From 2012 to 2013, a large number of simple stalks were unearthed in a Western Han cemetery near Laoguan Mountain, Tianhui Town, Jinniu District, Chengdu, known in academic circles as "Tianhui Medical Jane", which is the long-lost books of the Bian Que School. Supporting it, there is also a complete meridian lacquer man, which is the earliest and most complete human meridian medical model found in the mainland so far. Dr. Li Yongming of the American Society of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture said that whether the "meridians" in Chinese medicine have a scientific basis is a frontier issue in modern scientific research, and the newly unearthed Tianhui Medical Jane and Meridian Lacquer People will provide an important advancement for this topic.
Back in July 2012, next to the construction site of Chengdu Metro Line 3, a burial site from the early Western Han Dynasty was discovered: the "Old Guanshan Han Tomb". During the excavation, the archaeological team found that the area around the chamber was completely covered with green paste mud. However, the Chengdu Plain does not produce such clay. This kind of soil is extremely sticky, can seal and protect tombs well, and is mostly found in Chu tombs. Soon, a lacquer case with the word "Jing" appeared in tomb No. 1, and a large number of official documents were unearthed. According to the records of the "Records of History" and the "Book of Han", after the unification of Qin, the noble Jing clan of the Chu state was moved to Guanzhong and a branch of the Jing clan in the early Han Dynasty moved to Shu. Therefore, the owner of tomb No. 1 is likely to be the descendant of the nobles of the Chu state who traveled to Chengdu in the early Han dynasty.
Tomb No. 1 has a lacquer case with the word "Jing"
Tomb 2 was identified as a female tomb. Professor Dong Shan of the Department of Chinese of Peking University said that a seal "Wan Di Nu" was unearthed in tomb No. 2, "Di Nu" is very suitable for female names, which should be the private name of the tomb owner, in addition, the clay pots in the tomb have the word "Wan" sealed in clay, which further confirms that the owner of the tomb should be "Wan". It is worth mentioning that there is a well-preserved model of the Shu brocade loom in the tomb, complete with scaled-down weaver figurines. Professor Dong Shan's interpretation of the characters on the figurines are the personal names "Changli" and "毐" (ǎi). According to this speculation, Wan was probably responsible for managing Shujin weaving during his lifetime, and there were several "migrant workers" under Chang Li and Yi.
Cultural relics related to Tomb No. 2 (private name seals, clay pots, loom models)
Scene of the excavation of Tomb No. 2
Tomb No. 3 is the highlight of the show, unearthed meridian lacquer, a large number of bamboo simplifications, and iron pestles for grinding medicine. These objects imply that the owner of the tomb was supposed to be a doctor. Professor Dong Shan pointed out that the lacquerware in tomb No. 3 has the character "bow" in the Zhushu book, which may be the doctor's clan, but on the other hand, the inscription on this lacquerware may be the owner of the vessel or the maker of the artifact, so it is not completely certain.
Schematic diagram of the part of tomb No. 3, 44 meridian lacquer people, 121 days of medical Jian, 118 iron pestle mortar
In short, the owners of this cemetery may have managed the government, textile industry, and medical industry in Chengdu two thousand years ago, and they were already high-ranking personnel at that time, and they were proper Chengdu "white-collar workers". So, what kind of mystery will this doctor of the Han Dynasty tell us about 2,000 years ago?
In TCM practice, especially acupuncture, it is necessary to accurately locate the shù (scientific name for "acupuncture point"), so in teaching, it is often necessary to use mannequins to demonstrate the location of acupoints. According to general research on the history of Chinese medicine, the earliest acupuncture bronze man was cast by the only Hanlin medical official Wang on the order of Emperor Renzong of Song in the fourth year of the Tiansheng of the Northern Song Dynasty (1026). And the emergence of this meridian lacquer man pushed the tradition of using meridian point mannequins in Chinese medicine for a thousand years.
Infrared imaging on the left and visible light imaging on the right
Infrared imaging on the left and visible light imaging on the right
Professor Dong Shan pointed out that through careful observation of lacquer people, it can be found that the production, portrayal and labeling of lacquer people are specially completed by different people. At present, it has been found that there are four colors of black, white, yellow and red on lacquer people, but it cannot be ruled out that there is a fifth cyan-green, corresponding to the saying of "five-color veins" in traditional Chinese medicine, but because cyan-green is the most difficult to preserve, it is often the most difficult to find. These different colors represent the five colors of yin and yang of the veins.
In addition, the most valuable thing is that many acupoints are also marked with text. According to Professor Dong Shan's research, the inscription on the lacquer person has a total of 20 characters, of which the most obvious is the five characters of "heart, lung, liver, stomach and kidney" on the back. In addition, "stream" is marked at the elbow fossa and popliteal fossa, "valley" is marked on the crotch, and "armpit" is marked in the armpit, which are the largest and most important joints of the human body.
Inscription on the back of the lacquer man
These inscriptions play an important role in judging the nature of the lacquer man. According to the recollection of Yang Yongpeng, an archaeologist of the archaeological team, when he was cleaning up stagnant water in tomb No. 3, he suddenly found an unusually delicate wooden figure in the water. And just a few days ago, he happened to read the excavation report of the Han tomb of Shuangbao Mountain in Mianyang a few years ago, and there was a damaged meridian wooden figure that impressed him. Soon he found the "heart, lungs, liver, stomach and kidney" on his back, and immediately shouted, "There is a meridian meridian figure here!" "Everyone immediately gathered around. The team members realized that they had really dug up a treasure!
Professor Dong Shan said that the "armpit" in the inscription can even be used to correct a mistake in ancient books that has been passed down for 2,000 years. In the ancient texts of traditional Chinese medicine, there is a "yuan armpit", which is incompatible with many other acupuncture points named after "so-and-so yuan" ("Taiyuan", "Qingling yuan"). After the discovery of this lacquer man, it can be concluded that the "armpit" in the literature is the mistake of the "armpit" in the copy.
Right next to the lacquer, there is also a pile of pitch-black, noodle-like things, which are bamboo Jane that have been soaked in water for two thousand years. After being sorted out by researchers, it was found that the word "敝西" was written in it. These two characters are the way "Bian Que" was written in the Western Han Dynasty. Professor Liu Changhua of Chengdu University of Chinese Medicine explained that the ancient divine doctor "Bian Que" (circa 407 BC-310 BC) lived during the Warring States period and his real name was Qin Yue people. "Bian Que" was a nickname given to him by the legendary Divine Doctor Bian Que from the Yellow Emperor era. There was a school of Canggong in the Shandong generation of the Han Dynasty, inherited from Bian Que, and Sima Qian put them together when he wrote the "Shiji" and wrote the "Bian Que Cang Gong Lie". It is likely that the Tianhui Medical Jane was brought to Sichuan by the Canggong school from Shandong and has been lost for two thousand years. It records many ancient remedies, such as a "cold and hot cough mash" medical prescription, which specializes in treating long-term cough, which still has great practical value in our day.
Freshly unearthed bamboo simplification
"Tianhui Medical Jane" has a total of more than 900 bamboo tablets, a total of 8 medical books, and was officially sorted out and published at the end of last year. Among the 8 medical books, the most closely related to the meridian paint person is the "Pulse Book". Dr. Li Yongming believes that the "Tianhui Medical Briefing" and the meridian lacquer man reveal the transformation of ancient Chinese medicine theory from the eleventh vein to the twelve veins, reflecting the anatomical basis of the early meridian theory.
Fragment of Tianhui Medical Jian's "Pulse Book" The upper right corner is "敝 (bian) Xi (Magpie)"
In traditional Chinese medicine theory, the human body has a total of twelve meridians, which are responsible for running qi and blood and communicating with each other. However, in the seventies and eighties of the last century, the ancient medical books "Foot and Arm Eleven Pulse Moxibustion Sutra" and "Yin and Yang Eleven Pulse Moxibustion Sutra" unearthed in the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province and the Zhangjiashan Han Tomb in Jiangling, Hubei Province, only had eleven meridians in the division of human meridians, missing the "Hand Yin Pericardial Sutra" located in the middle of the forearm in later Chinese medicine. The question of how to develop the "twelfth meridian" in ancient times has always plagued the TCM community.
In the "Book of Pulses" unearthed this time, the ancient twelve veins system appeared for the first time. This extra vein called the "Pulse Book of the Heart Lord" is marked with a white line in the middle of the inner side of the meridian lacquer person's upper limb. Therefore, researchers unanimously believe that the "Tianhui Medical Brief" is the representative of the important turning stage of the development of ancient Chinese medicine from eleven veins to twelve veins. Li Yongming believes that the missing Yin Pericardial Meridian in early theories is not an accidental phenomenon. According to his restoration of the bamboo order, the vein of the heart lord is the last vein recorded in the Book of Pulses.
A study of the median anterior artery of the forearm was reported
Li Yongming cited the latest research by scientists in Australia and other countries to prove that more and more people in humans are having a new median forearm artery in addition to the two most common radial and ulnar arteries. Li Yongming said that everyone has a median artery in the forearm in infancy, but most of them atrophy in adulthood, and only 10 to 30 percent of people will retain this artery. Therefore, the transformation of the eleventh pulse to the twelve veins is likely to be based on the accumulation of clinical pulse diagnosis practice, the ancients discovered some of the remaining median arteries in the human body, so they joined the meridian system and named it "Hand Yin Pericardial Meridian". This explanation is also more convincing than some scholars believe that the mere purpose of making up the number 12 is also more convincing.
Left median orthostatic artery
In addition, Li Yongming also believes that according to the distinction between yin and yang veins in Jian Wei medical books: emphasizing that the yang veins start or stop at the head, and the yin veins start or end in the chest and abdomen; The yang vein is mainly caused by nerve, muscle, bone lesions and other pain symptoms, and the yin pulse is mainly caused by angina pectoris and internal organ necrosis. There is evidence that the yin pulse has a pulse and the yang pulse has no pulse, etc., and the hypothesis that "the yin pulse is an artery, and the yang pulse is like a nerve" is proposed. This is an important guess about the origin of the meridian theory of Chinese medicine. However, Li Yongming said that this hypothesis needs to be tested by more unearthed materials.
In short, the research on the meridian lacquer man and the "Tianhui Medical Jane" has just entered the fast lane. I believe that there will be more wonderful and breakthrough research in the future. Now in the Chengdu Museum, the 14-centimeter-long meridian lacquer man has become the smallest treasure of the museum, telling visitors the mysteries of traditional Chinese medicine more than 2,000 years ago.
From September 16 to December 12, 2021, the Chengdu Museum held a special exhibition "Discovering the Beauty of Traditional Chinese Medicine – Cultural Relics of Traditional Chinese Medicine". However, at that time, due to the impact of the epidemic, many people could not see the true face of Qi Ren. Fortunately, the meridian lacquer has now been transferred to the permanent exhibition "Huazhongjin Official City" on the second floor of the Chengdu Museum, and some bamboo sketches of "Tianhui Medical Jane" are also exhibited next to it. During the Chengdu Universiade (July 28 – August 14, 2023), the Chengdu Museum is open all week from Monday to Sunday. The rest of the day is closed on Mondays.
Opening hours: Sunday to Thursday 9:00-18:30 (last admission at 18:00); Friday and Saturday 9:00-20:30 (Last admission 20:00). The Chengdu Museum has implemented a capacity limit of 20,000 people per day, and reservations are required. Daily 10:00-12:00 14:00-16:00 is the peak of the exhibition, it is recommended to visit at the wrong peak.
Reservation method: Pay attention to the "Chengdu Museum" WeChat public account - "Activities" - "Ticket Reservation" - "Audience Reservation".
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Tianhui Medical Jane Finishing Group: "Tianhui Medical Jane", Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2022.
Zhang Lei: "Preliminary Study on the Problems of Acupoints Seen in the Cultural Relics of the Han Tomb of Laoguanshan Mountain", Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine Literature, No. 1, 2021.
Image | River Night
Typesetting | Xiao Xie
Design | Zi Tong