Neijing Tu
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The Neijing Tu (Template:Zh) is a Daoist "inner landscape" diagram of the human body illustrating Neidan 'internal alchemy', Wu Xing, Yin and Yang, and Chinese mythology.
Title
The name Neijing tu combines Template:Zhi, Template:Zhi, and Template:Zhi. This title, comparable with Template:Zhi, is generally interpreted as a "chart" or "diagram" of "inner" "meridians" or "channels" of Traditional Chinese medicine for circulating qi in neidan preventative and observational practices.[1]
English translations of Neijing tu include:
- "Diagram of the Internal Texture of Man" [2]
- "Diagram of the Inner Scripture" [3]
- "Chart of Inner Passageways" [4]
- "Diagram of Internal Pathways" [5]
- "Chart of the Inner Warp" or "Chart of the Inner Landscape" [6]
Template:Zhi has an alternate writing of Template:Zhi,[7] using Template:Zhi as a variant Chinese character for Template:Zhi.
History
While the original Neijing tu provenance is unclear, it probably dates from the 19th century.[8] All received copies derive from an engraved stele dated 1886 in Beijing's White Cloud Temple Script error: No such module "Lang". that records how Template:Zhi based it on an old silk scroll discovered in a library on Mount Song (in Henan). In addition, a Qing Dynasty colored scroll Neijing tu was painted at the Template:Zhi library in the Forbidden City.[9]
The Neijing Tu was the precursor for the Template:Zhi. The earliest anatomical diagrams with Daoist Neidan symbolism are attributed to Template:Zhi (fl. 10th century) and conserved in the 1250 CE Template:Zhi.[10]
Contents
The Neijing tu laterally depicts a human body (resembling either meditator or fetus) as a microcosm of nature – an "inner landscape" with mountains, rivers, paths, forests, and stars.[11] Joseph Needham coins the term "microsomography" and describes the Neijing tu as "much more fanciful and poetical" than previous Daoist illustrations.[12]
The textual descriptions include names of zangfu organs, two poems attributed to Template:Zhi (born ca. 798 CE, one of the Eight Immortals), and quotations from the Template:Zhi.
The Neijing image of a mountain with crags on the skull and spinal column elaborates upon the "body-as-mountain" metaphor, first recorded in 1227 CE.[13] The head shows Kunlun Mountains, upper dantian "cinnabar field", Laozi, Bodhidharma, and two circles for the eyes (labelled "sun" and "moon"). The flanking poem explains.
The white-headed old man's eyebrows hang down to earth;
The blue-eyed foreign monk's arms support heaven.
If you aspire to this mysticism;
You will acquire its secret.[14]
Chinese constellations figure prominently. The heart depicts Template:Zhi holding the Template:Zhi. Together with his archetypal lover Template:Zhi (see Qi Xi), they propel qi up to the tracheal Twelve-Storied Pagoda. The liver and gall bladder are a forest, the stomach is a granary, and the intestines caption reads "the iron ox ploughs the field where coins of gold are sown"[15] referring to the Elixir of life. At base of the spine are treadmill waterwheels (an early Chinese invention) being run by two children representing yin and yang.
See also
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hill, Sandra (1997). Reclaiming the Wisdom of the Body. Constable. ISBN 9780094773400.
- ^ (Needham 1983:114)
- ^ (Ching 1997:188)
- ^ (Despeux and Kohn 2003:184)
- ^ (Komjathy 2004:40)
- ^ (Despeux 2008:767)
- ^ (Kohn 2000:499, 521)
- ^ (Komjathy 2004:11)
- ^ (Despeux 2008:767)
- ^ (Kohn 2000:521)
- ^ (Schipper 1993:100–112)
- ^ (Needham 1983:114)
- ^ (Despeux and Kohn 2003:185)
- ^ (tr. Wang 1992:145)
- ^ (tr. Needham 1983:116)
- Ching, Julia. 1997. Mysticism and Kingship in China: The Heart of Chinese Wisdom. Cambridge University Press.
- Despeux, Catherine. 2008. "Neijing tu and Xiuzhen tu", in The Encyclopedia of Taoism, ed. Fabrizio Pregadio, Routledge, 767–771.
- Despeux, Catherine and Livia Kohn. 2003. Women in Daoism. Three Pines Press.
- Needham, Joseph. 1983. Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology; Part 5, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Physiological Alchemy. Cambridge University Press.
- Kohn, Livia, ed. 2000. Daoism Handbook. Brill.
- Komjathy, Louis. 2004. Daoist Texts in Translation (Internet Archive copy).
- Schipper, Kristofer M. 1993. The Taoist Body. University of California Press.
- Wang, David Teh-Yu. 1992. "Nei Jing Tu, a Daoist Diagram of the Internal Circulation of Man," The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 49–50:141–158.
External links
- Diagram of the Inner Channels (Neiching T'u) translation of the text (Internet Archive copy)
- 內經圖, Bilingual (Chinese-English) text of Neijing tu with word-by-word translation and transcription (7 MB PDF file)
- 內經圖, Neijing tu image (obsolete link)
- 內經圖, Neijing tu color image
- 氣功與內經圖, Qigong and Neijing tu Template:In lang
- Neijing Tu, clickable image details, The Art Institute of Chicago
- Explanation of the Inner Alchemy Chart, Universal Tao Center
- Inner Landscape of Human's Body/Nei Jing Tu, DaMo Qigong
- Neijing tu (Chart of the Inner Warp), from the Golden Elixir website
