Symbolic image of the spleen: Chinese/Korean/Japanese

Symbolic illustration of the spleen. One of a set of five illustrations of internal organs from Uibang-yuchwi (Classified Collection of Medical Recipes), section on the Five Viscera.

Uibang-yuchwi is a compendium Yifang leiju -- or Chinese, Yifang leiju -- is a compendium of Chinese medical remedy literature compiled in C.15 Korea by Kim Rye-mong (1406-1469), Yu Seong-won (?- 1456) et al., under the auspices of King Sejong of Korea (r. 1418-1450). It originally comprised 365 juan (volumes), and contained over 50,000 precriptions drawn from 150 medical works ranging from the Qin period (221-206 BCE) to the early Ming (1368-1644). The original text is no longer extant. This image comes from a Japanese facsimile made in 1861 (1st year of the Bunkyu era), which unfortunately lacks juan 155, 156, 09 and 220.

The text says: Spleen: Qi of kun (Earth), essence of Earth. Its colour is yellow. It looks like an inverted bowl. Its spirit has the form of the wind. Heart engenders yi thought, which is transformed into a Jade Woman. She is 7 cun tall (1 cun [Chinese/proportional inch] = c. 3 cm). She patrols about the treasure-house of the spleen.