The second juan of the Array of the Five Talismans (Taishang lingbao wufuxu 太上靈寶五符序 DZ 388; hereafter Array), consisting of dozens of medicinal recipes, presents us with numerous textual problems. This chapter will only be able to touch upon a few issues. In her 2011 study of the second juan of the Array, Ikehira Noriko 池平紀子 primarily used Dunhuang manuscript S.2438, the Yunji qiqian 雲笈七籤 DZ 1032 (hereafter YJQQ), and Methods for Abstaining from Grains from the Scripture of Great Purity (Taiqingjing duangu fa 太清經斷穀法 DZ 846) to compare textual variants of recipes. While she examines multiple sources and variants, Ikehira’s stimulating discussion centers on Buddho-Daoist interaction. This essay builds upon her work.

The discussion of textual variants is not merely a philological exercise to determine the correct, or best, reading of a text. The very existence of different textual recensions forces us to recognize the materiality of texts in medieval China as hand copied manuscripts circulated among initiates and within lineages of practitioners, and only sometimes available to more public view. Single recipes, or collections of recipes, circulated independently of the texts in which we find them today, and were often copied and reformulated within different compilations.

A. The Basic Textual Sources

I begin my examination with textual criticism in order to obtain a definitive version of the Array. The first step in this process is to ascertain the correct words of the text. These two tasks are very difficult. While the Zhonghua daozang edition has only one instance of emended textual criticism of the Array, I believe there are several tens of instances where textual criticism is needed, but I am currently unable to fully emend the entire text. While I still have doubts about certain passages, I have no evidentiary basis for emending them.

“My itch is terrible, but I know what causes it. My itch is caused by a bug.” This sixty-three-year-old man had incessant widespread crawling and biting sensations in his skin for three years. He blamed tiny bugs that were not directly visible on the skin, but could be seen by him when he brushed them off into a wash basin.

It was a serious matter for which he had previously consulted three dermatologists, an infectious disease specialist, a pathologist, a microbiologist, a psychiatrist, an entomologist, and three parasitologists. No one had ever been able to identify any insect, ectoparasite, fungal element, or glass wool in his many many samples. Nonetheless, he spent most of each day cleaning, spraying, and vacuuming his home to eliminate his “pathogens.” He had bought an industrial vacuum cleaner, special air filters, and cartons of disinfectant sprays … anything to kill the bugs. At night he was unable to sleep due to scratching. His life was truly miserable.

At each visit he came equipped with a basin of water, colored blue with a food dye. He averred that the bugs were grossly visible when he brushed them off into the basin if the overhead lights were turned off, illumination being provided by transverse lighting from his flashlight. Strangely, these bugs had no bodies that he could see, but were essentially jagged legs.

Repeated examinations with a 2.75 power lens of the patient's “parasites” floating in the water revealed only dead keratin flakes of his outer skin.

Tungiasis

In recent years, increased ecotourism and international travel to tropical countries has produced a growing incidence of infestations formerly limited to certain regions.

Tungiasis is a common ectoparasitic infestation that occurs mainly in the tropics, particularly where poverty and poor standards of basic hygiene exist. Despite recent progress in the treatment and prevention of tungiasis, diagnosis can present a challenge to those unfamiliar with the disorder, especially when happening in nonendemic countries.

Tungiasis is caused by the penetration of the female sand flea, Tunga penetrans, a hematophagous ectoparasite, into the epidermis of the host. The infestation is usually self-limited and presents few complications. It is known by several popular designations, including – chigoe flea, jigger flea, pico, nigua (Mexico, Caribbean islands, Peru), pique (Argentina), bicho dos pès, pulga da areia (Brazil), moukardan (Sudan), puce chique, ogri eye (South America).

Epidemiology

Tunga penetrans is one of the few parasites that has spread from the western to the eastern hemisphere. Sand flea disease is common in resource-poor communities in South America and sub-Saharan Africa, with a prevalence of up to 60% in the general population. The parasite originally lived only on the American Continent and came to Angola with the sand carried by travelers from Brazil. Within a few decades, it spread from Angola to sub-Saharan Africa, East-Africa, and Madagascar. At present, tungiasis is endemic in many countries in Latin America (from Mexico to Northern Argentina), in the Caribbean islands, and in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent studies in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Brazil reported a similar high prevalence of tungiasis, from 45% to 51%; the higher rates occur in some communities ofBrazil, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago. The infestation happens mostly in underdeveloped communities in the rural hinterland, in secluded fishing villages along the coast, and in the slums of urban centers. The seasonal variation of tungiasis in endemic communities shows a highest incidence that corresponds to the peak of the dry season in the tropics.

Infinite variety

There are at least two radically different views of history. One is that all is contingency. ‘For the want of a nail the battle was lost …’, or, as Pascal put it, ‘give Cleopatra a shorter nose and you'll change the face of the world’. It is a fine game to identify such incidents. Here is one. Apparently, when the Genovese were looking for a buyer for Corsica, the island was offered to the British. The price was considered too high and it went to the French. But for that we could have had Napoleon as a British soldier and, who knows, roast beef Marengo might have been as British as Yorkshire pudding. The other view is that history is determined by the operation of massive social forces, which render its course more or less predictable. This, of course, was the view of Marx and also of Hari Seldon, mathematician and founder of psychohistory, and the prophet of Isaac Azimov's Foundation novels.

On the whole it may be supposed that statisticians belong to the latter camp. As Laplace puts it in a passage we have already cited more than once, ‘The phenomena of nature are most often enveloped by so many strange circumstances, and so great a number of disturbing causes mix their influence, that it is very difficult to recognise them.