The Huangdi Neijing — The Earliest Theoretical Classic of Chinese Medicine

The Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon) is one of the four great classical works of traditional Chinese medicine (alongside the Shang Han Lun, Jin Kui Yao Lue, and Wen Bing Tiao Bian). It is also the first monumental transmitted work to bear the name of the progenitor of the Chinese nation, the "Yellow Emperor," and it is the earliest extant medical classic in the treasure house of Chinese medicine. It is a medical magnum opus that studies human physiology, pathology, diagnostics, therapeutic principles, and pharmacology. In terms of theory, it established the doctrines of "yin-yang and the five elements," "pulse theory," "visceral manifestation theory," "meridian and collateral theory," "disease cause theory," "disease mechanism theory," "disease patterns," "diagnostic methods," "treatment principles," as well as "health preservation" and "circuit qi theory." Its medical theories were established on the foundation of ancient Chinese philosophy and reflect the dialectical thought of ancient Chinese naive materialism.

The Huangdi Neijing was compiled during the Warring States period and is the earliest extant monograph on Chinese medical theory in China. It synthesized the medical experience and academic theories of the Spring and Autumn through Warring States periods, and absorbed knowledge from astronomy, calendrical science, biology, geography, anthropology, and psychology prior to the Qin and Han dynasties. Using the thought of plain materialism and dialectics, it provided a relatively comprehensive exposition of human anatomy, physiology, and pathology, as well as the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, thereby establishing the unique theoretical system of Chinese medicine and becoming the theoretical foundation and source for the development of Chinese medicine and pharmacy.

Among the thirteen established formulas recorded in the earliest extant work on Chinese medicine, the Huangdi Neijing, ten are ready-made Chinese patent medicines, with dosage forms including pills, powders, wines, and elixirs.

The Huangdi Neijing is a foundational theoretical classic of early Chinese medicine. It is commonly abbreviated as the Neijing. It was first recorded in Liu Xin's Qi Lue (Seven Summaries) and Ban Gu's Hanshu · Yiwen Zhi (History of the Former Han: Treatise on Literature), originally in 18 fascicles. The medical sage Zhang Zhongjing "compiled and employed the Suwen, the Nine Fascicles, and the Eighty-One Difficulties ... to write the Shang Han Za Bing Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases)." When the Jin dynasty scholar Huangfu Mi compiled the Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion), he stated: "Now there is the Zhen Jing (Needling Classic) in nine fascicles and the Suwen in nine fascicles — twice nine, eighteen fascicles — that is the Neijing." The Nine Fascicles was called the Lingshu (Spiritual Pivot) by Wang Bing during the Tang dynasty. By the Song dynasty, Shi Song presented his family's collection of the Lingshu Jing and had it printed and published. From this, it can be seen that the Nine Fascicles, the Zhen Jing, and the Lingshu are actually multiple names for a single text. After the Song dynasty, the Suwen and the Lingshu came to form the two major components of the Huangdi Neijing.