Cross-Cultural Translation of Traditional Chinese Medical Literature in Alexander Wylie’s Notes on Chinese Literature

Centered on the “Medical Writers (医家)” section in Alexander Wylie’s Notes on Chinese Literature , this paper examines how traditional Chinese medical literature was selected, translated, and presented to English-speaking readers in the context of Sino-Western medical encounters in the nineteenth century. By comparing Wylie’s English notices with entries in Qin Ding Si Ku Quan Shu Zong Mu Ti Yao (《钦定四库全书总目提要》 The Annotated Bibliography of the Four Treasuries ) and with contemporary missionary library catalogs, the paper explores the processes of selection, translation, and bibliographical arrangement involved in his presentation of Chinese medical books. At the level of book selection, Wylie did not simply reproduce the scope and evaluative priorities of the imperial bibliography. His catalog also drew on missionary collections and gave noticeable space to practical works on surgery, pediatrics, epidemic diseases, and Chinese-language works introducing Western medicine. At the level of terminology, Wylie often explained Chinese medical terms through anatomical structures, observable symptoms, or localized disease categories familiar to nineteenth-century Western medicine. These choices made terms such as Mai (脉), Jing (经), and Shang Han (伤寒 cold damage) more immediately intelligible to English-speaking readers, while leaving some of their broader theoretical and functional contexts less explicit. Finally, the case of Ben Cao Gang Mu (《本草纲目》 Compendium of Materia Medica ) shows how Wylie reorganized information already present in Chinese bibliographical discourse by foregrounding the work’s scale, classification, and internal structure, while also adding related titles not included in the corresponding Chinese entry. The article argues that Wylie’s presentation of Chinese medical literature illustrates how bibliography itself could function as a form of cross-cultural translation, shaping the conditions under which Chinese medical works became visible, intelligible, and usable to nineteenth-century English-speaking readers.