Quiz 1
All questions require less than one paragraph response.
transmission of the the Nèijīng (黃帝内經) began with ideas seeded in roughly the 3rd century BCE (pre-Han dynasty) through oral transmission before it was written (authored by multiple individuals), and passed through transmission via hand-copying, introducing many opportunities for errors. with the original lost, the modern version is roughly 1000 years old. transmission continues through the levels/layers of transmission via translation from Classical Chinese to Modern Standardized Chinese and/or English, and then transmitted from the text through the interpretation of our mentors/instructors. without training in Classical Chinese translation, clinicians are reliant on these layers of transmission in understanding and applying the theories and clinical experiences that are the “fountainhead” of modern TCM.
referring to the Nèijīng (黃帝内經) as a “book” is misleading: (1) the original no longer exists — what we know in modern times as the Nèijīng is extrapolated from quotations in other texts, and is divided into two collections: the Sùwèn (素問, Basic Questions) and the Língshū (靈樞, Spiritual Pivot); (2) while a work of literate, professional medicine, the theories and clinical experiences of the Nèijīng are not written for ease of clinician comprehension.
more accurately and accumulation of related medical writing; not coherent; diverse text; written by many authors
the Nèijīng (黃帝内經) was written in the Han dynasty, somewhere between ~200 BCE to 200 CE, with authors unknown.
the Nèijīng (黃帝内經) was written in Classical Chinese (distinct writing system).
the Jiǎyǐjīng 甲乙經, written in ~250 CE, quotes from the Nèijīng. the Tàisù 太素 written in the 7th century CE contains 86% of the Nèijīng (pre-Wang Bing version of the Nèijīng). since the original Nèijīng has been lost to history, what we know of the text is extrapolated from these, and other, sources. there are areas where these two titles are distinctly different from the Wang Bing version.
Paul Unschuld + Herman Tessanau