Now, in Ermitage Museum of Russia, there are 3 incomplete pages of a literature about the ancient acupoints unearthed from Hetian of Xinjiang Autonomic Region of China. It has been identified that those 3 incomplete pages are part of Huangdi Mingtang Jing, one of the ancient inherited books.
书名“明堂”的由来
The origin of “Mingtang”
追溯古代历史，最早“明堂”二字曾是指黄帝时代的一种建筑，是黄帝测天象、观四方和举行重大政治文化活动的场所。
Tracing back to ancient history, the earliest word “Mingtang” used to refer to a building in the Yellow Emperor’s time. It was the place where the Yellow Emperor surveyed the heaven, observed the Quartet and held important political and cultural activities.
后来，将腧穴书普遍冠以“明堂”二字，其原因可能是腧穴分属十二经与“明堂”建筑有十二宫类似。
Later, acupoints were generally labeled as “Mingtang”. The reason may be that acupoints belong to the twelve meridians, and there are twelve palaces in the building of “Mingtang”; they are similar.
同时，每经各有五腧穴，皆自下而上依次流注，与帝王每月居一室，依次轮流居住的特点亦相类似。
At the same time, there are five-Shu points in each meridian, flowing from the bottom to the top, which is similar to the Emperor’s monthly in-turn residence in the palace.
并且，在针灸治疗上取五腧穴的原则也与时令有关，这也符合“明堂”的特点。
Moreover, the principle of selecting five-Shu points in acupuncture and moxibustion treatment is also related to the seasons, which is in accordance with the characteristics of “Mingtang”.
【学术参考】李今庸：中国古代认识与防治疫病的医史文献摘录
本文转自：微信公众号 人卫中医。原文选自《针灸史话（中英对照图文版）》（第2版），人民卫生出版社，主编：张立剑。 返回搜狐，查看更多