How Galen's "Sixteen Books" Came to China in the Tenth Century AD

Abstract

Ibn an-Nadim, the famous 10th century bookseller and bibliographer of Baghdad and author of the "Fihrist" (Catalogue), tells the story of an unnamed Chinese student who found in the library of the famous physician and philosopher ar-Razi the so-called "Sixteen Books," i.e. the Arabic summary of the most influential books written by Galen, and translated them into Chinese. We do not know if this Chinese translation was safely transported to China.