"The essential reference for ancient Chinese medicine."—Donald Harper, University of Chicago

The Ling Shu, also known as the Ling Shu Jing, is part of a unique and seminal trilogy of ancient Chinese medicine, together with the Su Wen and Nan Jing. It constitutes the foundation of a two-thousand-year healing tradition that remains active to this day. Its therapeutic approach is based on a purely secular science of nature, with natural laws serving as guidelines for human behavior and medical treatment. No other text offers such broad insights into the thinking and manifest action of the authors of the time. Following an introduction, this volume contains the full original Chinese text of the Ling Shu, an English translation of all eighty-one chapters, and notes on difficult-to-grasp passages and possible changes in the text over time on the basis of Chinese primary and secondary literature of the past two thousand years and translator Paul Unschuld’s own work. The Ling Shu reveals itself as a completely rational work, and, in many of its statements, a surprisingly modern one. It will provide the foundation for comparisons with the nearly contemporaneous Corpus Hippocraticum of ancient Europe and today’s iterations of traditional Chinese Medicine as well.

The Ling Shu, considered to be the Canon of Acupuncture, is the second part of the Huang Di Nei Jing, The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic. These conversations about heaven, man, and earth and their dynamic relationships are attributed to the Yellow Emperor circa 2600 B.C. and his ministers. The first part is called the Su Wen, Simple Questions. The second part, the Ling Shu, is translated here by Wu Jing-Nuan in its context as the first known treatise about acupuncture with its associated medical procedures and for its philosophical beauty. The title itself expresses a world vision and reality where material and structure are secondary to the living energy of Ling Shu, the Spiritual Pivot.

This newly revised and updated edition of Paul U. Unschuld’s original 1986 groundbreaking translation reflects the latest philological, methodological, and sinological standards of the past thirty years. The Nan Jing was compiled in China during the first century C.E., marking both an apex and a conclusion to the initial development stages of Chinese medicine. Based on the doctrines of the Five Phases and yinyang, the Nan Jing covers all aspects of theoretical and practical health care in an unusually systematic fashion. Most important is its innovative discussion of pulse diagnosis and needle treatment. This new edition also includes selected commentaries by twenty Chinese and Japanese authors from the past seventeen centuries. The commentaries provide insights into the processes of reception and transmission of ancient Chinese concepts from the Han era to the present time. Together with the Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen and the Huang Di Nei Jing Ling Shu, this new translation of the Nan Jing constitutes a trilogy of writings offering scholars and practitioners today unprecedented insights into the beginnings of a two-millennium tradition of what was a revolutionary understanding of human physiology and pathology.

The Neijing is one of the most important classics of Taoism, as well as the highest authority on traditional Chinese medicine. Its authorship is attributed to the great Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor, who reigned during the third millennium BCE. This new translation consists of the eighty-one chapters of the section of the Neijing known as the Suwen, or "Questions of Organic and Fundamental Nature." (The other section, called the Lingshu, is a technical book on acupuncture and is not included here.) Written in the form of a discourse between Huang Di and his ministers, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine contains a wealth of knowledge, including etiology, physiology, diagnosis, therapy, and prevention of disease, as well as in-depth investigation of such diverse subjects as ethics, psychology, and cosmology. All of these subjects are discussed in a holistic context that says life is not fragmented, as in the model provided by modern science, but rather that all the pieces make up an interconnected whole. By revealing the natural laws of this holistic universe, the book offers much practical advice on how to promote a long, happy, and healthy life. The original text of the Neijing presents broad concepts and is often brief with details. The translator's elucidations and interpretations, incorporated into the translation, help not only to clarify the meaning of the text but also to make it a highly readable narrative for students—as well as for everyone curious about the underlying principles of Chinese medicine.

"This complete annotated translation of the Su Wen is exemplary in every respect. The translation will stimulate new directions in research while providing the first accurate guide to the basic concepts of traditional Chinese medicine for a wider readership."—Donald Harper, The University of Chicago