is the oldest surviving Japanese medical text. It was completed in 984 by Tamba Yasuyori (also referred in some sources as Tanba no Yasuyori) and is 30 volumes in length. The work is partly based on a Chinese medical work called Zhubing yuanhou lun (諸病源候論 General Treatise on Causes and Manifestations of All Diseases), compiled by Sui dynasty writer Chao Yuanfang.Feili Huang, Rebecca Parker, Hai Cui, Cosmetology in Chinese Medicine, PMPH-USA, 15 May 2011, p. 281 Many of the texts cited in Ishinpō have been lost in China, and have only survived to the present through their inclusion in the work. It is a national treasure of Japan.Yoshida (2001: 192)
The structural organization of the text is as follows:
Volume Subject 1 Overview 2 Acupuncture and moxibustion 3 Internal medicine 4 Dermatology 5 Otolaryngology 6 Internal medicine 7 Surgery and internal medicine 8 Internal medicine 9 Internal medicine 10 Internal medicine 11 Internal medicine 12 Internal medicine 13 Internal medicine 14 Internal medicine 15 Surgery 16 Surgery 17 Surgery 18 Surgery 19 Pharmacology 20 Pharmacology 21 Gynaecology 22 Obstetrics 23 Obstetrics 24 Obstetrics and gynaecology 25 Pediatrics 26 Health 27 Health 28 Human sexual behavior 29 Dietary health 30 Dietary health
The Ishinpō preserved more than 200 important medical documents that were all Chinese in origin and no Japanese sources. The medical knowledge in the tome covered clinical treatments that drew from the ancient Traditional Chinese medicine that included Taoist references to pharmacology. For instance, there was the inclusion of a Chinese Buddhist Sutra from the Dàzàngjīng ( Chinese Buddhist Canon) on Pregnancy, which outlined the physical developments and fetal movements. Scholars cite its similarity with a prescription from the old Chinese medical text called Taichan shu, which contained doctrines about the development of embryo and fetus as well as proper hygiene for pregnant women.
The Ishinpō is also notable for preserving some of the Taoist sexual manuals from the Han to the Tang dynasty. The twenty-eighth section of the Ishinpō contains a complete transcription of a Daoist text known as Sunü Jing (The Classic of Sunu) which is a dialogue between the Dark Maiden and the Yellow Emperor, with the former providing advice on sexual practices to the latter.
While the text is written in kanbun, Japanese terms are written to the side in Man'yōgana for plants, animals, and minerals.
A facsimile reproduction of the 1859 edition, 30 volumes in 2 hardback cases, plus a 270-page modern commentary, was issued in Tokyo in 1973.
Notes
References
Wile, Douglas. The Art of the Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics including Women’s Solo Meditation Texts. Albany: State University of New York, 1992.
External links