Did Ling Shu write the Nei Jing Su Wen?

[KuroShiro]

Got the book The Root of Chinese Qigong by Yang, Jwing-Ming and was flicking through its pages when I read this on page 291:

 

"Ling Shu: A well-known Chinese physician who wrote a medical book called: Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen (The Yellow Emperor's Classic) during the Han dynasty, circa 100-300 B.C."

 

Is this true or even considered a possibility?

[Aetherous]

It's not accurate. Ling Shu is a modern name for the second half of the Nei Jing, which was originally called the Zhen Jing (Needle Classic). Su Wen (Basic Questions) is the first half. These books originated in the Han dynasty, but the modern version is from Song dynasty research and reconstructions.

The only content that we can be absolutely sure is from the Han dynasty are the portions that are quoted in the Systematic Classic, which are still in the modern Nei Jing.

Unschuld probably has the best history of the Nei Jing in his translations of it. From what I recall, it wasn't an individual who wrote it originally...it was a group of scholars who collected disparate medical ideas, and put them in a uniquely organized format.

[KuroShiro]

Aetherous, thanks for your reply.

 

I'm currently reading Van Nghi et.al. translation of the Ling Shu and I've also read about it and nowhere it has been mentioned that it could be the name of the Nei Jing writer.

 

I guess it's no more Dr. Yang books for me.

 

Good to know that about Unschuld's Su Wen translation.

[Walker]

Aetherous pretty much hit the nail on the head. There might well have been a doctor somewhere along the lines in Chinese history who took the title of the Lingshu as his sobriquet (or hers, though speaking honestly, women were almost never recorded in the annals of Chinese medicine history, except as patients), which could have confused Yang.