Chapter 18 Section 2 Medicine

The Yuan Dynasty began to set up institutions to manage "Huihui medicine".In the tenth year of Zhiyuan (1273 A.D.), Guanghui Division was set up, ranked as the third rank, and in charge of Huihui medicine.In the twenty-ninth year of Zhiyuan (1292 A.D.), besides Guanghui Division, Dadu and Shangdu Huihui Medicine Institutes were set up, ranking from the fifth rank, and taking charge of Huihui medicine affairs.In the second year of Zhizhi (1322 A.D.), Guanghui Division was assigned to the Academy of Pharmacy.Dalima, a Muslim, served as Dalu Huachi in the Imperial Medicine Academy in the eleventh year of Dade (1307 AD).

The medical knowledge of the Islamic world was introduced to China very early.In the Five Dynasties, Li Xun compiled the six-volume "Haiyao Materia Medica", and in the Yuan Dynasty, Jamaluddin was in charge of Huihui Sitianjian, and 13 volumes of "Tebi Medical Classics" were collected at home.He also possessed 13 books on alchemy, presumably related to pharmacology as well.According to textual research, the engraved edition of "Huihui Medicine Prescription" (a volume of 36 volumes) in the early Ming Dynasty is the Chinese translation of "Jianjiufa" translated by the famous Arab medical scientist Ibn Betar in the Yuan Dynasty.Fragments of this book are now in the Beijing Library.The nutrition monograph "Drinking Foods" also recorded some Hui medicines and prescriptions.A kind of medicine produced by "Huihui Tiandi" in Yuan Dynasty can cure more than 120 kinds of miscellaneous diseases.The "Huihui" doctors in the Yuan Dynasty practiced thaumaturgy and were able to perform some minor surgical operations, such as removing carrion, warts, and so on.