Symbolic illustration of the liver. One of a set of five illustrations of internal organs fromUibang-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: Liver: Qi ofzhen(Thunder), essence of Wood. Its colour is blue/green (qing, glaucous). It looks like a suspended gourd. Its spirit has the form of a blue/green dragon.Liver engenders the hun soul, which is transformed into Two Jade Children, one dressed in blue/green and the other in yellow. Each of them is 9cuntall (1cun[Chinese/proportional inch] = c. 3 cm). Holding the jade syrup, they emerge from the treasure-house of the liver.
Woodcut and letterpress