Source: Sen 1945

Sen, Satiranjan. "Two Medical Texts in Chinese Translation." Visva-Bharati Annals 1 (1945): 70-95.

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The first section of T793 addresses some general principles regarding diseases. It states that the four elements (earth, water, fire, and wind) are the four causes of disease. Satiranjan Sen (Sen 1945: 72) notices that this claim does not agree with traditional Indian theories which see wind (vāyu), bile (pitta), and phlegma (kapha) as the three causes of all disease. What might be comparable to the four-element system is the Unāni medicine system, which is influenced by the four humors of the Greek medicinal tradition (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile). In the Unāni system the four humors in question are earth, water, wind, and fire (74). Thus, Sen suggests that T793 might not be a translation of a text from Indian per se, but a text composed in Central Asia (75).

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72-75

 The first section of T793 addresses some general principles regarding diseases. It states that the four elements (earth, water, fire, and wind) are the four causes of disease. Satiranjan Sen (Sen 1945: 72) notices that this claim does not agree with traditional Indian theories which see wind (vayu), bile (pitta), and phlegma (kapha) as the three causes of all disease. What might be comparable to the four-element system is the Unani medicine system, which is influenced by the four humors of the Greek medicinal tradition (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile). In the Unani system the four humors in question are earth, water, wind, and fire (74). Thus, Sen suggests that T793 might not be a translation of a text from Indian per se, but a text composed in Central Asia (75). T0793; 佛說佛醫經