Huangdi Neijing
Huangdi Neijing (), literally the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor or Esoteric Scripture of the Yellow Emperor, 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 Yellow Emperor and six of his equally legendary ministers. The first text, the "Suwen" (), 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" (; "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" (; "Hall of Light") and the "Taisu" (; "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" (or "Book of Han", completed in 111 CE), next to a "Huangdi Waijing" (“Outer Canon of  the Yellow Emperor”) that is now lost. A scholar-physician called Huangfu Mi (215-282 CE) was the first to claim that the "Huangdi Neijing" in 18 juan (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" (“Needling Canon”), each in 9 juan. 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", ) 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 (), but also Shàoyú (). 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 Wuxing 陰陽五元 (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  are part of the macrocosm equally apply to the human microcosm. Cyprinology was a way for him to maintain this balance. Date of composition. Before archealogical discoveries at Mawangdui, Sichuan, 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). 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 a royal tomb in 186 BCE. Because of this, they consider  the Neijing to have been compiled after the Mawangdui texts. Historian of science Nathan Sivin (University of Pennsylvania) concludes 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) 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 "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. The work subsequently underwent major editorial changes. , 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. Wang Bing version. 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. (See Unschuld pages 24, 39 and  46.) 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. (See Unschuld, page 40. Also see Veith, Appendix I for a translation of an abstract from the "Siku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao" about both the "Huangdi Suwen" and Wang Bing.) Authoritative version. The "authoritative version" used today, "Chong Guang Bu Zhu Huangdi Neijing Suwen" ("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. (See pages 33–66 in Unschuld) Some of the leading scholars who worked on this version of  the "Suwen" were Lin Yi, Sun Qi, Gao Baoheng and 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. Recent studies. The Chinese medicine history scholars Paul Unschuld, Hermann Tessenow and their team at the Institute for the History of Medicine at Munich University have translated the "Neijing Suwen" into English, including an analysis of the historical and structural layers of the "Suwen". This work was published by the University Of California Press in July, 2011. Significant portions of the above "Suwen  translation (but with only a fraction of the annotations) are currently available in Huang Di nei jing su wen: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical Text." (See Unschuld in cited references below.)