Shen Ying Jing

Shen Ying Jing is a monograph on acupuncture and moxibustion written by the Ming dynasty physician Chen Hui and revised and supplemented by Liu Jin, in one volume, compiled and published around 1425. The book was distilled from Chen Hui's twelve-volume Guang Ai Shu; the original Guang Ai Shu is now lost, so Shen Ying Jing has become an important text preserving Chen Hui's acupuncture scholarship. The whole book is concise and emphasizes clinical practicality: it first includes the Song of the Hundred Acupoints in verse form for easy memorization of key points; then sets out the proportional measurement method and the locating measurements for points on the head, back, abdomen, hands, and feet, explaining the concrete application of bone-proportional measurements; next it presents supplementation and drainage techniques, divided into "Direct Remarks on Drainage Techniques" and "Direct Remarks on Supplementation Techniques," accompanied by discussions of the twelve meridians one by one, arranged in the order of the twelve double-hours paired with the meridians; it also includes moxibustion content such as the method of moxibusting the Four Flowers points. The latter half is organized by disease, divided into sections on wind disorders, cold damage, phlegm, cough and asthma, various accumulations, abdominal pain and distention, heart, spleen and stomach, mental disturbances and mania, cholera, malaria, swelling, sweating, impediment and reversal, intestinal hemorrhoids and stool, genital hernia and urination, head and face, throat, ears and eyes, nose and mouth, chest, back and ribs, hands, feet, waist and armpits, women, children, sores and toxins, and miscellaneous diseases, giving acupuncture and moxibustion point prescriptions for each disease, with appendices on acupuncture and moxibustion taboos such as the daily location of the human spirit and the method of moxibusting the eight points. The book's narration is concise, its point selection focused, and it combines songs, illustrations, and explanations, making it an important reference for studying point location and point combination in acupuncture. This edition is a collated and annotated edition in the "Must-Read Classics of Acupuncture and Moxibustion" series, collated and annotated by Liu Jin and Hao Feifei.