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Huandi's Internal Medicine
was written in 200 B.C. It has two parts: Su Wen
(Plain Questions) and Ling Shu (Miraculous Pivot).
Ling Shu was lost for over one thousand years after it
was first published; so for many generations, doctors who
studied Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) only knew Su
Wen, but not Ling Shu.
Su Wen (Plain Questions)
clearly and completely explains how the philosophy of Yin/Yang
and the Five Elements are applied in every aspect of TCM,
including prevention, diagnosis, principles of treatment, some
clinical diseases, predictions, and etc. It is the source
for all the other classic books of TCM and has guided the
practice of TCM up to the present day.
Ling Shu,
the other part of Huangdi’s Internal Medicine,
contains detailed discussions of acupuncture from physiology to
pathology; from differentiation to treatment, from duration of
treatment to prediction, from meridians to points, and from
different acupuncture techniques to acupuncture malpractice.
Thus, it is known as Huangdi’s Canon of Acupuncture.
It is clear that Ling Shu is the continuation of
Su Wen’s theories in clinical treatment because
acupuncture was the main treatment method at that time.
The philosophy and theories of Su Wen are incorporated
and carried out in every stage of acupuncture practice in
Ling Shu. The two parts of Huangdi’s Internal
Medicine
are a masterpiece combining the theory and the practice of TCM.
After Ling Shu, there were two famous classic books of
acupuncture. One of them is known as Nanjing
(Difficult Questions), and the other one is
Acupuncture Classic A&B, written in 1092. The main
content of these two books is excerpted from Huangdi’s
Internal Medicine. However, these two books have
created confusions because they added some new information.
Unfortunately, later generations of acupuncturists only
focused on these two books, ignoring Ling Shu.
The misdirection of acupuncture practice had continued from that
time on.
Other acupuncture classics, written by practitioners of previous
generations, quoted very little from Ling Shu at the
beginning of each book, then most presented their own
experiences in acupuncture for the rest of the book. In these
books, the philosophy and theory of Huangdi’s Internal
Medicine was almost totally lost.
The importance of Ling Shu is ignored even today!
There is no acupuncture school at the present time that
considers this text as the primary teaching text. Though
some theories from Ling Shu are taught, they are never
complete. This results in the poor practice of
acupuncture today and also brings much confusion to the study of
acupuncture.
It is sad to say that there has been no more practice of
acupuncture from Ling Shu for a long time. |
