is the oldest surviving

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese medical text. It was completed in 984 by Tamba Yasuyori (also referred in some sources as Tanba no Yasuyori) and is 30 volumes in length. The work is partly based on a Chinese medical work called '' Zhubing yuanhou lun'' (諸病源候論 ''General Treatise on Causes and Manifestations of All Diseases''), compiled by

Sui Dynasty The Sui dynasty (, ) was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China that lasted from 581 to 618. The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties, thus ending the long period of division following the fall of the Western Jin dynasty, and layi ...

writer

Chao Yuanfang Chao Yuanfang () was a Chinese physician and medical author who was court physician at the Sui Dynasty (581–618 CE) between the years 605 and 616. Traditionally, he had been attributed the co-authorship or authorship of the Chinese medical class ...

. Many of the texts cited in ''Ishinpō'' have been lost in China, and have only survived to the present through their inclusion in the work. It is a

national treasure of Japan Some of the National Treasures of Japan A is the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a special body of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science ...

. The structural organization of the text is as follows: The ''Ishinpō'' preserved more than 200 important medical documents that were all Chinese in origin and no Japanese sources. The medical knowledge in the tome covered clinical treatments that drew from the ancient Chinese traditional medicine and influenced by Indian medical theories found in

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

scriptures as well as

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

references (e.g. Taoist drugs). For instance, there was the so-called ''Scripture on Pregnancy'', which outlined the physical developments and fetal movements. Scholars cite its similarity with a prescription from the old Chinese medical text called ''Taichan shu,'' which contained doctrines about the development of embryo and fetus as well as proper hygiene for pregnant women. The ''Ishinpō'' is also notable for preserving some of the Taoist sexual manuals from the Han to the Tang dynasty. The twenty-eighth section of the ''Ishinpō'' contains a complete transcription of a Daoist text known as ''The Classic of Sunu'' which is a dialogue between the Dark Maiden and the

Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Soverei ...

, with the former providing advice on sexual practices to the latter. While the text is written in

kanbun A is a form of Classical Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period to the mid-20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. A ...

, Japanese terms are written to the side in

Man'yōgana is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically. The date of the earliest usage of this ...

for plants, animals, and minerals.

Notes

References

* *Wile, Douglas. ''The Art of the Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics including Women’s Solo Meditation Texts''. Albany: State University of New York, 1992. *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ishinpo 984 10th-century Japanese books 10th century in Japan Healthcare in Japan History of science and technology in Japan Late Old Japanese texts Old Japanese texts Medical manuals National Treasures of Japan Traditional Japanese medicine Heian-period books