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針灸甲乙經

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Text ID
KR3ee005
Date
256–282
Dynasty
晉

Zhēnjiǔ jiǎyǐ jīng 針灸甲乙經

Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (Stems-A-and-B Classic) by 皇甫謐 Huángfǔ Mì (撰)

About the work

The oldest extant systematic synthesis of Chinese acupuncture, twelve juan, composed by the Western Jìn recluse-scholar 皇甫謐 Huángfǔ Mì (215–282) at his retirement estate after he had been disabled by the so-called Gānlù 甘露 illness (256–260). Huángfǔ describes the work’s method explicitly in his preface: he took the three foundational texts — the Sùwèn 素問 (9 juan), the Zhēn jīng 針經 (= Língshū 靈樞, 9 juan, together the eighteen-juan Huángdì nèijīng 黃帝內經), and the now-lost Míngtáng kǒngxué zhēnjiǔ zhìyào 明堂孔穴鍼灸治要 — and re-classified their contents thematically, “making the entries belong to their kinds, deleting redundant phrases, removing repetitions, and arranging what is essential” (撰集三部，使事類相從，刪其浮辭，除其重複，論其精要). The result is the canonical organization of acupuncture knowledge into chapters on (1) the zàngfǔ 臟腑 and the jīngmài 經脈, (2) the names and locations of all 349 acupoints arranged head-to-foot, (3) needling and moxibustion technique (depth, breath coordination, contraindications), and (4) clinical chapters on the diseases of each organ system. The Jiǎyǐ jīng is the single most important transitional work between the Nèijīng corpus and the entire later acupuncture tradition: it preserves the only systematic ancient point-by-point catalog (the Míngtáng having been otherwise lost) and is the source-text for every subsequent imperial acupuncture revision, including 王惟一 Wáng Wéiyī’s Tóngrén shùxué 銅人腧穴 (KR3ee056).

Tiyao

The jicheng.tw text carries no Sìkù tíyào; it instead reproduces 林億 Lín Yì’s Sòng-imperial editorial preface (the Lín xù 林序, dated to the Jiāyòu 嘉祐 校正醫書局 of 1057–1067) and Huángfǔ Mì’s own original Zìxù 自序. The Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào (Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi) does carry a long tiyao for the work, which praises Huángfǔ for the rigor of his classification and credits the Sòng校正 editors for the recovery of the received text.

Abstract

The Zhēnjiǔ jiǎyǐ jīng — also known as the Huángdì sānbù zhēnjiǔ jiǎyǐ jīng 黃帝三部鍼灸甲乙經 (“Yellow Emperor’s Three-Part A-and-B Acupuncture Canon”) — is the foundational systematization of all Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion. The “A-and-B” of the title refers to the jiǎ 甲 and yǐ 乙 of the celestial-stems, used here in the sense “Volume 1 and Volume 2” (i.e. a “Systematic” or “Sequential” Classic). Composition: Huángfǔ began it after his Gānlù-period disease, hence not earlier than 256, and finished it before his death in 282; the standard bracket 256–282 is followed here. The text underwent two great editorial waves: (i) the Northern-Sòng 校正醫書局 (Jiàozhèng yīshū jú) revision under 林億 Lín Yì, 高保衡 Gāo Bǎohéng, and 孫奇 Sūn Qí in the Jiāyòu period (1057–1063), which is the basis of all later editions, and (ii) the Míng Yītǒng zhèngmài quánshū 醫統正脈全書 (1601) and Qīng Sìkù recensions. Huángfǔ’s exact 349-point catalog is the chief technical achievement: each acupoint is given a fixed name, an anatomical localization (often by cùn 寸 measurement and bone-landmark), needling depth in fēn 分, moxibustion dose in zhuàng 壯, and the diseases it treats. This catalog underlies every later imperially-promulgated point-list. Modern critical reconstruction (黄龍祥 Huáng Lóngxiáng et al.) has shown that the Jiǎyǐ jīng’s ordering preserves substantial fragments of the lost Míngtáng tradition that are otherwise unrecoverable. The work is registered in the Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi; classified as a jīng 經 of the medical canon.

Translations and research

  • Yang Shou-zhong (trans.), The Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion: A Translation of the Jia-Yi-Jing, Boulder: Blue Poppy Press, 2004 — the only complete English translation.
  • 黄龍祥 Huáng Lóngxiáng, Huángfǔ Mì yǔ Zhēnjiǔ jiǎyǐ jīng 皇甫謐與針灸甲乙經 (Beijing: People’s Medical Publishing House, 1996) — definitive textual-critical study.
  • 張燦玾 Zhāng Cànjiǎ et al., Zhēnjiǔ jiǎyǐ jīng jiàoshì 針灸甲乙經校釋 (1996) — best Chinese critical edition with full annotation.
  • Catherine Despeux, “Zhenjiu jiayi jing 鍼灸甲乙經”, in Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. Fabrizio Pregadio, London: Routledge, 2008.
  • Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Ideas (1985), and Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery (2003), for the broader context of the Sùwèn and its transmission via the Jiǎyǐ jīng.

Other points of interest

The Jiǎyǐ jīng is the only place where considerable portions of the lost Míngtáng kǒngxué zhēnjiǔ zhìyào — itself the earliest synthetic Hàn acupoint catalog — survive. It is also one of the four canonical texts (with the Sùwèn, Língshū, and Nànjīng) memorized as a precondition for medical examination in the Sòng Imperial Medical Bureau (太醫局).

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