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Theriac and Tao: More Aspects on Byzantine Diplomatic Gifts to Tang China
Vicente Dobroruka
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2016.02.006
University of Brasilia, Brasília, Brazil
This article deals with the presenting of diplomatic gifts around the 7th Century from the Roman Empire in the East (i.e. the Byzantine Empire), and among these a kind of medication supposedly capable of curing all sorts of illnesses, theriac. The links between these uses and Taoist expectations regarding ever-lasting life are discussed herein in the context of that diplomatic mission. It explores the different understandings of what theriac meant in the Byzantine and in the Tang courts. This sheds light on the kind of different misunderstandings, sometimes of an ironical nature, which may happen in intercultural contacts of political-diplomatic nature.
medieval and ancient medicine, Byzantine diplomacy, Taoism during the Tang period
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