Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China

Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China can be summed up in the following statement: “Though it is often convenient to discuss cross-cultural exchange from the perspective of transmission and influence … [t]he crucial catalyst is always the translational activity of individual people” (p. 44). C. Pierce Salguero's insightful study makes rare scholarly connections among disciplines on the study of the Chinese reception of Indian “Buddhist medicine,” bringing new perspectives utilizing religious studies, translation studies, anthropology, Buddhist studies, and medieval Chinese medical history. This well-documented and informative work disarms the reader to rethink long-standing assumptions about China, Buddhism, and medicine in the medieval period up to the ninth century, calling for the problematization of choice in cross-cultural translation work and “anachronistic” categorizations in studying the history of medicine and Buddhist traditions in the medieval Chinese context. This study expands beyond the strategies employed in cross-cultural translation and reception, touching upon historiography,...