Comparative Guts

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SET 3a-f Kim Yemong et al. Ui’bang’ryuchui 醫方類聚, vol. 5, pp. 51-70

(original edition in Kyoto Palace, Japan; microfilm copy in National Library, Korea)
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Chinese ideas about the images of the animal spirits, here of the lungs, the heart, the liver, the spleen and the kidneys, all travelled to the lands we know as modern Korea, where Ui’bang’ryuchui 醫方類聚 (Classified Collection of Medical Remedies) 1477 CE reflects and reinterprets a Daoist vision of the internal landscape of the human body. Once again, we find that the meditative function of the animal images is not inconsistent with the material form of the organ which appears in the upper part of each image.