Yīzōng jīnjiàn · Cìjiǔ xīnfǎ yàojué 醫宗金鑑·刺灸心法要訣
Heart-Method Essentials for Acupuncture and Moxibustion by 吳謙 (奉敕撰) and 劉裕鐸 (奉敕撰), under imperial commission
About the work
The Cìjiǔ xīnfǎ yàojué 刺灸心法要訣 (8 juàn) is the acupuncture-and-moxibustion chapter of the Yīzōng jīnjiàn compendium (KR3e0090 / KR3eu016). It is the principal Qīng-period imperial-academy textbook of acupuncture, drawing on the Sòng Tóngrén shūxué zhēnjiǔ tújīng 銅人腧穴針灸圖經 of 王惟一 Wáng Wéiyī (1027), the Yuán Shísì jīng fāhuī 十四經發揮 of 滑壽 Huá Shòu (1341), and the Míng standard reference Zhēnjiǔ dàchéng 針灸大成 of 楊繼洲 Yáng Jìzhōu (1601). The chapter is organised by the twelve regular and eight extraordinary channels (the shísì jīng 十四經 / qíjīng bāmài 奇經八脈), with mnemonic-verse listings of points (acupoint location, depth, indications, needling-and-moxa technique), followed by clinical-application chapters by symptom-category.
Abstract
The chapter is one of the most important Qīng-period acupuncture works and the official Qīng imperial-academy curriculum text for acupuncture practice. Its accessible mnemonic-verse format made it the principal vehicle through which 18th-and-19th-century Qīng physicians learned the channel-and-point system; the chapter remained in active use into the 20th century and underlies most modern TCM acupuncture textbooks.
The chapter codifies the shísì jīng 十四經 (fourteen channels: the twelve regular plus the Rèn and Dū of the extraordinary eight) as the standard acupuncture-channel system, completing the post-Sòng simplification of the older complex channel taxonomy of the Língshū. Its acupoint-coordinate conventions were also taken up in the imperial bronze-figure-and-engraved-tablet pedagogy of the Qīng Tàiyīyuàn.
Composition window 1742–1749. For the parent compendium see KR3e0090 / KR3eu016; cf. duplicate entry KR3eu036.
Translations and research
- Lu, Gwei-djen, and Joseph Needham. 1980. Celestial Lancets: A History and Rationale of Acupuncture and Moxa. Cambridge University Press — for the broader history of acupuncture.
- Despeux, Catherine, et al., trs. 1990s–2000s. Le Marteau de Jade — Manuel d’acupuncture chinoise (various French translations of related Qīng acupuncture texts).
- Hsu, Elisabeth, ed. 2001. Innovation in Chinese Medicine. Cambridge University Press.