Further Explorations of Herbal Medicine Transfer across Medieval Central Asia

In several previous conferences I have described the Huihui Yaofang, a 14^th-century medical encyclopedia of Near Eastern medicine compiled for the Chinese under the Mongols, and its herbal, animal and mineral drugs, including some 416 taxa.  Further comparative research with historical materials has disclosed more information about the history, context, and background of this text and about the remedies it lists.  The present paper discusses the Central Asian (and, ultimately, West Asian) background of this work and adds findings on current Mongolian ethnobiology as observed on a brief research trip in spring of 2013.  Central Asian and Mongolian cultural groups proved very accepting to new and foreign medical influences, because of traditionally broad and accepting attitudes toward knowledge in general.  China ultimately rejected the new western ideas.  Later Chinese sources on food and medicine show a return to earlier Chinese norms.