The fourteenth century constituted a significant moment in the history of Asia. The Mongol empire, which had earlier brought large parts of Asia under one roof and facilitated cross-regional movements of texts and artifacts, degenerated. In an attempt to re-unite China under uniform rule and re-establish sustainable imperial governance, the first Ming emperor commissioned translations of Arabic and Persian texts from a selection of applicable fields, such as astronomy, astrology and medicine. This translation project constituted not only an important link between the Yuan and Ming institutions, but also a rare bridge between Greco-Arabo-Persian natural philosophy and the late imperial China's political and scientific traditions. Examining the two Chinese works Huihui tianwen shu ("The Book of Arabo-Persian Astrology") and Huihui yaofang ("Arabo-Persian Pharmacopeia"), both of which are translations of Persian treatises from the late-14th to early-15th centuries, this paper will bring to light the methods by which these Chinese translations negotiated, interpreted and presented the fundamentals of Greco-Arabo-Persian natural philosophy to Chinese readers. Situated between the disciplines of practical knowledge history, the history of statecraft and cultural studies, this paper will investigate the methodologies by which these translations aimed to transcend linguistic, cultural and epistemic boundaries, and mediated and negotiated meanings and methods of presentation in different media, in an attempt to produce knowledge applicable for governance.
