Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.s2.t3.61

v1.c6.s2.t3.61

After the first allusion in Bo Juyi’s poem, Nagarjuna and his work are repeatedly mentioned in medical works and compendia written between the 9th and 16th centuries CE in China. Some of them mention Nagarjuna as the author, others have “Discourse on Eyes” as the title, yet their contents point to Nagarjuna’s text as the source which point to 72 kinds of eye diseases and their prescriptions. Almost a century before Bo Juyi’s reference to Nagarajuna, Indian ophthalmology was noted by Chinese medical writers in Tianzhu jing lunyan 天竺經論眼 “Indian Classic of discourse on eyes” which was part of a Tang work viz. Waitai miyao外臺秘要 “Medical secrets of an official’ compiled by Wang Tao in 752 CE.