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Classic of the Miraculous Pivot
Lingshu Jing (Classic of the Miraculous Pivot), or simply
Lingshu for short, together with Su Wen (Questions of Fundamental
Nature), is called Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon of
Medicine, is one of the earliest medical classics in China. It was
finished approximately in the Spring and Autumn (770-476BC) and Warring States
(476-221BC) period. Later, with the development of medicine, it was supplemented
many times. Hence, it is not the product of a single person in any single
period, but is the summing-up of the experience of Chinese medicine before the
Qin and Han dynasties (221BC-220AD). In the history of more than two thousand
years, it remained to be the main base of the criterion of traditional Chinese
medicine, although the original features of the ancient Internal Canon of
Medicine have lost.
The original Lingshu Jing was in 9 volumes, containing 81
monographs, which was rich in the content and coverage: the Yin-Yang and
five-element theory,functions of viscera, channels and collaterals, acupuncture
and moxibustion points, pathology, symptoms, diagnosis and principles of
treatment, and so on. It is an important document for the study of medicine, and
also a valuable cultural heritage of China.
The current version is the "Private Preserved Old Version" contributed by Shi
Song of the Southern Song Dynasty in 1155. From the time of contribution of the
book by Shi Song till now, more than eight hundred years have passed, and the
version printed in the Song Dynasty was lost long ago. The earliest version
available now is the version of Mr. Hu's Gulin Shutang printed in the Yuan
Dynasty in 1339. Now, most literature on Lingshu Jing takes the version of
Zhao's Jujingtang of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) as the chief
source.
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