(-

Fig. 15. Gold needles from the tomb of the Ibn prince Liu Sheng at Man-chheng (- I 13). Orig. size, fJom Chung I-Yen (1).

needle form by the earliest acupuncturists. Probably the wire would have been forged and hammered out, for the use of the draw-platea in any antique civilisation is not certainly established,b and we have no special evidence for it in ancient China. Recently four rather thick gold needles which may have been used in acupuncturec came to light in the tomb of the Han prince Liu Sheng I at Man-chhcngZ (Fig.15);d they are all about 3 in. long, round of cross-section though in one case triangular, while their square-sectioned 2-in. shanks have a small round hole at the far end. e They could hardly be considered very delicate instruments, but of course the precious metals had the advantage of not rusting or corroding. f

Nevertheless, steel (hang 3), once known, was bound to replace all other materials for its strength and fineness. Any consideration, therefore, 'of the history of the physicians' needles is bound to involve us with the rather complicated question of the development of iron and steel technology in China.g Here the first thing that becomes apparent is (as already noted) that the oldest references to acupuncture seem to belong to the - 6th or even -7th century while the first mentions of iron (thieh 4 ) in China occur only from around - 500 on\\rards. This surely indicates that materials other than iron were indefd used in ancient times. But before glancing at the most salient texts let us summarise what is known of China's iron and steel. At once we are surprised by the fact that although the age of iron came relatively late there (some seven centuries after the Hittitfs in Asia l\tlinor), the Chinese could cast it almost as soon as they knew of it at all-an extraordinary achievementh when one recollects that blast-furnace cast iron (high-carbon iron) did not come in Europe until the + 14th century. Furthermore China seenlS to have had no initial phase of bloomery furnaces yielding wrought iron (pure iron) only. rrhe Chinese had however crucible

a A plate of a harder metal pierced with small holes through which are drawn by force lengths of slightly thicker wire. If the metal is malleable and ductile enough, the process will produce \vire of almost any desired thinness.