ABSTRACT

The word pien,1 already used on the opening page of this monograph, and often translated curiously by lexicographer3 as 'stone probe', was familiar to Hsii Shen,2 who in his Shuo Wen 3 of + 121 defined it as 'a piece of (pointed) stone for pricking (to cure) illnesses (i shih tzhu ping yeh4 )'. a But probably the oldest mentions of stone needles occur in the Shan Hai ChillgS (Classic of the Mountains and Rivers), that strange work composed perhaps largely around the - 5th century, though containing matcrials ranging from the - 11th to the + 2nd, and while in many ways legendary or fabulous not without real geographical descriptions and intcresting statements giving insight into ancient ideas and practices. Here we learn that on the mountain called Kao-shih chih Shan6 'there is much jade at the top, while at the bottom there are many needle-like stones (chlzi shang to yu, chhi hsia to chen shih 7 )'. b The same statement occurs again about Fu-li chih Shan,8 with the added information that there is gold as well as jade at the top.c The commentators are all clear that these needle stones were for acupuncture; thus Kuo Pho9 ( + 3rd cent.) says that they were given

d According to Sung Ta-Jen (3), p. 9, the Slzuo Yuan II of Liu Hsiang l2 ( - 20) contains the saying (ch. 2) that' if the disease is deep in the muscles (chifll 13), the stone r.cedles "'ill not be able to reach it'.