The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[rikforto]

Thus, if the Author indeed inserted qos by influence of Arabic wa-, he may also have used it at the start of some recipes.  There are a few sets of consecutive recipes in the SBJ that are either distinct versions of the same remedy (like the root of aconite, which has three separate recipes depending on its shape) or are similar enough that they even repeat the same string of 5-10 characters (syllables). Maybe the Author used qo in those sets.

This polysemic use puts a predictable and testable constraint on which paragraphs can match. Is that borne out in your findings?