While this text is traditionally considered to be a translation of an Indic original, its contents betray a concern to tailor Buddhist recommendations on regimen and preventative medicine for a Chinese audience. The text begins by connecting basic Indian medical doctrines with indigenous cosmological principles such as qi 氣, yin-yang 陰陽, and wanwu 萬物 ( 'the myriad things' ). Despite the domesticating language in the opening passages, however, the bulk of the text presents typical Buddhist recommendations on regimen and preventative medicine. The advice given is organized into discrete lists echoing the presentation style found in the monastic disciplinary literature, interspersed with explanatory commentary. On the whole, the text gives the impression of being a compilation of knowledge from other sources, repackaged and explained for a wider audience. The structure of the text is as follows: (1) opening section introducing four elements 四大, the doṣa 四病, their fluctuations based on a four-season model, and dietary restrictions; (2) the ten causes of disease (long sitting without eating 久坐不飯, 食無貸, misery 憂愁, 疲極, excessive fatique 婬泆, anger 瞋恚, restraining bowel movements 忍大便, restraining urination 忍小便, 制上風, 制下風) and nine causes of untimely death based on faulty regimen (不應飯爲飯, 爲不量飯, 爲不習飯, 爲不出生, 爲止熟, 爲不持戒, 爲近惡知識, 爲入里不時不如法行, 爲可避不避), and the five bad results of overeating (oversleeping 多睡眠, frequent sickness 多病, overindulge in sex 多婬, inability to chant the sutras 不能諷誦經, over-attachment to worldly things 多著世間); (3) the virtues of vegetarianism; and (4) the appropriate attitude of detachment one should take toward oneʼs food and other accumulations of wealth. English translation is available in Sen (1945).

References:

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

Unschuld, Paul U. 1985. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. Berkeley:  University of California Press.