期刊名称：International Institute for Asian Studies Annual Report
出版年度：2003
期号：31
出版社：International Institute for Asian Studies
摘要：In recent years my research hasfocused on the Sanskrit texts of clas-sical Indian medicine (Sanskrit: Ayurve-da, 'the science of longevity'). System-atic medical ideas, embodied inayurveda, began to be formulated at thetime of the Buddha (d. ca. 400). TheBuddha was the first to explicitly statethat disease arises from an imbalanceof three humoral substances (wind,bile, and phlegm), an idea that wouldbecome a cornerstone in Indian med-ical theory. After a lacuna of severalhundred years, medical encyclopaediaswere compiled, edited, and re-edited.Two of these compendia are relativelywell known today as the SuprutaandCaraka. A third work, named Heart ofMedicine(AQSAKgahOdayasaI-hitA) andcomposed by the Sindhi author Vag-bhasa shortly after 600, brilliantly syn-thesized earlier compendia. Due to itsmany translations and adaptations, andits wide adoption as a medical schooltext, it ranks among the most importantmedical treatises in Asia
