Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.s2.t4.29

v1.c6.s2.t4.29

Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, as a medical scientist, was a character different from Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, the Mahayana founder in the history of Buddhism. Volume 34 of *Confucian Classics Records III* of *Book of the Sui Dynasty* recorded dozens of names of medical books of India and the Western Regions including four volumes of *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna’s Prescriptions*, two volumes of *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna and Flavour Methods* and one volume of *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna’s Healthy Methods*. Chinese medical books in *Catalogue of Books Seen in Japan* were introduced from China, the medical books named after Bodhisattva Nagarjuna included one volume of *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna and Flavor Methods*, one volume of *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna’s Sutra on Ophthalmology*, one volume of *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna’s Seal Methods*, and one volume of *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna’s Secrets of Bodhisattva Asvaghosa* (written by Shramana Shanti, and some versions claimed that it was “written by Shramana Bohdi”), in which some Indian medical elements were included. These classics may be copied and compiled by Chinese monks or foreign sutra translators according to some contents in Indian Buddhist sutras. *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna and Flavor Methods* shall be Volume nine of Fei Changfang’s *Records of Three Treasures throughout Successive Generations* and one volume (Common Fifty Methods) of *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna and Flavor Methods* quoted in Volume four of Dao Xuan’s *Buddhist Catalogue of the Great Tang Dynasty* was translated by Indian Tripitaka Dharma Master Ratnamati in the period of Emperor of Liang. Volume 26 of *Prescriptions of Medical Heart* written by Japanese Yasuyori Tanbo (912-995 CE) quoted two entries of *Nagarjuna’s Prescriptions* which were witch ways for respect and love between men and women rather than flavor methods. *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna and Flavour Methods* shall be the same as that in *Book of the Sui Dynasty: Confucian Classics Records*. It shall be related to *Bodhisattva Nagarjuna’s Seal Treatise on Five Sciences* quoted in Book II of *Nagarjuna’s Treatise on Five Sciences*. *Catalogue of Books Seen in Japan* also compiled similar *Secrets of Nagarjuna’s Treatise on Five Sciences* and *Nagarjuna’s Methods to Leave Seal*.