Huangdi Neijing
黃帝內經 (Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor)
Illness is a disruption of the balanced flow of qi and the interaction of yin and yang and the five phases through the body's channels, so a physician's task is to restore that flow through diet, acupuncture, and regimen rather than to treat isolated symptoms.
- qi flow and yin-yang balance as the basis of health
- five-phase correspondence theory
- acupuncture channel theory in the Lingshu
- composite text honorifically attributed to the Yellow Emperor
The foundational text of Chinese medicine, transmitted in two parts: the Suwen (Basic Questions), a set of dialogues between the Yellow Emperor and his physician Qibo covering physiology, diagnosis, and the theory of yin-yang and five-phase correspondence, and the Lingshu (Spiritual Pivot), focused on acupuncture channels and needling technique. Composite in origin, drawing on medical thought stretching from the Warring States through the Han, its attribution to the mythical Yellow Emperor is honorific rather than a genuine authorship claim. The text actually read today is not the Han-era compilation itself: the Suwen survives chiefly through Wang Bing's AD 762 reorganization, which reworked Quan Yuanqi's earlier 6th century recension, restored two reputedly lost discourses, added seven new chapters on the five phases and six qi, and supplied thousands of his own commentaries, all folded into the 24-juan, 81-treatise structure still used today. It established the systematic framework, qi, yin-yang, the five phases, and the twelve channels, that has organized Chinese medical theory and practice ever since.
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