Classic of the Miraculous Pivot

Lingshu Jing (Classic of the Miraculous Pivot), or simply Lingshu for short, together with Su Wen (Questions of Fundamental Nature), is called Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon of Medicine, is one of the earliest medical classics in China. It was finished approximately in the Spring and Autumn (770-476BC) and Warring States (476-221BC) period. Later, with the development of medicine, it was supplemented many times. Hence, it is not the product of a single person in any single period, but is the summing-up of the experience of Chinese medicine before the Qin and Han dynasties (221BC-220AD). In the history of more than two thousand years, it remained to be the main base of the criterion of traditional Chinese medicine, although the original features of the ancient Internal Canon of Medicine have lost.

The original Lingshu Jing was in 9 volumes, containing 81 monographs, which was rich in the content and coverage: the Yin-Yang and five-element theory,functions of viscera, channels and collaterals, acupuncture and moxibustion points, pathology, symptoms, diagnosis and principles of treatment, and so on. It is an important document for the study of medicine, and also a valuable cultural heritage of China.

The current version is the "Private Preserved Old Version" contributed by Shi Song of the Southern Song Dynasty in 1155. From the time of contribution of the book by Shi Song till now, more than eight hundred years have passed, and the version printed in the Song Dynasty was lost long ago. The earliest version available now is the version of Mr. Hu's Gulin Shutang printed in the Yuan Dynasty in 1339. Now, most literature on Lingshu Jing takes the version of Zhao's Jujingtang of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) as the chief source.