The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Why would the author rewrite the Chinese herbal? Where will he use it in Europe?

At this point it is only a guess that the Herbal sections too are transcriptions of other Chinese classics.  The only arguments for that are that the language seems to be the same, and those sections were bundled together with the Starred Parags section.  Not very strong, admitted...

Assuming that the guess is correct, some of the plants listed in the SPS (like hemp, henbane, indigo, peach kernel, Indian madder, motherwort, willow -- to name just a few) were available in Europe too.  If You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is indeed about Viola tricolor, that is also a plant that grew in Europe as well. The Author may have recognized the names of some of those plants, and he could not tell about the others; so it would be safer to transcribe the whole herbal.  

Anyway, if demand for a herb eventually developed in Europe (because the herbal said that it would restore youth, make one smart, grow hair on eggs, etc.), merchants would soon bring it from "China".  Like they were already doing with cloves, cinnamon, lapislazuli, silk, and other "Chinese" products not produced in Europe.

All the best, --stolfi