Terjék József: Collection of Tibetan MSS and Xylographs of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös.

Catalogue

36 Colophon of the chapter (p. 90): 'dir ni "Rgyud-bzi"'i don-gyi bsdoms-chig cam-áig | bskul-ba-po'i 'dod don-bzin bkod-pa-ste | zib-par ni "Rgyud" nid dan | de'i rgyas-bsad "Bai-dür snon-po"-las rtogs-par bya'o I 3. "Rgyud-bzi" 'di-nid Bod-du ji-ltar phebs-pa'i lo-rgyus (p. 90). Ends (p. 92): zes sman-gyi bsad-pa mdo-cam bkod-pa rjogs-so | In the invocation of this compendium of medicine, Sans-rgyas phun-chogs, being ill at ease, claims apologetically that he was not led to write this syllabus through ambition: "Oh, how I would wish, with the impudence of a selfish baby, To compete with a myriad scholars of the maháyána and With the medical knowledge of so many scholars Who ascended to the rank of the wise and the perfect! But it is not toke. This short compendium was only made for my friend, born in Europe, A wise man tied together with the thread of destiny of His old deeds; a wanderer through all countries of the Earth. In the introduction the Lama describes his subject: medicine, one of the five great sciences. In his explanation of Rgyud-bzi "The Four Roots" he firstly sums up briefly the history of medicine, laying special emphasis upon the history of this (amour medical tractate attributed to Buddha. Following this the Rgyud-bzi is discussed systematically and is detail: the "Fundamental book" consisting of six chapters; the "Book of Commentaries" consisting of 31 chapters; the "Book of Instructions" consisting of 92 chapters and finally the fourth part, the "Appendix", divided into 27 chapters. It is mentioned in the colophon that this compilation was based on the Rgyud-bzi itself and on its detailed commentaries, the Baidür snon-po works (written by Sans-rgyas rgya-mcho); and that the shortness of the syllabus results from the wish of Csoma, himself. This is the only Alexander-book which was published by Csoma