The discovery of the text written on silk sheds light on the significant advances in medicine that led to the development of acupuncture in ancient China.
The History Collection / AlamyA 2,200 - year - old Chinese silk text is the oldest - know anatomical chart in the humanity .
archaeologist have uncovered many unexpected physical object from excavating ancient tombs around the earthly concern . In 2017 , researchers examining the site of a 2,200 - year - old Formosan tomb not only ascertain human remains , but they also found what may be the oldest known study chart of the human eubstance .
concord toLive Science , a Taiwanese text written on silk was find inside the grave at the site of Mawangdui in south - central China .
The History Collection/AlamyA 2,200-year-old Chinese silk text is the oldest-known anatomical chart in the world.
The grave belong to Marquis Dai and his fellowship . The cadaver of the Marquis ’ wife , Xin Zhui also known as Lady Dai , is famed as one of the world’smost well - preserve mom .
live as the Mawangdui aesculapian manuscripts , the Taiwanese text found inside the tombs was the focus of a new studypublishedinThe Anatomical Recordin early September 2020 . The ancient text control the anatomical descriptions of the human body , the earliest eff to research worker . But bring in out the subject of the ancient silk script was no light task .
“ The skill necessary to interpret them are various , requiring the researcher first of all to register the original Chinese , and secondly to do the anatomic investigations that allow a re - viewing of the structures that the text refer to , ” the study take .
ShutterstockThe medical text was uncovered inside the tombs at the famed Mawangdui site in China.
ShutterstockThe medical text was uncovered inside the tombs at the famed Mawangdui site in China .
The source of the ancient Chinese textual matter used the term “ meridian ” in their writings . It is a term most associate with acupuncture , a traditional medical discussion in Chinese culture that focuses on the regularization of blood flow inside the body .
Researchers in the subject interpret “ summit ” as a large blood watercraft that stretch through different part of the body .
Wikimedia CommonsThe discovery debunks the long-standing myth that Chinese acupuncture had no scientific foundation in its origins.
For lesson , one logical argument of the ancient textbook was translated as draw a meridian located “ in the middle of the palm , goes along the forearm between the two finger cymbals survey flat along the tendons , locomote below the brawniness into the bicep , to the armpit , and connects with the kernel , ” accompany the path of the ulnar artery .
Another part of the text describes a “ meridian ” in the foot that “ starts at the big toe and runs along the median open of the leg and second joint . Connects at the ankle , knee , and second joint . It move along the adductor of the second joint , and encompass the abdomen . ” This matches the positioning of the saphenous venous blood vessel .
The finding are singular for two reason . First , give the age of the tombs which date back to the Han Dynasty between 206 BC to 220 advertizement , the text edition are no doubt the oldest know aesculapian charts key the human anatomy in the world .
As the paper bank bill , the Chinese text “ lay out the earliest surviving anatomical map collection , project to provide a concise verbal description of the human body for students and practitioners of practice of medicine in ancient China . ”
Wikimedia CommonsThe discovery debunks the long - standing myth that Chinese stylostixis had no scientific fundament in its blood line .
Previously , the oldest write medical chart of the human anatomy was believed to rise from Greece . historiographer believed that ancient Greek Dr. like Herophilus and Erasistratus — both who lived sometime before the Han Dynasty period of time — had likely authored such ancient aesculapian texts .
But most of their texts have been lost and are only known from what other ancient writer wrote about them .
Secondly , the aesculapian schoolbook also debunks the long - standing myth that there was no scientific foundation for the “ frame of acupuncture . ” The aesculapian text reflect obvious association to the ancient practice and offers evidence that doctor who pen about stylostixis were knead off of genuine reflection of the human torso .
It ’s ill-defined whose consistence the ancient texts were based on but researchers surmise the anatomical sketch may have belike arrive from dissect the bodies of criminals . Human cadaver were weigh sacred in ancient China but the honor of preserving one ’s consistence was mayhap not leave to those who came from the gloomy - stave of smart set .
The study emphasized that the information recuperate from the find also testify the “ Eurocentric perspective in medicine . ” retiring studies have normally neglect research ancient practices of non - western cultivation despite their farseeing history of medical practice .
China , particularly , has a long account of medical studies go steady back 1000 of yr ago such as theAnatomical Atlas of Truthby Cun Zhen Tu andAnatomical Illustrationsby Ou Xifan Wuy Zang Tu from the Song dynasty of 960 CE .
With this new written report bringing luminosity to ancient Formosan medicinal drug , perhaps the country ’s rich chronicle of aesculapian research will finally get its due .
Next , record aboutthe most painful aesculapian process of Medieval timesand meetRudolf Virchow , the puritanical ‘ Pope of Medicine ’ who did n’t believe in evolution .
