The Yellow Emperor's Classic: Grand Basis (Huangdi Neijing Taisu), Vol 1

I. 7 The Yuan Family

Even scholars often do not understand [the medical classics], let alone the medical practitioners of our country, who are mostly unrefined men from rural villages. They often possess only a slight knowledge of medicinal properties before hanging their potoriginal: 懸壺 (xuanhu). A traditional idiom for opening a medical practice, referring to an ancient legend of a healer who kept his medicine in a gourd pot. to seek a livelihood. It is no wonder that they use the "way of giving life" to kill people, and that Chinese medicine declines further every day.

My kinsman, the Xiaolianoriginal: 孝廉 (xiaolian). A "Filial and Incorrupt" candidate recommended for the civil service; here used as a title for Yuan Beicheng. Beicheng, formerly served at the Academy for Preserving Antiquity. There, he worked in the same hall as the instructor Yang Xingwuoriginal: 楊惺吾 (Yang Xingwu). The courtesy name of Yang Shoujing (1839–1915), a diplomat and famous bibliophile who recovered many "lost" Chinese books while stationed in Japan.. He was able to borrow and transcribe the Tang Dynasty scroll-manuscript of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Grand Basis annotated by Yang Shangshan, which Yang [Xingwu] had obtained in Japan. Beicheng spent over a decade hand-collating it, producing tens of thousands of words of critical analysis and verification.

Last year, he returned quickly from the capital to Wuchang, planning to commit the work to the knife and chiseloriginal: 剞劂 (jijue). A literary term for the tools used in woodblock printing, meaning to publish a book.. Upon hearing of this matter, I donated the funds for its publication and entrusted the task of final proofreading to the Xiaolian.

This compilation combines the Basic Questions and the Spiritual Pivot into a single work. Not only can it correct the errors in Wang Bing’s commentary on the Basic Questions, but it also provides clarity for the Spiritual Pivot. That text has long lacked a commentary, and even the most learned scholars were often unable to understand it; however, with Yang’s annotations, the meaning becomes naturally clear. In the future, once this book is widely circulated, it may allow the medical arts of China and the West to be integrated—