It's really special, it's the famous acupuncture bronze statue!

This bronze statue of acupuncture and moxibustion is the world's first textbook text on acupuncture and acupuncture methods, even in the 90s, the World Health Organization, the World Health Organization, the WHO published acupuncture teaching publications, is also based on this bronze figure.

It can be seen that this bronze figure, the contribution to world medicine, and even the most important contribution of our Chinese to world medicine, can not be exaggerated, but up to now, most of the acupuncture bronze figures in our collection in China are modern copies, or semi-finished products of the Qing Dynasty, and the real genuine acupuncture bronze statues have long been lost overseas......

The technique of acupuncture and moxibustion can be said to be the magical treasure of our traditional Chinese medicine, and the "stone" in the idiom "medicine stone to help the world" often used by old Chinese medicine practitioners to describe the medical skills refers to acupuncture and moxibustion technology.

In ancient times, it was quite difficult to learn and inherit acupuncture techniques. Because the basis of acupuncture is the meridian theory, only when the acupuncture points are accurately identified, acupuncture can be effective.

However, the acupuncture points on the human body are not visible to the naked eye, and the written descriptions are relatively vague, so how can students better grasp them in medical education? So our clever ancestors invented the acupuncture bronze man to solve this problem.

In the fourth year of the Song Dynasty, that is, in 1206 AD, Song Renzong ordered the Tai Hospital to cast a simulated human body bronze model for medical students to study and test acupuncture.

In the second year, Shang Yao, a medical officer of Hanlin, was the only one to cast two bronze figures into the imperial king, known as the "Heavenly Sage Bronze Man" in history.

According to historical records, these two bronze figures are very realistic, there are wooden internal organs and bones in the body, and there are 354 small holes on the body surface, representing 354 acupuncture points in the human body.

What's even more amazing is. Mercury can be poured into the inside of the bronze figure, and if a fine needle is accurately pierced into the "acupuncture points", the mercury will flow out. Because of this peculiar function of "needle in and mercury out", every time the hospital conducts an acupuncture exam, the small holes and acupuncture points on the surface of the copper body will be sealed with yellow wax, and each candidate should follow the questions given by the teacher. Needles are applied to the bronze man. If there is mercury outflow, the exam is passed; Otherwise, it's a failure.

It can be seen that the creativity and wisdom of our ancestors!

In the following 1207, China also became the first country in the world to have a national standard for acupuncture.

Because in this year, one of the most famous medical books in the history of Chinese medicine, "The Illustrated Book of Acupuncture and Moxibustion of the Bronze Man's Acupoints" was born.

Because it was completed in the Northern Song Dynasty, it is also known as the "Heavenly Sage Needle Sutra".

This standard also created a great innovation: in addition to the text, two bronze models of acupuncture meridians were created. That is, "Song Tiansheng Acupuncture Bronze Man". This is the first time that a three-dimensional mannequin has been used to label the meridian points, so as to ensure that people have a correct understanding of the standard acupoint positioning.

After the completion of the standard text, it was engraved on the stone tablet in the traditional paper book style and the stone tablet type, and promulgated to the whole country, which shows that the government attached great importance to this standard at that time.

After the promulgation of this standard, it became the norm for acupuncture education and clinical acupuncture at that time. For example, in the Song Dynasty, acupuncture and moxibustion examination papers indicate that candidates need to answer questions according to the "Bronze Man Acupoint Acupuncture and Moxibustion Diagram Sutra", while the acupuncture and moxibustion bronze figure is used to assess the mastery of medical students and medical officials on the positioning of acupoints.

Such an ingenious design makes the Tiansheng Bronze Man a rare treasure that combines medical theory, handicraft technology and artistic inspiration. Naturally, it was coveted by the rulers of other regimes, and it is said that it was in the list of booties demanded after the defeat of the Song dynasty by the Jin State on a later occasion. The Heavenly Saint Bronze Man was impressively listed, but of course he did not succeed in the end.

After the Tiansheng bronze figure of the Song Dynasty was cast, one was placed in the Medical Officer's Hospital, and the other was placed in the Daxiangguo Temple.

In the Jingkang Rebellion at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, two bronze figures in Bianjing at that time were successively exiled to the people, and one of them disappeared from then on. The other was displaced, changed hands several times, and finally returned to the hands of the imperial court, but it was presented to Mongolia by the cowardly Southern Song court and became a tribute to the Mongol Empire.

But because it has been lost to the people for too long. The bronze figure was already dilapidated, and after the Mongol Empire took over, it immediately began to renovate it.

According to the "Yuan History: The Biography of Anigo", the Yuan government had specially invited the famous Nepalese craftsman Anigo to repair the bronze figure in 1260-1263 during the reign of Yuan Zhongtong.

Later, the Yuan Empire destroyed the Jin State, and then the Southern Song Dynasty ******, and then the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Yuan Dynasty.

However, because after hundreds of years of war and the change of the four dynasties, the Tiansheng Bronze Man at this time has been seriously damaged, and the names of the acupuncture points are mostly blurred.

Therefore, in the eighth year of orthodoxy, that is, in 1443, Ming Yingzong ordered the Tai Hospital to imitate the Tiansheng bronze man and make another bronze figure, and later generations called this imitation bronze man "orthodox bronze man".

After that, scholars of the Ming Dynasty, and later rulers of the Qing Dynasty, also ordered the replication of such bronze figures many times.

For example, in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, acupuncturist Gao Wu also cast a bronze acupuncture figure in the shape of a man, a woman and a child.

And now our Palace Museum has the only acupuncture bronze figure of the Ming Dynasty, which is left by Gao Wu, a boy bronze figure, 89 cm high, and a boy shape.

The acupuncture bronze figure of the Qing Dynasty was the seventh year of Qianlong, that is, in 1742), when the Qing government ordered Wu Qian and others to compile the "Yizong Jinjian", in order to encourage the editor-in-chief, a number of small acupuncture bronze figures were cast as prizes, and later they were awarded to those editors-in-chief.

Most of the acupuncture bronze figures recently discovered in our country are replicas of these Qing Dynasty periods.

For example, the one now in the collection of the Medical History Museum of Puhai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine is a work of the Qing Dynasty in the shape of a woman, 46 cm high, solid, and with meridians and acupoints on the surface.

Now in the Chinese History Museum there is also an acupuncture bronze figure, 178 centimeters high, made in the late Qing Dynasty, and the workmanship and the Song Dynasty Tiansheng bronze figure, can not be compared at all, and even with the Ming and Qing Dynasty imitations.

After the liberation, all the medical units in our country have tried their best to copy, and the holy bronze man came out this day, but the effect was not ideal.

Now the popular imitation acupuncture bronze figure on the domestic market is the imitation Song Dynasty acupuncture bronze figure developed in 1978 by Jinling Medical College and the Institute of Medical History and Literature of the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and is now present in the Institute of Medical History and Literature of the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

It is made of bronze smelting and casting, the front and back sides of the chest and back can be opened and closed, and the relief viscera organs can be seen after opening, and the whole body is integrated after closing, with a height of 172.5 cm and a weight of 210 kg.

Moreover, in 1987, He Baoyi, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner from He@Nan@Kai@Feng, also cast an acupuncture bronze figure according to historical documents in order to restore it.

In addition, there are still a number of bronze figures made by modern technology, which have been put on the market for commercial purposes.

In history, after the real orthodox bronze figure was made, it was always placed in the Tai Hospital of the Ming Dynasty; Ming died, and the bronze man continued to be kept in the Qingtai Hospital.

Until the 26th year of Guangxu, that is, in 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, and the Empress Dowager Cixi fled in a hurry with the Guangxu Emperor and a group of officials, leaving the huge Beijing city and many treasures, including the orthodox bronze figures, to the invading army.

The coalition forces carried out several days of looting in Beijing, and when they evacuated, the imperial doctors who returned to Beijing found that the orthodox bronze figures that had been placed in the Yaowang Temple of the Tai Hospital were gone!

In the past, the Tai Hospital was a temporary station for the Russian army, and the Qing government sent people to ask the Russian side for it.

At that time, in addition to the orthodox bronze figures of the Ming Dynasty, there were also bronze statues of the Three Emperors, which were certainly snatched by the Russian army.

At that time, the medical officers of the Tai Hospital had many negotiations with the Russian army in order to return this bronze man, and in the end, only the bronze statue of the Three Emperors was redeemed, and the Ming orthodox bronze man was not returned, and its whereabouts have always been a mystery in the historical circles.

Later, in 1958, when a Chinese medical delegation visited the former Soviet Union, they discovered an ancient Chinese bronze figure of acupuncture and moxibustion.

One of the members of the delegation at that time, Sun Zhenhuan, was visiting the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad when he noticed an acupuncture bronze figure, which was very similar to the orthodox bronze figure. This news was transmitted back to China, although it attracted the attention of domestic scholars, but due to the subsequent hostility between China and the Soviet Union, it could not be confirmed.

Later, in 2003, Huang Longxiang, a researcher at the China Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, accidentally came across an article introducing this bronze figure, and was very excited, so he immediately took his assistant to St. Petersburg for a field trip. After careful observation and meticulous research, Mr. Huang put forward ten more pieces of evidence and concludedly concluded: this is the orthodox bronze man!

In fact, long before this, in 1877, the Japanese shogunate quietly collected a bronze figure, and there was also a set of the original Song Dynasty "Bronze Man Acupuncture and Acupuncture Illustrated Sutra", but it did not attract anyone's attention at that time.

Later, after the Shogunate War, this bronze figure in the shogunate's collection became the property of the Emperor, but the Emperor did not pay much attention to it at that time, and when the first Tokyo National Museum was established, it was sent here to display.

Later, in 1920, when the famous Japanese Chinese medicine scholar Yoshida Hiromichi visited the museum, he found this bronze figure, and conducted serious research, and later published a book "Acupuncture and Moxibustion Essence Continuation" based on this bronze figure.

It is also this book that has attracted the attention of Chen Cunren in China, and later Chen Cunren traveled east to Japan several times to inspect this bronze statue, and finally after many arguments, it was finally determined that this bronze statue was actually the Tiansheng bronze man of the Song Dynasty!

And this discovery immediately shocked the entire East Asian cultural circle! (To be continued.) )