Textual Research of the Name of Tibetan Medicine “Riguan” / 中国药房

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE： To make a textual research on the normal name， synonym and Chinese translation name aiming at the phenomenon of more than one name of Tibetan medicine “Riguan”， and to determine the standard name suitable for standardization and popularization. METHODS： The representative classical Tibetan medicine books from the 7th to the 21st century were studied. The names of “Riguan” in various books and their occurrence frequency， naming basis and succession were sorted out， and the standard names of “Riguan” in Tibetan and Chinese were screened for easy understanding and popularization. RESULTS： According to the 17 representative Tibetan medicine classics books and 6 Chinese version Tibetan medicine books， “Riguan” had 19 Tibetan names. Among them， the most frequently recorded name was “Zimagangjiu”， which had been recorded in 11 books. Secondly， “Riguan” and “Puronggang” were recorded in 8 books respectively， and “Riguanzima” was recorded in 7 books. Naming basis could be summarized into four categories， i.e. simple naming （such as “Riguan”）， emphasizing morphological characteristics （such as “Zimagangjiu”）， emphasizing medicinal properties （such as “Daweitou”）， simple naming+emphasizing morphological characteristics （such as “Riguanzima”）. “Zimagangjiu” “Riguan” and “Riguanzima” were used as normal names in the 7th to 8th century， 8th to 19th century and 19th to 21st century respectively. Among them， “Riguanzima” was first recorded in the official book Tibetan Medicine Subvolume of Chinese Medical Encyclopedia as a formal name， which symbolized the milestone of the development of Tibetan medicine in the new era of our country. CONCLUSIONS： According to the naming basis and current application situation， it is suggested that “Riguanzima” can be used as the Tibetan and Chinese standard name of Tibetan medicine “Riguan” to promote and standardize its application.