ABSTRACT
@#Since anatomist and doctor Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) knew that a thorough knowledge of human anatomy was essential to surgery, he devoted much of his time to dissections of cadavers and insisted on doing them himself, instead of relying on untrained assistants. As a result, he created his famous work called “De humani corporis fabrica libri septem” in 1543. This creation was evaluated as scientific discoveryin Europe.</br> Two hundred forty years later, Dominique Parennin (1665-1741)wrote the book “ManchuAnatomy”by the order of Kangxi Emperor (1654-1722). Thebook was written by hand and the Kangxi Emperor was given three copies. The whole name of the “Manchu Anatomy”is «Imperially-Commissioned Complete Record on the Body. Unfortunately, the Kangxi Emperor did not allow the publication of the book. It was indeed sad that Kangxi Emperor, who distinguished himself by his unusual intelligence and was noted for his encouragement of the arts and sciences, failed to perceive the importance of the «Manchu Anatomy». Had it been printed and disseminated it certainly would have revolutionized Chinese medicine, as Vesalius› «De humani corporis fabrica libri septem” did for European medicine.</br> However, Dominique Parennin has sent another special copy to the Royal Academy of Science in Paris, which he was a corresponding member. In a letter dated May 1, 1723 accompanying the «Manchu Anatomy» he wrote in old French: Vous serez peut-etre surpris que je vous envoye de- si loin un traite d›Anatomie, un corps de Medecine, et des questions de Physiques ecrites en une langue, qui, sans doute, vous est inconnue; mais votre surprise cessera quand- vous verrez que ce sont vos propres ouvrages que je vous envoye habilles a la Tartare. Oui, Messieurs, ce sont vos pensees et vos ingenieuses decouvertes. In this study, we have translated this letter into Mongolian and explained the content of letter. Thanks to this book, in Europe and America, the book is known as the Manchu Anatomy, and many researchers published several books and scientific articles about the book. However, there is no one who has found that this book has been translated into Mongolian except the Manchu language. Our next study is to compare the Manchus and the Mongolian texts of this book.
ABSTRACT
@#In 1687 the first contingent of French Jesuits Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730) and others arrived in Manchu Qing dynasty, then under the reign of Kangxi (Enkh-Amgalan khaan). Bouvet and Gerbillon elected to remain in Beijing. Five years after they came, Kangxi was forty years of age (in 1692), he had malaria and could not be cured by medicine. A Jesuit priest presented quinine to Kangxi who was cured by this medicine. Having personally sampled and benefited from Western medicine, the Emperor became very interested in the foreigners’ science. He ordered Bouvet to prepare for his instruction a treatise on anatomy. The anatomy project was not resumed, for Bouvet soon departed for France. The task was later completed by another Jesuit, Dominique Parennin (1665-1741), who arrived in China in 1698. To serve as the blueprint for his assignment, Parennin chose the text of one of the standard works on anatomy in Europe at that time, written by Pierre Dionis, which he considered to be the most exact and clear. However, for the illustrations he preferred the text of the Dane, Thomas Bartholin [1]. Thus, the “Manchu anatomy” created based on the books of European anatomy in Manchu dynasty. </br> The significance of this research work is that Manchu anatomy was the first attempt to try to combine Western and Oriental medicine and also to be a modern anatomy base of the methods of traditional medicine. On the other hand, it can be said it is the first initiation to combine principles and views of Western medicine and Traditional Mongolian medicine. </br> The book “Manchu anatomy” was translated from Manchu language into Mongolian by Mongolian scholars as the title of “Imperially-Commissioned Complete Record on the Body.” We consider that this translation is completed one including 2 volumes and 6 chapters. Currently, it is impossible to tell the exact time when it was translated. However, we hope that to determine the exact time of the translation could be found further study. Later, in 1929, another version of Mongolian script was published in Inner Mongolia by the name of “Imperially-Commissioned ge ti ciovan lu bichig.” But it is not completed translation. </br> End of study we concluded that the “Manchu anatomy” is not only anatomical book based on European anatomical book but also it covers some knowledge of Oriental medicine. For example, Tibetan and Sanskrit names of medicine and their ingredients are in this book. Mongolian medicinal names originated from the animals, especially the names of internal organs which are not used in European countries. Most commonly, human body in this book divided into 5 vital organs and 6 hollow organs in accordance with black astrology of Oriental Medicine and expressed the connection among the embryo, body, and structure in the Western medical theory.