The Neijing Tu () is a

Daoist Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

"inner landscape" diagram of the human body illustrating ''

Neidan Neidan, or internal alchemy (), is an array of esoteric doctrines and physical, mental, and spiritual practices that Taoist initiates use to prolong life and create an immortal spiritual body that would survive after death. Also known as Jindan ...

'' ,

Wu Xing Wuxing may refer to: Places in China Counties and districts * Huzhou, formerly Wuxing County, Zhejiang, China * Wuxing District (吴兴区), central district of Huzhou Subdistricts (五星街道) * Wuxing Subdistrict, Mudanjiang, in Dong'an Dis ...

Yin and Yang Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary an ...

, and

Chinese mythology Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature throughout the area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology encompasses a diverse array of myths derived from regional and cultural tradit ...

Title

The name ''Neijing tu'' combines , , and . This title, comparable with , 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. English translations of ''Neijing tu'' include: *"Diagram of the Internal Texture of Man" *"Diagram of the Inner Scripture" *"Chart of Inner Passageways" *"Diagram of Internal Pathways" *"Chart of the Inner Warp" or "Chart of the Inner Landscape" has an alternate writing of , using as a

variant Chinese character Chinese characters may have several variant forms—visually distinct glyphs that represent the same underlying meaning and pronunciation. Variants of a given character are ''allographs'' of one another, and many are directly analogous to allog ...

for .

History

While the original ''Neijing tu'' provenance is unclear, it probably dates from the 19th century. All received copies derive from an engraved

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

dated 1886 in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

White Cloud Temple The White Cloud Temple, also known as Baiyun Temple or the Abbey or Monastery of the White Clouds, is a Taoist temple and monastery located in Beijing, China. It is one of "The Three Great Ancestral Courts" of the Quanzhen School of Taoism and ...

that records how based it on an old silk scroll discovered in a library on

Mount Song Mount Song (, "lofty mountain") is an isolated mountain range in north central China's Henan Province, along the southern bank of the Yellow River. It is known in literary and folk tradition as the central mountain of the Five Great Mountains of ...

(in

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

). In addition, a

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

colored scroll ''Neijing tu'' was painted at the library in the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is the Chinese Empire, imperial Chinese palace, palace complex in the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasty L ...

. The ''Neijing Tu'' was the precursor for the . The earliest anatomical diagrams with Daoist ''Neidan'' symbolism are attributed to (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

10th century) and conserved in the 1250 CE .

The ''Neijing tu'' laterally depicts a human body (resembling either meditator or

fetus A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic development, embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Pren ...

) as a microcosm of nature – an "inner landscape" with mountains, rivers, paths, forests, and stars.

Joseph Needham Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, initia ...

coins the term "microsomography" and describes the ''Neijing tu'' as "much more fanciful and poetical" than previous Daoist illustrations. The textual descriptions include names of '' zangfu'' organs, two poems attributed to (born ca. 798 CE, one of the

Eight Immortals The Eight Immortals () are a group of legendary ''Xian (Taoism), xian (immortals)'' in Chinese mythology. Each immortal's power can be transferred to a vessel () that can bestow life or destroy evil. Together, these eight vessels are called the ...

), and quotations from the . 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. The head shows

Kunlun Mountains The Kunlun Mountains constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending for more than . In the broadest sense, the chain forms the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau south of the Tarim Basin. Located in Western China, the Kun ...

, upper ''

dantian Dantian is a concept in traditional Chinese medicine loosely translated as "elixir field", "sea of '' qi''", or simply "energy center." Dantian are the "''qi'' focus flow centers," important focal points for meditative and exercise techniques s ...

'' "cinnabar field",

Laozi Laozi (), also romanized as Lao Tzu #Name, among other ways, was a semi-legendary Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosopher and author of the ''Tao Te Ching'' (''Laozi''), one of the foundational texts of Taoism alongside the ''Zhuangzi (book) ...

Bodhidharma Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and is regarded as its first Chinese Lineage (Buddhism), patriarch. ...

, 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.

Chinese constellation Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial sphere into asterisms or constellations, known as "officials" ( Chinese ''xīng guān''). The Chinese asterisms are generally smaller than the constellations of Hellenisti ...

s figure prominently. The heart depicts holding the . Together with his archetypal lover (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"(tr. Needham 1983:116) referring to the

Elixir of life The elixir of life (Medieval Latin: ' ), also known as elixir of immortality, is a potion that supposedly grants the drinker Immortality, eternal life and/or eternal youth. This elixir was also said to Panacea (medicine), cure all diseases. Alch ...

. At base of the spine are treadmill

waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blade ...

s (an early Chinese invention) being run by two children representing yin and yang.

References

*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 Livia (Knaul) Kohn (born March 14, 1956) is an emeritus professor of Religion and East Asian Studies at Boston University, specializing in studies of Taoism (or Daoism). Kohn completed her Ph.D. at Bonn University in 1980. She has held academic ...

. 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)

''Neijing tu'' image (obsolete link)

''Neijing tu'' color image

Qigong and ''Neijing tu'' {{in lang, zh
Neijing Tu
clickable image details, The Art Institute of Chicago

Universal Tao Center

DaMo Qigong

from the Golden Elixir website Chinese culture Qigong Taoist art Taoist texts 19th-century Taoism

Title

History

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See also

References

External links