Discussant: Michelle McCoy (University of Pittsburgh), Michael Lackner (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)

This study outlines the contributions of “West Asian” sciences to East Asian knowledge in Tang China (618–907). The translation of foreign sciences (such as medicine, metallurgy, astronomy, astrology, and geography) from West Asian languages into Chinese remains underappreciated in modern scholarship and the diversity of its sources is often ignored. An examination of the loanwords, histories, and persons involved in East Asian knowledge shows that foreign sciences from West Asian cultures had a significant impact on China. This research argues that the perception of West Asian sciences as strictly Iranian is lacking, since knowledge that influenced Tang China originated not only from Persian, but also Syriac, Greek, and Arabic sources. This conceptual framework is suited to the late-antique period in question as it avoids the misleading term “Western” sciences that would generally imply European and Latin sources.