Wellspring Health, Hamptons - Dr. Dori Fortunato, DAOM, Lic. Ac.
Wellspring Health, Hamptons - Dr. Dori Fortunato, DAOM, Lic. Ac.
2228 Montauk Hwy #1, Bridgehampton, NY 11932, United States
+1 631-237-1542
Neijing (c. 104-32 BC) is the first known work concerning acupuncture. The classic consists of two parts: Suwen - Simple Questions, and Lingshu - the Spiritual Pivot, also known as The Classic of Acupuncture (Zhen Jing). Both are concerned primarily with the theory and practice of acupuncture and moxibustion. Although authorship of the Neijing is attributed to Huang Di, the legendary Yellow Emperor (c. 2650 BC), most scholars consider that this master work, which contains excerpts from more than twenty pre-existing medical treatises, was actually compiled between 104 BC and 32 BC, during the latter part of the Western Han dynasty (206 BC-24 AD). The comprehensive and highly developed nature of the medical system presented in the Neijing has led scholars to believe that needling therapy has an extremely long history, probably reaching back to prehistoric times. The original versions of the ancient texts used in the compilation of the Neijing have been lost, and with them the opportunity to further illuminate the question of when acupuncture actually first appeared. However, startling new archaeological evidence, unearthed in China in the early 1970s and 1980s, reveals the true state of Chinese medicine prior to the Neijing, and challenges existing assumptions concerning the Neolithic origins of acupuncture.
In late 1973, fourteen medical documents, known as the Ancient Medical Relics of Mawangdui, were excavated from Grave No. 3 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan Province. Ten of the documents were hand-copied on silk, and four were written on bamboo slips. The exact age of the Ancient Medical Relics of Mawangdui has not been determined. However, a wooden tablet found in the grave states that the deceased was the son of Prime Minister Li Chang of the state of Changsha, and that he was buried on February 24, 168 BC. The unsystematic and empirical nature of the material contained in the documents indicates that they were written well before their interment in 168 BC, probably around the middle of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). In any event, it is certain that these medical documents pre-date the Neijing (compiled c. 104-32 BC), making them the oldest known medical documents in existence. These documents were probably lost sometime during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), since no mention of them has been found from this time until their rediscovery in 1973.
Another valuable medical find, The Book of the Meridians (Mai Shu), was excavated from two ancient tombs at Zhangjiashan in Jiangling County, Hubei Province in 1983. These ancient texts, written on bamboo slips and quite well preserved, were probably buried between 187 and 179 BC, around the same time as the Mawangdui relics. There are five documents in all, three of which (The Classic of Moxibustion with Eleven Yin-Yang Meridians, Methods of Pulse Examination and Bian Stone, and Indications of Death on the Yin-Yang Meridians) are identical to the texts found at Mawangdui.
There is abundant evidence to show that the authors of the Neijing used the earlier medical texts from Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan as primary references, further indicating the antiquity of these relics. For example, Chapter 10 of the Lingshu section of the Neijing contains a discussion of the meridians and their disorders that is very similar, in both form and content, to that found in the Classic of Moxibustion with Eleven Yin-Yang Meridians, one of the documents found at both Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan.
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