Why did the ancients call medicine the art of Xuanhuang?
Qi Huang is the collective name of Qi Bo and Huang Di, who are said to be the ancestors of the medical family. The main content of the "Huangdi Neijing", the foundation work of traditional Chinese medicine, is written in the style of questions and answers between Huangdi and Qibo, so later generations used "Qihuang" to refer to it as the "Inner Canon". And by extension, it refers specifically to orthodox Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, and more often as a synonym for traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. At the same time, the new words composed of "Qihuang" also have their own corresponding meanings. For example, "Qihuang's art" and "Qihuang's way" refer to the academic or medical skills and theories of traditional Chinese medicine; "Qihuang family" refers to traditional Chinese medicine doctors and traditional Chinese medicine experts; "Qihuang book" refers to traditional Chinese medicine books; "Qihuang industry" refers to the traditional Chinese medicine industry, etc. . Research on Qibo and Qihuang found that they are full of rich traditional Chinese culture, which illustrates the close relationship between traditional Chinese medicine and its parent culture.
The medical skills of traditional Chinese medicine are often called "the skills of Qi and Huang". Huang refers to Emperor Xuanyuan Huang, and Qi refers to his minister Qi Bo. According to legend, the Yellow Emperor often sat down with Qi Bo, Lei Gong and other ministers to discuss medical issues, and answered questions and clarified the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Many of these contents were recorded in the medical book "Huangdi Neijing". Out of respect for Huangdi and Qibo, later generations referred to Qihuang's technique as traditional Chinese medicine, and considered the "Huangdi Neijing" to be the origin of traditional Chinese medicine theory and the most authoritative classic of traditional Chinese medicine. To this day, those who work in traditional Chinese medicine still quote the Huangdi Neijing.
Why is this classical medical book called the "Nei Jing"? Because the ancients often called books that have certain rules and must be learned and mastered, such as the "Six Classics" of Confucianism and Laozi's "Tao Te Ching", and "Three Character Classic" for enlightenment education, etc. As for "inside", it is a relative term to "outside". In ancient times, it was also recorded in the "Huangdi Waijing", but it was later lost. This has the same meaning as the "Inner Chapter" and "Outer Chapter" of "Han Shi Wai Zhuan", "Han Shi Nei Zhuan", and "Zhuangzi", and has no deep meaning. The inclusion of Huangdi's name in the "Nei Jing" also means to trace the source. It is intended to show that my country's medical culture has a very early origin. It does not actually refer to the works left by Huangdi or the works that existed in Huangdi's era. In fact, the "Huangdi Neijing" is a work after the Warring States Period, and was written around the Qin and Han Dynasties. It was neither written in an era nor written by a single person, but was a collective achievement.
The "Huangdi Neijing" includes two parts: "Suwen" and "Lingshu", each part has a quotation. Su means qualitative (i.e. material) solutions, and asking means problems. "Su Wen" means studying the physiological and pathological problems of the human material body. The main content of "Lingshu" is the study of acupuncture, so it is also called "Acupuncture Classic". Ling means effective, and Shu means secret and hub. The main meaning of "Ling Shu" is that you must master the cardinal essentials of acupuncture in order to be effective.
As a medical classic, "Huangdi Neijing" relatively comprehensively constructs the theoretical system of traditional Chinese medicine and lays the foundation for the development of traditional Chinese medicine. Its content is broad, profound and magnificent. However, because it was not written by one person at a time, it is difficult to grasp the key points when reading. Therefore, later generations of doctors organized and classified the original text of the "Huangdi Neijing" so that each category discussed the same nature. questions, so that readers can grasp the key points and grasp the key points. There are many doctors who have done this sorting work, among which the book "Lei Jing" written by Zhang Jingyue of Ming Dynasty is most worthy of praise. He re-edited the original text of "Huangdi Neijing" and classified it into 12 categories according to different contents, which served as an outline and made it easier to read. Referring to Zhang Jingyue's classification, the contents included in the "Huangdi Neijing" generally fall into the following 12 categories, namely: the theory of health preservation, the theory of yin and yang and the five elements, the theory of internal organs, the theory of meridians, the theory of essence, qi, blood and body fluids, the theory of etiology, the theory of pathogenesis, and the theory of disease. The theory of syndrome, theory of diagnosis, theory of treatment, theory of acupuncture at Shu points, theory of five movements and six qi, etc.
In addition to medical aspects, the content of "Huangdi Neijing" also involves many fields such as philosophy, astronomy, phenology, calendar, etc., and uses the theories in these aspects to demonstrate the medical principles of traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, the ancients called the "Huangdi Neijing" "the history of heaven at the top, the geography at the bottom, taking things from far away, taking things from near, and asking questions about each other." It means: combining various things in heaven and earth to discuss medical issues related to physiology, pathology and other aspects of the human body. This is the guiding ideology of the "Huangdi Neijing" of "the unity of nature and man" and "the constant movement of the whole". It can be seen that the fundamental difference between "Huangdi Neijing" and many other medical books in the world is that it is not a simple medical book.
However, from a medical perspective, its theoretical essence and glorious achievements have not only educated doctors of all generations and guided clinical practice, but also had a positive impact on the development of world medicine. For example, its discussion of the surface anatomy of the human body, especially the measurement of the length of the digestive tract, is very similar to the data of Western medicine; it was the first to propose the concept of blood circulation and recognize the difference between systemic circulation and minor circulation. There are so many of these. Therefore, medical doctors in the past dynasties have attached great importance to the "Huangdi Neijing" and respected it as the "ancestor of medical doctors". It has become a must-read classical medical book for studying traditional Chinese medicine.
The text of "Huangdi Neijing" belongs to the ancient texts of the Qin and Han Dynasties, which is equivalent to the style of Fu in style. Therefore, it also has a huge influence on Sinology culture in Chinese history and forms part of our country's traditional culture. Because of this, it is quite difficult to read such a classical medical book in terms of text. Therefore, doctors of all ages have made detailed and slightly different annotations. For beginners, you can start by choosing textbooks such as "Selected Readings of the Nei Jing" and gradually improve.
"Huangdi Neijing" laid the theoretical foundation of traditional Chinese medicine. This book is written in the form of a dialogue based on the dialogue between Huang Di and Qi Bo. That’s why it’s called Qihuang’s technique.
According to legend, there were three famous doctors during the Huangdi period. Apart from Lei Gong and Qi Bo, the most famous one was Yu Fu (fù). His medical skills are very good. Especially experienced in surgical procedures. It is said that he generally does not use decoction, stone acupuncture and massage to treat diseases. Instead, after the cause of the disease is diagnosed, unless surgery is required, a knife is used to cut the skin, dissect the muscles, and ligate them. Legend has it that one time, when Yu Fu was crossing a river, he found a woman who had fallen into the river and drowned. Several people fished her out and prepared to bury her. Yu Fu stopped them and asked how long it had been since the deceased had fallen into the water. The person who carried the body said that it had just fallen into the water and died when it was picked up. Yu Tu asked them to put the body on the ground. He first felt the pulse of the deceased and looked into the eyes of the deceased. Then he asked someone to find a straw rope, tie up the legs of the deceased and hang him upside down from the tree. At first, no one understood why Yu Tu did this. As soon as the deceased was hung up, he vomited water out loudly. When he stopped vomiting, Yu Tao asked people to slowly untie the deceased, lay him on his back on the ground, and put his hands on the deceased's chest. Finally, he pulled out a few hairs from his own hair, put them on the nostrils of the deceased and observed them for a while. He found that the hair was moving slowly, and then he said to the deceased's family with confidence: "She is alive, take her home and take good care of her." !”
In Yu Tu’s later years, the Yellow Emperor sent Cangjie, Lei Gong, and Qi Bo to spend a long time sorting out Yu Tu’s medical skills and compiling them into a volume. However, they didn’t have time yet. After it was announced to the public, Cangjie passed away. Later, Yu Zhi, Yu Tu's son, brought the book back and gave it to his father for revision. Unfortunately, the whole family was hit by a fire. The house, medical books, and the whole family of Yu Fu and Yu Zhi were reduced to ashes. This may be the reason why the "Huangdi Wai Jing" was lost and has not been found so far!
"Hanshu·Yiwenzhi" records that among the eleven medical classics, only "Huangdi Neijing" remains. The reason remains to be investigated. Among them, the lost ones include the Huangdi Foreign Canon. Judging from the "Seven Classics" recorded in "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi", at that time, coexisting with the "Huangdi Inner Canon" were the "Huangdi Canon", "Bian Que Inner Canon", "Bian Que Canon", and "Bai's Inner Canon". ", "Bai's Foreign Canon" and "Pan Pian". In fact, you don’t need to write so much!