Beijing Tiansheng Acupuncture Bronze Man is the earliest human body model in the world. It integrates the essence of Chinese acupuncture, sculpture art, metallurgy and casting, philology and other disciplines in the Song Dynasty and before. It pioneered the use of bronze figures for practical teaching and is regarded as a national treasure. This bronze figure was designed and made by Wang Weiyi, a medical officer and medical scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Acupuncture began in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in my country. Before the Song Dynasty, there were only written descriptions or graphic representations, and there were many errors. In the fourth year of Tiansheng in the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 1026), the Song court collected and revised medical books. Wang Weiyi was ordered to compile old news, correct errors, and review acupuncture works. He drew the front and side views of the human body according to the human shape, marked the precise locations of acupuncture points, combined ancient and modern clinical experience, compiled acupuncture theories from various schools, and wrote three volumes of medical books. Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty believed that "the exegesis of ancient scriptures is extremely precise, but scholars often make mistakes when holding titles. Transmitting the mind is not as good as understanding the eyes, and the words are not as good as the form of the case." He ordered "to create a bronze casting style". Therefore, Wang Weiyi was responsible for the design, and the imperial court organized craftsmen to cast two human body models from fine copper in the fifth year of Tiansheng of the Song Dynasty (1027 AD). Song Renzong ordered one bronze figure to be placed in the Medical Officials' Courtyard, and the other bronze figure to be placed in the Renji Hall of Daxiangguo Temple.
The acupuncture bronze man is made to imitate an adult man. He is completely naked and upright, with a height of 162 cm and a chest circumference of 88.6 cm. There are 657 acupuncture points on the body and 354 acupoint names. Its shape is realistic and its structure is exquisite. There are wooden skeletons in the limbs and wooden internal organs in the body cavity. The body is composed of front and rear parts, which can be divided or closed. The names of acupuncture points are engraved on the outside of its body, and each acupoint is connected to the body. The outside is coated with yellow wax, and the inside is filled with water or mercury. If the acupuncture point is punctured with a needle, the liquid will overflow. If there is a slight deviation, the needle will not be able to enter, so it can be used for teaching or examination. . According to records, when students were assessed on their proficiency in acupuncture techniques, the body of the bronze man was first filled with water, and then a layer of yellow wax was applied to the surface of the bronze man to cover each acupuncture point. If the student touches the acupuncture point correctly, water will flow out of the hole, otherwise no water will flow out, and the score will be judged. After the bronze figure was cast, Wang Weiyi's previous acupuncture book was also named "The Bronze Figure of Acupuncture and Moxibustion". This book was promulgated by the imperial court and circulated throughout the country, complementing the acupuncture bronze figure. Since then, successive imperial courts have regarded the bronze as a national treasure and called it the "Tian Sheng Bronze Figure". The Tiansheng Bronze Figure has been on display in Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, for a full 100 years, making important contributions to the development of acupuncture in my country.
In 1127 AD, the Jin people invaded the capital of Song Dynasty. The Song royal family fled south with the bronze people. One of them was lost on the way and the other was taken to Nanjing. In 1232 AD, in order to negotiate peace, the Southern Song Dynasty authorities presented the acupuncture bronze as a tribute to Kublai Khan. Later, Kublai Khan moved it from Bianjing to Dadu (today's Beijing). By the Ming Dynasty, the whereabouts of the Tiansheng Acupuncture Bronze Figure were unknown. From the 1960s to the 1990s, during the archaeological work of demolishing the city walls of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty, the Beijing Institute of Cultural Relics discovered the remains of the stele of the "Bronze Man Acupoint Acupuncture Illustration" by Tiansheng of the Northern Song Dynasty, which inspired people to study the acupuncture of Tiansheng in the Song Dynasty. Bronze Man's Interest. In 1985, Kaifeng City established a research group headed by Hou Zemin, then deputy director of the Municipal Health Bureau, to recast the Tiansheng Acupuncture Bronze Figure of the Song Dynasty. Three years later, the recasting was successful, and the recast bronze figure is still placed in the Daxiangguo Temple.