entries.  The original SBJ had 365 entries.  
   (The SBJ entries were divided into 120 harmless drugs -- "dietary supplements", 120 remedies, and 125 poisons.  That shows how Nature is biased against us.  But don't worry, one of Shénnóng's great discoveries was that tea is a universal antidote to all poisons.  But do worry, because some of the poisons are so strong that the tea must be taken immediately after ingesting the drug in order to have any effect. Which was unfortunately the last of Shénnóng's discoveries.)
   
   
3. IIUC, each entry of the Chinese SBJ is a single parag, typically with a couple dozen Chinese characters.  Each entry in the Starred Parags section of the VMS is a single parag, typically with a couple dozen words.
   (If English translations are to be trusted, this is what the SBJ says about the cinnabar: "Dan Sha (Cinnabar)  is sweet and slightly cold. It treats hundreds of diseases of the five viscera and the body. It nurtures the essence spirit, quiets the ethereal and corporeal souls, boosts the qi, brightens the eyes, and kills spirit demons and evil malign ghosts.  Protracted taking may enable one to communicate with the spirit light and prevent senility. It is capable of transforming into mercury." And indeed, protracted taking of cinnabar -- a toxic red mercury sulfide mineral, possibly the red pigment of f67r2 --  would surely and quickly terminate one's senility and take one to communicate personally with the heavenly spirits.)
   

Back in 2004 I started writing a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..  Alas, like most of my notes, it is unfinished, with broken links, etc.

But the bad news is that the SBJ was popular in the whole sphere of Chinese cultural influence, even in places like Japan which had never been ruled by the Chinese; and thus it must have been translated into dozens of languages.  And even in China, while there was only one written version, it would be read in totally different way in each province.  So, even if we conclude that the Starred Parags section is indeed the SBJ, we would still have the problem of figuring out which language it its.  Which, again, surely changed a lot in these 600 years...