BIAN QUE

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2. Two Famous Acupuncturists in Ancient China
3. History records a large number of famous physicians and
4. medical practitioners active in ancient China.
5. At the time of the legendary Yellow Emperor, Huangdi, around 4,600 years ago,
6. there was a superb doctor named Bian Que.
7. The Historical Annals, or Shi Ji,
8. written by Sima Qian around 100 BCE,
9. has biographies of two skilled doctors:
10. Qin Yueren, who was called the Bian Que of his age;
11. and Cang Gong, a Han-dynasty physician.
12. Today’s primary school textbooks contain excerpts
13. from the Historical Annals.
14. In one of them, Bian Que goes to visit Marquis Huan of Cai,
15. and tells him that he is sick.
16. The Marquis denies it and says he feels fine.
17. Time passes, and the next time Bian Que sees the Marquis, he tells him that his condition is worse.
18. But again the Marquis says that he feels perfectly well.
19. At their third meeting, Bian Que says nothing to the Marquis, turns around and walks out of the room.
20. Before long, however, the Marquis dies.
21. Bian Que only had to look at the Marquis to know that his condition was critical.
22. In another famous story,
23. Bian Que travels to the state of Guo,
24. where chaos and confusion prevail.
25. A prince had just died,
26. and that the palace was preparing for his funeral and burial.
27. Upon further enquiry, Bian Que learned the time of the prince’s death,
28. and what his appearance was like at the moment of death.
29. Bian Que then announced that in fact,
30. the prince was not dead,
31. but was in a comatose state,
32. caused by a clash between Yin and Yang energy.
33. His body was motionless
34. —he was in a coma,
35. which made it seem he was dead.
36. Bian Que told the king of the State of Guo
37. that his son’s condition was treatable,
38. and ordered his disciple Ziyang to grind a special stone
39. needle for the purpose.
40. Bian Que then applied this stone needle to three acupuncture points
41. on the top of the head,
42. where three yang pulses meet,
43. and shortly afterward the prince recovered.
44. At the time,
45. people marveled at Bian Que’s ability to revive the dead,
46. but this was only one of his remarkable skills.
47. Bian Que developed his own system of medical treatment,
48. which included applying heat to specific points on the body
49. and using stone needles at acupuncture points.
50. If a medical condition occurred near the surface of the body,
51. he treated it with medicine and heat;
52. if it occurred internally,
53. he used acupuncture.
54. When needed, he performed bloodletting
55. to rebalance the energy in the body,
56. and he treated illnesses of the digestive system
57. by prescribing medicinal wines.
58. This is a bust of Bian Que.
59. These are rubbings from stone carvings at the big Confucian Temple in Qufu,
60. which show Bian Que treating a female patient;
61. here he is performing surgery;
62. and here he is performing acupuncture.
63. In these carvings,
64. Bian Que is depicted with a bird’s body and human head.
65. Not coincidentally, “Que” in Chinese means “magpie.”
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