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The motive for dissection and the view of the body in the yellow emperor’s inner classic (Huangdineijing)

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Abstract

Considering scarce records of dissection and the functional view of the body in East Asian Medicine, it is difficult but interesting to explore the motive for dissection in ancient times. The functional view of the body does not match well with dissection, but Huangdineijing that was compiled in the formative period of East Asian Medicine contains records probably related to dissection in two of its treatises. There are two hypotheses about the motive for dissection that are widely accepted; one is to prove the correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm and the other is to establish the standard model of body through measurements of organs. This article examined a novel hypothesis that the main motive for human body dissection was to establish the functional properties of the body upon objective anatomical data; anatomical measures were directly used to explain the circulation of qi and the digestive processes as a physiological metabolism. The purpose of anatomical dissection was to integrate physiology and anatomy as the obtained anatomical knowledge played a pivotal role in establishing the functional view of the body in East Asian Medicine.

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Notes

  1. The records related to dissection is also found in the 42th and 43th chapters of the Yellow Emperor’s Canon of 81 Difficult Issues (Huangdibashiyinanjing 黃帝八十一難經), a book that forms the foundation of East Asian Medicine’s view of the body together with Huangdineijing.

  2. here, objective data refers to such as measurement values of the body, not terminology of the body structure. The attempt to relate specific functions of the body to anatomical knowledge is a sort of combination between physiology and anatomy; it is called functional or physiological anatomy, or morphophysiology. If the functional view of the body in East Asian Medicine is established partially on the basis of anatomical knowledge, it could be said that it has the character of functional anatomy.

  3. Yamada seems to have been aware of this problem. He said that the viscera (zang, 臟) could mean the bowels (fu, 腑) in the case of Wangmangzhuan 王莽傳 in which the dissection of Wang Sunqing 王孫慶, a condemned criminal in the Han 漢 dynasty is recorded. Also, he assumed that the records of the viscera in Hunagdineijing could be the remnants of the dissection records of Wangmangzhuan (Loukas et al. 2010).

  4. A unit of measurement in ancient China; it is about 23 cm, see footnote 7.

  5. It is written “jiepou 解剖” in the original of Lingshu 靈樞 treatise 12 that means dissection in Chinese.

  6. They are Lingshu treatises 6, 14, 31, 32, 55, 56, 59, 64, 71, and 76.

  7. Weights and measures in ancient China consist of length (du, 度), volume (liang, 量) and weight (heng, 衡). In the units of length, 1 chi 尺 corresponds to 33.33 cm in the present time; 1 chi 尺 is 10 cun 寸 and 1 zhang 丈 is 10 chi 尺. In the units of volume, 1 sheng 升 corresponds to 1000 ml in the present time; 1 sheng 升 is 10 ge 合 and 1 dou 斗 is 10 sheng 升. In the units of weight, 1 jin 斤 is 500 g in the present time; 1 jin 斤 is 16 liang 兩 and 1 liang 兩 is 10 qian 錢 or 24 zhu 銖. In the table below, it shows the changes of measurement units in Chinese dynasties (Huang and Zhao 1998).

  8. In adults, 5 sacral vertebrae and 4 coccygeal vertebrae fuse to form one sacrum and one coccyx respectively (Drake et al. 2012).

  9. A unit of measurement in ancient China; it is about 2.3 m, see footnote 7.

  10. A unit of time measurement based on decimal time system in ancient China; it is about 15 min. Historically, 96, 108, and 120 ke 刻 per day were used alongside 12 double hours. Each ke is divided into 100 fen 分, and each fen is divided into 100 miao 秒.

  11. A unit of angle on the ecliptic in ancient China; there are 1008 fen 分 along which the sun makes 1 revolution in a day. For example, one constellation of the twenty-eight mansions spans 36 fen arithmetically.

  12. Number 20 is written as 25 in the original of Lingshu treatise 15; it must be a lapse of the pen because the sun moves about 1000 fen 分 during 50 revolutions.

  13. 12 different times; each chen 辰 corresponds 2 h in a day. Those were named according to the twelve earthly branches (dizhi, 地支).

  14. A unit of measurement in ancient China; it is about 0.23 cm, see footnote 7.

  15. A unit of measurement in ancient China; it corresponds 19.81 ml, see footnote 7.

  16. Liang 兩 is a unit of measurement in ancient China; it corresponds 13.92 g. 1 jin 斤 is 16 liang and 1 liang is 10 qian 錢, see footnote 7.

  17. Sheng 升 is a unit of measurement in ancient China; it corresponds 198.1 ml and 1 dou 斗 is 10 sheng, see footnote 7.

  18. Of course, there are already the small and large intestine within the category of internal organs in Huangdineijing 黃帝內經; nevertheless, the terms of “Huichang 廻腸” and “Guangchang 廣腸” are used mainly in the records related to dissection in Huangdineijing 黃帝內經, for example those of Lingshu 靈樞 treatises 14, 31, 32. Huichang 廻腸 consists of parts of the small and large intestines; Guangchang 廣腸 is a part of the large intestine.

  19. A part of “Sanjiao 三焦” that is translated as triple heater or triple energizer. Triple heater (Sanjiao, 三焦) consists of the upper, middle and lower heater.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean government (2013S1A5B6044031).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities, Kyung Hee University, 26, Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea

    Woo-Jin Jung

  2. Department of Korean Medical Classics, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 26, Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea

    Yousang Baik & Eunkyung Yoon

  3. Department of Anatomy, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 26, Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea

    Hyuk-Sang Jung

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Jung, WJ., Baik, Y., Yoon, E. et al. The motive for dissection and the view of the body in the yellow emperor’s inner classic (Huangdineijing). Orient Pharm Exp Med 18, 21–31 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13596-018-0299-9

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