Essential Subtleties on the Silver Sea

This is a translation into English of the complete “Yin-Hai Jing-Wei”, a classic 15th-century text on Chinese ophthalmology. As one of the few original manuscripts on traditional Chinese medicine translated into a Western language, this work offers an unprecedented view of the practice of medicine, and specifically eye care, in premodern China. Translated and annotated by Paul Unschuld and Juergen Kovacs, the text provides detailed descriptions of the aetiology, symptomatology, and therapy of every eye disease known to 15th-century Chinese practitioners. The translators’ introduction also provides an analysis of the development of this specialty within Chinese medicine. As a source for comparative studies of Chinese and Western medicine and numerous other issues in the history of medicine and Chinese thought, the “Yin-Hai Jing-Wei” has no equal in the Western world.

Author Biography

Paul U. Unschuld is Director of the Institute of the History of Medicine, Munich University, and author of Nan-ching: The Classic of Difficult Issues (California, 1986), Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics (California, 1985) and