---
title: "History of beliefs about the human body"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_beliefs_about_the_human_body"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:11:20.435646+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Yellow Emperors body ===
The Yellow Emperor's Body is a term derived from the references to the Yellow Emperor within the Ancient Chinese book, the "book of change". The Term describes the references to both the physical body that can be touched, felt, and interact with the physical world, but also the sense of person and self that the body. The dualism of the body as both the physical self and the subjective consciousness is how Chinese defined the body. The Yellow Emperor's body is a metaphor to describe a body that focuses on the individual and not the general, focusing on disorder as not just a physical malady.
The yellow emperor is revered in China and was the founder of acupuncture. The yellow emperor is said to of derived his medical practices from a  conversation with a community physician. The manuscript is recorded in the Yellow Emperors Inner Cannon, and it being recorded in this way represents the attention to the individuals perspective in creating therapies like acupuncture to treat body ailments.
The Inner Cannon was revised by natural Philosophers of the time and the approved version of the Han Court and became a foundational text for the ideals and perceptions of the human body. It focused on Qi, Yin and Yang balance, and Five phase theory to explain health can disease.

==== Qi ====
Referred to as the life force of the body, or the means by which the body is able to be animated. Qi is not limited to the physical but is intertwined with the cosmological. A tiny bit of qi, known as primordial qi is integrated in humans at birth. As one grows it is due to the primordial qi, as one fades it is because of the qi, and when one dies it is because their qi has been exhausted.

==== Yin and Yang ====
These are variations and representations of qi that define how a human exists in the world, a system of complementary opposites. Yin and Yang defined gender differences  seen in the population. A baby born male simply had more Yang Qi energy where as a female has dominant Yin energy. Transgenderism, hermaphroditism and other variations of the body can be explained by the Yin and Yang Qi ideas of the body much better than the European counterparts.

==== Five Phases ====
Other types of change in the world were classified by Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Applied to the body these 5 forces were the Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung, and Kidney. These representations of the physical world in the body was understood dynamically and represents a deeper connection to the non animate objects and surroundings of a human. The body was not only physical sphere but a cosmological one interconnected to all physical and non physical quantities of life.

=== Disorders - Cheng Congzhou ===
The clinician and patient encounter is a spiritual connection. It is not just about what is done but what is said and how it is said, how information is revealed and what information is not. Cheng Congzhou a physician in 1581 was a local doctor in Yangshou and documented his patient encounters in detail. The importance of not only qi but blood is seen in his records: Fang Shunian's mother, the scholar's Honored Lady,4 was sixty three years old. Her constitution was naturally weak and emaciated. Her qi and Blood were both depleted. Normally all her six pulses were extremely "subtle" and "fine"; even when she caught cold they did not become very "big" or "pounding."The interactions of the physical body and the cosmological essence of a body was how disorders of the body was framed in this doctors account.

== The corpse ==
The practices surrounding a corpse differ widely among cultures. Diogenes is famously said to have wanted his lifeless body to be thrown to the wolves so that his body can return to nature. Cultural practices that revere the dead across all cultures reveal that even in European cultures that attempt to adhere purely to what can be seen and touched, recognize that there is a more cosmic necessity to the body and connection to the physical and cosmological worlds.

== References ==