From his childhood, Wang Bing upheld
Taoism,which had something
to do with the tradition of believing in Taoism in the Tang Dynasty. Wang Bing
was fond of regimen,hoping
to live forever. Besides, his notion of simple life and few desires conformed to
the Taoist propositions of "letting things take their own ways", "no desire",
"being indifferent to fame or
benefit", "internally preserving your health, and
externally renouncing the world". Hence, upholding Taoism and deliberating on alchemy were Wang
Bing's lifetime pursuits. That was part of the reason that he called himself
"Qixuanzi"(person who uncoverd the world of
myth).
Wang Bing had a teacher called "Xuanzhu", who did intensive research on Su Wen (Questions of Fundamental Nature), and
enlightened Wang Bing greatly. Wang Bing's another teacher Zhang Gong was the
main person who imparted academic ideas and medical experience to him. From his
teacher Zhang Gong, Wang Bing got the secret copy of Su Wen. Then, he
made a cross-reference with the Neijing Xunjie (Explanations of the
Internal Canon). With many research efforts and his own academic ideas and
experiences, he re-compiled Su Wen through combining similar articles,
re-categorizing contents and supplement. After 12 years of hard work, he
finished his new book in 762, Cizhu Su Wen (Secondary Explanations to Su
Wen), which contained 24 volumes and 81 chapters. Thus, the previous incomplete
medicine work with many mistakes and repetitions was improved into a fixed copy
and was able to be spread and handed down.
Wang Bing also wrote some other books, but
it is a pity that all of them have been lost. The only extant one is Cizhu Su
Wen, and his academic thinking is mainly shown in this book. He reorganized,
classified and proofread all the chapters of Su Wen, and, more
importantly, made detailed notes to the whole book according to his own theory
and practice, contributing a lot to the development of traditional Chinese
medicine.