Huangdi Neijing 1

    Huangdi Neijing

    A digitized copy of the Su Wen of the Huangdi

    Neijing, for online reading.

    Huangdi Neijing (simplified Chinese: 黄 帝 内 经; traditional

    Chinese: 黃 帝 內 經; pinyin: Huángdì Nèijīng), also known as The

    Inner Canon of Huangdi or Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon, is an

    ancient Chinese medical text that has been treated as the fundamental

    doctrinal source for Chinese medicine for more than two millennia.

    The work is composed of two texts each of eighty-one chapters or

    treatises in a question-and-answer format between the mythical

    Huangdi (Yellow Emperor or more correctly Yellow Thearch) and six

    of his equally legendary ministers.

    The first text, the Suwen (素 問), also known as Basic Questions,covers the theoretical foundation of Chinese Medicine and its

    diagnostic methods. The second and generally less referred-to text, the

    Lingshu (靈 樞) [Spiritual Pivot], discusses acupuncture therapy in

    great detail. Collectively, these two texts are known as the Neijing or

    Huangdi Neijing. In practice, however, the title Neijing often refers

    only to the more influential Suwen. Two other texts also carried the

    prefix Huangdi neijing in their titles: the Mingtang 明 堂 [Hall of

    Light] and the Taisu 太 素 [Grand Basis], both of which have

    survived only partially.

    Overview

    The earliest mention of the Huangdi neijing was in the bibliographical chapter of the Hanshu 漢 書 (or Book of

    Han, completed in 111 CE), next to a Huangdi waijing 黃 帝 外 經 (“Yellow Emperor’s Outer Canon”) that is now

    lost. A scholar-physician called Huangfu Mi 皇 甫 謐 (215-282 CE) was the first to claim that the Huangdi neijing

    in 18 juan 卷 (or volumes) that was listed in the Hanshu bibliography corresponded with two different books that

    circulated in his own time: the Suwen and the Zhenjing 鍼 經 (“Needling Canon”), each in 9 juan.

    [1]

    Since scholars

    believe that Zhenjing was one of the Lingshu's earlier titles, they agree that the Han-dynasty Huangdi neijing was

    made of two different texts that are close in content to the works we know today as the Suwen and the Lingshu.

    The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic (Huangdi Neijing, 黃 帝 內 經) is the most important ancient text in Chinese

    medicine as well as a major book of Daoist theory and lifestyle. The text is structured as a dialogue between the

    Yellow Emperor and one of his ministers or physicians, most commonly Qíbó (Chinese: 岐 伯), but also Shàoyú

    (Chinese: 少 俞). One possible reason for using this device was for the (anonymous) authors to avoid attribution and

    blame (see pages 8-14 in Unschuld for an exposition of this).

    The Neijing departs from the old shamanistic beliefs that disease was caused by demonic influences. Instead the

    natural effects of diet, lifestyle, emotions, environment, and age are the reason diseases develop. According to the

    Neijing, the universe is composed of various forces and principles, such as Yin and yang, Qi and the Five Elements

    (or phases). These forces can be understood via rational means and man can stay in balance or return to balance and

    health by understanding the laws of these natural forces. Man is a microcosm that mirrors the larger macrocosm. The

    principles of yin and yang, the five elements, the environmental factors of wind, damp, hot and cold and so on that ......