内经图 / Diagram of the Internal Texture of Man / Диаграмма из “Трактата Желтого Императора о внутреннем”

February 17, 2017
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The Neijing Tu (simplified Chinese: 內经图; traditional Chinese: 內經圖; pinyin: Nèijīng tú; Wade–Giles: Nei-ching t’u) is a Daoist “inner landscape” diagram of the human body illustrating Neidan “Internal alchemy”, Wu Xing, Yin and Yang, and Chinese mythology.

The name Neijing tu combines nei 內 “inside; inner; internal”, jing 經 “warp (vs. woof); scripture, canon, classic; (TCM) meridian; channel”, and tu 圖 “picture; drawing; chart; map; plan”. This title, comparable with Huangdi Neijing 黃帝內經 “Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon”, is generally interpreted as a “chart” or “diagram” of “inner” “meridians” or “channels” for circulating qi in neidan practices.

English translations of Neijing tu include:

“Diagram of the Internal Texture of Man” (Needham 1983:114) “Diagram of the Inner Scripture” (Ching 1997:188) “Chart of Inner Passageways” (Despeux and Kohn 2003:184) “Diagram of Internal Pathways” (Komjathy 2004:40) “Chart of the Inner Warp” or “Chart of the Inner Landscape” (Despeux 2008:767)

Neijing tu 內經圖 has an alternate writing of Neijing tu 內景圖 “Diagram of Interior Lights” (Kohn 2000:499, 521), using jing 景 “view; scenery; condition” as a variant Chinese character for jing 經.