This documents contains Chinese characters at the bottom of the page. Earlier studies have examined Sun's contributions to alchemy and medicine, but his relation to Taoism and Buddhism has largely been neglected.
Buddhist elements abound in the two above-mentioned repertoires.
He refers to Indian massage techniques, and mentions methods for the treatment of beriberi from collections edited by Buddhist monks. While most of them have a Taoist character, others include incantatory formulas in Sanskrit. The main factor behind the Buddhist elements that emerge in Sun Simiao's works may have been his interest in the doctrines of the Huayan school. The influence of Sun's ethics spread beyond China, reaching Korea and Japan through the quotations of relevant passages in important medical texts of these two countries.