Huangdi Neijing, literally the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor or Esoteric Scripture of the Yellow Emperor, is an ancient Chinese medical text or group of texts that has been treated as a fundamental doctrinal source for Chinese medicine for more than two millennia. The work comprises two texts—each of eighty-one chapters or treatises in a question-and-answer format between the mythical Yellow Emperor and six of his equally legendary ministers.
The first text, the Suwen (Chinese: 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 (Chinese: 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 (Chinese: 明堂; Hall of Light) and the Taisu (Chinese: 太素; Grand Basis), both of which have survived only partially.
The book was popular among Taoists.
The earliest mention of the Huangdi Neijing was in the bibliographical chapter of the Hanshu Chinese: 漢書 (or Book of Han, completed in 111 CE), next to a Huangdi Waijing Chinese: 黃帝外經 ("Outer Canon of the Yellow Emperor") that is now lost. A scholar-physician called Huangfu Mi Chinese: 皇甫謐 (215–282 CE) was the first to claim that the Huangdi Neijing in 18 juan Chinese: 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 Chinese: 鍼經 ("Needling Canon"), each in 9 juan.[1] Since scholars believe that Zhenjing was one of the Lingshus 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, Chinese: 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.[2]
The Neijing departs from the old shamanistic beliefs that disease was caused by "demonic influences" (邪气）which is to be interpreted as any disease causing element, be it virus, bacteria or carcinogen, which can further be categorised by imbalance in diet, lifestyle, emotions, environment and the premature aging, etc. According to the Neijing, the universe can be represented by various symbols and principles, such as yin and yang (--，—）,[3] the wuxing （which must be interpreted as symbols no different than x,y, z or a, b, c in algebra), and qi.[4] These systems of abstraction of natural phenomenon aid our understanding of natural processes of which human health is among. 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 are part of the macrocosm equally apply to the human microcosm. Traditional medicine is a way for man to maintain this balance.
Before archeological discoveries at Mawangdui, Hunan, in the 1970s, the work had been dated to between the Warring States period to as late as the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE).[5] However, excavations found medical texts that changed this opinion. Donald Harper, Vivienne Lo and Li Jianmin agree that the systematic medical theory in the Neijing shows significant variance from Mawangdui Silk Texts, which were sealed in a royal tomb in 168 BCE. Because of this, they consider the Neijing to have been compiled after the Mawangdui texts. Historian of science Nathan Sivin (University of Pennsylvania) concluded that the Suwen and Lingshu probably date to the first century BCE, far later than most scholars would have dated it before the discoveries at Mawangdui. Those medical texts also show that it is not one book, "but a collection of diverse writings, many of which disagree and some of which comment on others. He is also of the opinion that (as of 1998) "no available translation is reliable."
They therefore challenge earlier arguments. Celestial Lancets (1980, by Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-djen)[6] states that the consensus of scholarly opinion is that the Suwen belongs to the second century BCE, and cites evidence that the Suwen is earlier than the first of the pharmaceutical natural histories, the Chinese: 神農本草經 Shennong Bencao Jing (Divine Farmer's Classic of the Materia Medica). So suggestive are parallels with third and fourth century BCE literature that doubt arises as to whether the Suwen might be better ascribed to the third century BCE, implying that certain portions may be of that date. The dominant role the theories of yin/yang and the five elements play in the physiology and pathology indicates that these medical theories are not older than about 320 BCE.
The German scholar Paul U. Unschuld says several 20th-century scholars hypothesize that the language and ideas of the Neijing Suwen were composed between 400 BCE and 260 CE, and provides evidence that only a small portion of the received text transmits concepts from before the second century BCE.[7] The work subsequently underwent major editorial changes.[8]
Du Fu, a fourteenth-century literary critic, was of the opinion that the Suwen was compiled by several authors over a long period. Its contents were then brought together by Confucian scholars in the Han dynasty era.
In 762 CE, Wang Bing finished his revision of the Suwen after labouring for twelve years. Wang Bing collected the various versions and fragments of the Suwen and reorganized it into the present eighty-one chapters (treatises) format. Treatises seventy-two and seventy-three are lost and only the titles are known. Originally his changes were all done in red ink, but later copyists incorporated some of his additions into the main text. However, the 1053 version discussed below restored almost all of his annotations and they are now written in small characters next to the larger characters that comprise the main or unannotated Suwen text. See Unschuld, pages 40 and 44.)
According to Unschuld (pages 39 and 62) Wang Bing's version of the Suwen was based on Quan Yuanqi's (early sixth century) commented version of the Suwen consisting of nine juan (books) and sixty-nine discourses. Wang Bing made corrections, added two "lost" discourses, added seven comprehensive discourses on the five phases and six qi, inserted over 5000 commentaries and reorganized the text into twenty-four juan (books) and eighty-one treatises.
In his preface to his version of the Suwen, Wang Bing goes into great detail listing the changes he made. (See Veith, Appendix II and Unschuld pages 41–43.)
Not much is known about Wang Bing's life but he authored several books. A note in the preface left by the later editors of the Chong Guang Bu Zhu Huangdi Neijing Suwen (version compiled by 1053 editorial committee) which was based on an entry in Tang Ren Wu Zhi (Record on Tang [Dynasty] Personalities) states that he was an official with the rank of tai pu ling and died after a long life of more than eighty years.[9]
The "authoritative version" used today, Chong Guang Bu Zhu Huangdi Neijing Suwen Chinese: 重廣補註黃帝內經素問 (Huangdi Neijing Suwen: Again Broadly Corrected [and] Annotated), is the product of the eleventh-century Imperial Editorial Office (beginning in 1053 CE) and was based considerably on Wang Bing's 762 CE version. Some of the leading scholars who worked on this version of the Suwen were Chinese: 林億 Lin Yi, Chinese: 孫奇 Sun Qi, Chinese: 高保衡 Gao Baoheng and Chinese: 孫兆 Sun Zhao.
For images of the Chong Guang Bu Zhu Huangdi Neijing Suwen printed in the Ming dynasty, (1368–1644 CE) see the external links section below.