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Terminological Problems in the Process of Editing and Translating Sanskrit Medical Texts

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Approaches to Traditional Chinese Medical Literature

Abstract

Any discussion of the procedures to which Sanskrit medical texts are being submitted by their editors, commentators and translators, before the texts become readable and reliable, is likely to extend beyond the field of pure philology. A number of terminological problems encountered in the philological study of Ayurvedic texts are related to the logical frame of mind of the Asian doctor, or to the logical structure of the Asian medical discourse. Philologists cannot avoid encroaching on the domain of anthropologists and broaching the vast question of the relation between text and practice in Hindu society, in order to address important issues like, for example, that of polysemy in the names of diseases or drugs. The collation of manuscripts, the edition, annotation, and translation of the classic texts cannot be dissociated from other, complementary approaches and techniques used by ethnobotanists, sociolinguists, and others.

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© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Zimmermann, F. (1989). Terminological Problems in the Process of Editing and Translating Sanskrit Medical Texts. In: Unschuld, P.U. (eds) Approaches to Traditional Chinese Medical Literature. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2701-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2701-8_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7717-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-2701-8

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