Anatomy in ancient China: The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon of Medicine and Wang Qingren's Correcting the Errors in the Forest of Medicine

摘要

Although clouded by mysticism and ancestral worship, early Chinese civilization did make many important and often overlooked contributions to our current understanding of human anatomy. This article reviews these early contributions and focuses on the landmark writings of two of the most influential Chinese texts, the Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon of Medicine) attributed to Huang di, and Wang Qingren's Yi Lin Gai Cuo (Correcting the Errors in the Forest of Medicine). These sources made significant contributions to the Chinese understanding of anatomy and served to promote the study of human anatomy both in early China and in regional countries like Japan. Clin. Anat. 23:364–369, 2010. ? 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.