Symbolic image of the lung: Chinese/Korean/Japanese

Symbolic illustration of the lung. 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: Lung: Qi of dui (Lake), essence of Metal. Its colour is white. It looks like a suspended rock. Its spirit has the form of a white beast. Lung engenders the po soul, which is transformed into a Jade Child. It is 7 cun tall (1 cun [Chinese/proportional inch] = c. 3 cm). It wears a plain garment and holds a martial rod, and goes in and out of the mansion of the lung. The lung is sometimes said to have seven children and 14 jade women guarding it.