bubble_chart Description

The British explorer Stein discovered a large number of Chinese and foxtail millet texts, Kharosthi scripts, and Brahmi scripts during his exploration of the ancient city ruins of Hotan, Niya, and Loulan in Xinjiang, China, and the Han Dynasty Great Wall beacon sites in Dunhuang, Gansu, between 1906 and 1907. The writing materials were mostly wooden slips. The French sinologist Chavannes systematically organized Stein's Chinese documents obtained from this expedition and compiled Chinese Documents Obtained by Stein in Eastern Turkestan . In 1910, Luo Zhenyu learned that Chavannes was interpreting Chinese wooden slips and requested related materials from Chavannes the following year. In 1912, Chavannes provided a hand-copied manuscript, and Luo , along with Wang Guowei , who was also residing in Japan at the time, conducted interpretations and research based on this manuscript, publishing Liusha Zhuijian in Kyoto, Japan, in 1914.

According to Wang Guowei's preface to the book: "Those from Dunhuang are all from the Han Dynasty; those from the north of Lop Nur are from the late Wei to the Former Liang period; those from the three areas near Hotan are no more than twenty slips, and none have a date. However, the older ones are likely relics from the Later Han, while the more recent ones should date to the Sui and Tang periods."

According to Liusha Zhuijian?Fangji Category?Medical Prescriptions , there are eleven complete and incomplete slips; one piece of damaged paper with three lines of text, with the right side also damaged. According to the organization notes, the damaged paper comes from the north of Lop Nur; the eleven slips, except for the "Ox Neck Application" prescription, which does not note the origin, all come from Dunhuang. The "Ox Neck Application" slip, though without an origin, is similar in script and writing style to the other slips, so it is likely from the same location, and the original organization notes fistula disease. The script on the slips is also Han Dynasty clerical script, which aligns with Wang Guowei's assertion that "those from Dunhuang are all from the Han Dynasty."

From a content perspective, according to Luo Zhenyu's notes: "Among the eleven medical prescription slips, the third and seventh to eleventh slips are definitely veterinary prescriptions; the other slips, though not definitively identified, share the same format and calligraphy, suggesting they are from the same book... Additionally, the slips record two names of prescription authors: Chen Anguo and Cao Xiao (with '?' above and '?' below), and before each prescription, the symptoms of the disease are recorded, much like the diagnostic cases of later physicians."

From the above analysis, only eleven medical prescription slips were unearthed at that time, and most were incomplete. Therefore, it is possible that this is only a small part of the original collection of Zhongji (CV3). From a content analysis, it may be a complete "Veterinary Prescriptions." From Zhouli records of medical systems, the government had established veterinarians to treat animal diseases to protect imperial livestock, and by the Han Dynasty, this practice had at least several hundred years of history, with accumulated treatment experiences and prescriptions. However, Han Zhi records only "Numerology" with Xiang Liu Chu in thirty-eight volumes, and no medical prescription books. Therefore, Liusha Zhuijian's veterinary prescriptions hold significant documentary value for the study of the origins of veterinary prescription books and provide physical evidence that veterinary prescription books existed in the Han Dynasty.