Introduction to the Grand Basis of the Inner Canon

Page Four

The preface to the Basic Questions Suwen: one of the two core texts of the Huangdi Neijing, or Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor states that Yang Shangshan of the Sui dynasty compiled the Grand Basis Original: Taisu. Furthermore, according to Li Lian’s History of Medicine and Xu Chunfu’s Compendium of Medicine, Yang Shangshan served as a Court Physician Taiyi Shiyu: an official medical post in the imperial court during the Daye era 605–618 CE of the Sui Dynasty, and that he adapted the Inner Canon into the Grand Basis. However, when looking at the "Records of the Sui Dynasty" Sui Zhi: the bibliographic record within the official History of the Sui Dynasty, this book is not listed.

In Mr. Yang’s Record of Searching for Books in Japan Referring to Yang Shoujing (1839–1915), a famous diplomat and bibliophile who recovered many "lost" Chinese texts from Japanese libraries, it is noted that in the surviving volumes of this manuscript, the character bing 丙 was changed to jing 景 to observe the naming taboo bihui: the practice of avoiding characters found in an emperor’s personal name to show respect of the Tang Emperor Taizu Li Bing, the father of the Tang founder, whose name made the character "Bing" sacred. Based on this, he concluded that Yang was a man of the Tang dynasty.

Furthermore, according to the Six Statutes of the Tang, the Sui dynasty did not have the official post of "Scholar of the Crown Prince's Household" Taizi Wenxue; this position was first established during the Xianqing era 656–661 CE of the Tang. Since Yang Shangshan’s own notes in this commissioned commentary refer to himself by this title, he must have lived during or after the Xianqing era.

I have yet another piece of evidence that sufficiently proves he was a man of the Tang: upon examining Yang’s commentary in this book, whenever he quotes the words of Laozi the legendary founder of Daoism, he refers to him as "Emperor Xuanyuan" Original: Xuanyuan Huangdi. According to the "Imperial Annals" of both the Old and New Books of Tang, the title of "Emperor Xuanyuan" was posthumously granted to Laozi in the second month of the first year of the Qianfeng era 666 CE under Emperor Gaozong. Therefore, there is no longer any room for doubt that Yang was a man of the Tang dynasty. Additionally, the time elapsed between the Sui Daye era and the Tang Qianfeng era was only...