The Suwen is written in the form of a catechism—a textual commentary in question and answer format. Of the 79 chapters or discourses (lun 論) in the received version, 68 are structured as dialogue between the Yellow Emperor and his three ministers who serve as interlocutors: Qi Bo in 60 dialogues, Lei Gong 雷公 in 7, and Gui Yuqu鬼臾區 in 1 (Unschuld 2003, 8). The Lingshu and Taisu are written in the same format.
Tessenow has conducted a thorough analysis of the style and con‑
tent of the Suwen components by comparing it with the Taisu in terms of rhyme structure, dialogue patterns, and commentaries. He has also iden‑
tified insertions by editors and compilers. He notes that many passages
are rhymed, probably because they came from oral transmission—a fea‑
ture not always easy to recognise since the pronunciation of characters has changed (2002, 649). The Lingshu confirms that oral transmission was part of the medical tradition (28.1), and David Keegan concludes that the Suwen is made up of many historical layers, which he identifies as “com‑
pilations of compilations” (1988, 64).
It is possible that snatches of medical treatises, which have escaped the literary bonfire ordered by the First Emperor of the Qin in 213 BCE, became part of his systematization and standardization campaign. The process permeated every facet of early society: not only axle width, legal codes, weights, and measures were standardized, but script and litera‑
ture, too. Therefore, the compilation of the Suwen could have started off with this “unification spirit.”
Another possible impetus to compilation was the edict of Han Em‑
peror Cheng (r. 32‑7 BCE). In 26, he “organized a group of medical offi‑
cials headed by the court physician Li Zhuguo 李柱國 to collate and re‑
vise the imperial collection of medical books preserved at the national library (Ma KW 1989, 7). The compilation of the Suwen may well be the fruit of this first government‑sponsored collation and revision of medical works. The formation and compilation of the Lunyu 論語 (Analects) of Confucius) (Makeham 1996) and Zhoubi suanjing 周髀算經 (Mathematical Classic of the Zhou Gnomon) came about through the same procedure (Cullen 1996, 148‑56).
Among the three dialogue partners of the Yellow Emperor, Gui Youyi appears only in chapter 66. Being a possible addition by the Tang editor Wang Bing王冰 (fl. 762), this may represent a later layer. Similarly Lei Gong only appears from chapter 76 onward and may thus indicate another layer. The Lingshu has three further figures: Bo Gao 伯高, Shao Yu 少俞, and Shao Shi 少師. This suggests that there were several sub‑
groups which developed various doctrines yet were subsumed under the Yellow Emperor lineage, which remained dominant. Keiji Yamada be‑
lieves that Shao Shi as the teacher of the Yellow Emperor signifies the earliest layer. Bo Gao, in 10 discourses, tends to be associated more with anatomy, whereas Qi Bo is generally linked with questions of the uni‑
verse and the techniques of acupuncture (1979, 87‑88).
Each faction must have accumulated the results of their observa‑
tions and investigations of vessel theory and clinical practice over a long time and summarized their findings in various manuscripts. They were
eventually brought together into one compilation, which represented diverse and contrasting opinions on existing medical theories. In the end, the Yellow Emperor School triumphed and came to dominate the Suwen.
The text could thus have started as a proto‑compilation in the 3 rd century BCE under a different name, to be then compiled and recompiled under the title Suwen.
In sum, it is difficult to say how the Suwen was structured before Wang Bing rewrote, re‑edited, reorganised, and expanded it in the Tang.
Wang Bing created his Suwen in a socially and politically unstable milieu caused by the rebellions of An Lushan 安祿山 and Shi Siming 史思明 between 755 and 763. It is as if he needed to emphasize that one has to take one’s life into one’s own hand and be responsible for one’s health.
Thus, he consciously moved those chapters pertaining to nourishing life, living in harmony with nature, and preventing diseases to the front of the book, engendering a mindset appropriate to his time. Doing so, he showed that medical theories had their origin in doctrines on nourishing life.
The dating of the early Suwen is aided greatly by the Mawangdui manuscripts which provide evidence that Chinese classical medicine was still at the stage of forming pathological and physiological theories around 168 BCE. Both the Zubi shiyi mai jiujing 足臂十一脈灸經 (Cauteriza‑
tion Classic of the Eleven Vessels of Foot and Forearm) and the Yinyang shiyi mai jiujing, jiaben 陰陽十一脈灸經甲本 (Cauterization Classic of the Eleven Yin and Yang Vessels, Version A) mention only eleven vessels whereas the Suwen deals with twelve. In the Wushi’er bingfang 五十二病方 (Fifty Two Recipes) there is no mention of the five‑phases doctrine and the yin‑yang theory is only implied in its rudimentary form in the ex‑
pressions pin 牝 (male) and mu 牡 (female). There is little mention of the organ system. But the most telling is that no acupuncture or moxa points appear anywhere in the text.
In contrast, the various points in the Suwen are clearly named and allocated and the various vessel theories are systematized. Chapters 10, 11, and 13 of the Lingshu give a full description of the vessel system. No doubt Suwen medical thinking is of another level than that propagated in the Mawangdui manuscripts and that advocated by the Mianyang phy‑
sicians, whose system is documented in a bronze figurine with nine ves‑
sels unearthed in Sichuan.
Scholars such as Donald Harper (1998), Vivienne Lo (2001), and Li Ling (1993) agree that the medical theories as documented in the Mawangdui manuscripts were still in the making, which indicates that the Suwen was compiled after Mawangdui. Most scholars concur that, judging from the style of writing and the language used, the compilation of the text could not have taken place before 100 BCE, although ideas and concepts are older—possibly dating back to the Warring States. 6 Ar‑
guments that support this assumption include the fact that no versions of the text are mentioned in the Shiji of 104 BCE, not even in the biogra‑
phies of “famous physicians” (ch. 105).
The earliest mention of the Huangdi neijing is in the Qilue 七略 (Seven Summaries) catalogue of the Han court library, supposedly com‑
piled by Liu Xin 劉歆 (46 BCE‑23 CE), who arrived at court in Chang’an in 26 BCE. Ban Gu (32‑92 CE), too, lists it in the Hanshu, presumably on the basis of the Qilue, in the subcategory “medical classics.” Provided that these materials have survived in the present Suwen, it was first com‑
piled around the beginning of the Common Era.
There is still no consensus with regard to the meaning of the term suwen which has been translated variously—the word su going back to the idea of plain silk and thus meaning “simple” or “plain” (Wile 1992, 227n2). Modern scholars such as Kristofer Schipper (1993, 100‑01), Gio‑
vanni Maciocia (1994, 685), and Yang Shou‑zeng (1997, 372) have trans‑
lated it as “Simple Questions.” Nathan Sivin bases his reading on the first commentator, Quan Yuanqi全元起 (6 th c.), who glosses su as ben本, i.e., “basic” (1997, 454) and translates it as “Basic Questions.” He is fol‑
lowed by Unschuld (2003, 18‑21), Hanson (2001, 262), Despeux (1989, 128), Hsu (1999, 8), and Furth (1999, 20n2). Other variations include
“Candid Questions” (Porkert 1974, 359) “Questions about Living Mat‑
ters” (Lu 1980, 1), and “Plain Questions.”
Since there is no agreement as to the meaning of the term, the con‑
tent of the book might provide some hint. Nathan Sivin sums it up as:
A view of the relation between the cosmos, the immediate environment, and the human body and emotions, of the relation between living habits and health, of body contents, of vital and pathological processes, of signs and
6 See Keegan 1988, 18; Yamada 1979, 67‑89; Unschuld 1985, 67‑100; Sivin 1994. 199; and Lu 1980, 89‑90.
symptoms, and of how diagnoses and therapeutic decisions are formed by evaluating the patient in all these contexts. (1993, 198)
Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallée puts it differently:
The Suwen deals with physiology (particularly the study of the viscera and the pathways of qi), etiology (through the description of pathological mechanisms), diagnosis (by pulse examination and other methods of inves‑
tigation), and treatment (by acupuncture, moxibustion, phytotherapy, mas‑
sage, and exhortation to a spiritual life). (1989, 67)
The subtitle of the first volume of the Suwen Project describes it in terms of “Nature, Knowledge, Imagery,” indicating just how diverse the content is. In a 2004 lecture, moreover, Hermann Tessenow graded Su‑
wen subject matters in terms of textual content: 1) diagnostics and prog‑
nosis; 2) therapy by needling; 3) pathology; and 4) hygiene and health care.
All these content descriptions and summaries are correct and rele‑
vant. Since it is a medical book, it is not surprising that the bulk of the text is on diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, and pathology. However, the importance of elements on nourishing life should not be overlooked.
Lifestyle, people’s relationship with nature, preventive medicine, and sexual behavior are all topics that run like a thread through the text.
In other words, the book is a multifaceted document with estab‑
lished medical theories, such as the yin‑yang and five phases doctrines, at its base, relying on an objectified view of the world with no traces of personal search for higher‑level truth or understanding of immortality like Daoist texts (Kohn 1992; Engelhardt 1998). Though the sum total of the text pertaining to longevity and sexual methods is small in compari‑
son to its more medical parts, it is yet an important source on sex in early China.
The Suwen being the result of “the grouping and regrouping of a number of shorter documents, some independent of each other and oth‑
ers designed to explicate or attack earlier texts” (Keegan 1988, 252‑54), has a long tradition and transmission history. It is possible that part of its knowledge existed before writing was established and was transmitted orally as indicated in the Lingshu, where Qi Bo says: “This is what teach‑
ers of the past passed on to me through oral instruction” (28.1). The ex‑
tant Suwen, therefore, could have begun as snatches of oral history or
pieces of text written by numerous unknown authors who came from various medical traditions and different localities and who wrote at dif‑
ferent times.
The Suwen differs from other Han medical books because it is not only about medical theories but interweaves medicine with concepts of philosophy, physiology, lifestyle, and more. Others are more technical textbooks, containing recipes and instructions. The questions in the Su‑
wen may be basic but they are certainly not easy. The multifaceted con‑
tent and laconic style of the work makes it impossible to understand its meaning without reading its various commentaries, of which Wang Bing’s is the most important.