Volume 7, Number 3 | Fall 2012

Medical History in Japan
Historical Significance of the Standardization of AcupointLocations”, the Second Japanese Acupoint Committee (7)“Detailed Guide to the Location of Acupoints” from thecalssics to the WHO standardization”, pp411-422, Tokyo,
Ishiyaku Publishing, June 2009 (partially revised)
Makoto Mayanagi
Graduate School of Humanities
Ibaraki University(continued from KAIM Joural vol.6 no.1, no.2, no.3,no.4, vol.7 no.1 and vol.7 no.2)

6 Tertiary standardization – unification on anational level

Figure 10 Bronze figure (Tokyo National Museum)

After the Tang period and through a period of 5
generations of confusion China was reunited under theNorthern Sung government, and maybe also due to theemperor's pursuit of a civilian controlled policy,
attached great importance to medical policies. On thisfoundation "Su Wen", "Ling Shu" and similar medical
classics were revised, books on herbology also enlarged
and revised a large portion of medical encyclopedias
newly compiled and using the wood-block printing
technique that had spread at that time governmental
editions published. The effects of acupuncture andmoxibustion too were acknowledged by the emperor
himself, so that he ordered the medical officer Wang
Wei Yi to correct the confusion about meridians andacupoints. By imperial command Wei Yi prepared his"Illustrated Meridians" (illustrations and descriptivetext) and in the following year based on that work
created a 3-dimensional figure, that was "newly cast"and he revised the 14 meridians and 354 acupoints in1026, publishing the "Illustrated Meridians" as the 3volume work "(Newly casted) Tong Ren Shu Xue Shen
Jiu Tu Jing [14].

Figure 11 Rubbed copy of a gravestone

The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

21

Volume 7, Number 3 | Fall 2012

By the way, the Northern Song editions of the timeused characters of coin size and even B4 paper size
large characters, were mostly luxury books for thecourt and government officials and consequently too
expensive for ordinary people or physicians.
Therefore, subsequent publishing of small print
editions for the general population was common for
medical books. Yet, trying to create a small printed
version of the "Tong ren shu xue shen jiu tu jing"makes it difficult to contain the bronze figure
illustrations. Presumably this seems to have been thereason why there has been no small print edition ofthis work, but the government had this book carved
as a stone relief that was then erected in the capitalof Bianjing (today's Kaifeng) and spread by having
people make rubbed copies of it. The casting of thisbronze figure and publishing of the book, and again
the rubbed copies obtained from the stone relief wereused as a means for the careful spread of thisknowledge and had the purpose of achieving
unification on a national level. It is no exaggeration tocall precisely this the tertiary standardization.
Incidentally, quotations in the "Xia Ma Jing" or"Ishinpo" derived from the "Chang Jing" or Pelliot
text No. 2675 show that the discourse pertaining to
the determination of the type of meridian or theacupoints to be avoided depending on the location of
the human spirit was very popular until the Tangperiod. Whether this view already prevailed from thestage of the "Ming Tang " is unknown, but they arereferred to twice in the "Illustration of the Brass ManAcupuncture and Moxibustion". The widespread
discourse could apparently not be neglected.
Figure 10 shows the bronze figure at the Tokyo
National Museum, which had originally been cast in
Northern Song and had been called "Tensei dojin".
This originates according to Chen cunren theory tothe joining of the Japanese army when the allied
forces of eight countries attacked Beijing during theBoxer Rebellion and carried it away from the oldpalace in Beijing. However, Professor Hiroshi Kosoto
from Kitazato University showed beyond any room for
dispute that this particular bronze figure had beencast by the acupuncture medical officer Jizen
Yamazaki upon order from the shogunate during the22Edo period by the end of the 18th century and been in
the possession of the Edo Medical School [15].
Figure 11 shows a rubbed copy of the stone relief
immediately after it had been set up in Bianjing [16]and "First Volume of the Newly Cast Bronze Figure
Illustration of Acupuncture and Moxibustion" isfound in the left lower corner. This stone relief wasmoved during the Yuan period to Beijing and had
there been preserved until the Ming period. Thisparticular stone remnant was discovered during
excavations at Beijing's castle wall and a portion of it
is now on display on the 6th floor of the The Chinese
Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Further, the Ming
government also completely replicated the Northern
Song stone relief because of damage and wear andallowed to make rubbed copies of it to spread theknowledge. The library of the Imperial Household
Agency is in the possession of a complete rubbed copy
from the Ming period that originally had been
together with the bronze figure shown in Figure 10 inthe possession of the Edo Medical School.

Figure 12 [Newly published with supplementary notes]Tóng Rén Shù Xué Zhēn Jiǔ Tú Jīng

The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

Volume 7, Number 3 | Fall 2012

On the other hand, the 1027 year Northern Song
edition of the Tóng Rén Shù Xué Zhēn Jiǔ Tú Jīng
does not exist any more. Later, in the year 1186
during the Jin dynasty an enlarged, 5-volume
edition, the [Newly published with supplementarynotes] Tóng Rén Shù Xué Zhēn Jiǔ Tú Jīng wasreprinted, but this Jin edition too did not survive tothe present day. Figure 12 is called the popular[Newly published with supplementary notes] TóngRén Shù Xué Zhēn Jiǔ Tú Jīng, but is actually aYuan replica, the only extant copy of which is in theNational Library of Taiwan. Yang Shoujing obtained
this particular book while visiting Japan during theearly Meiji period, which is part of the shogunate
acupuncture

medicalofficer

Yamazakifamilycollection, who casted the bronze figure. Later, it wastransferred by Shoujing to Liu Shih-heng and Shihheng, while knowing that this was the Yuan edition
called the book Jin edition that was then reprinted
by the end of the Qing dynasty. This has today been
published in China as an imitation gold reprint [17].
On the other hand, this book itself has been in thepossession the Central Library founded in Nanking
by the Chinese government in and until the present
day undergone many modifications.

The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

23