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Ishinpō (医心方, ishinpō or ishinhō) is the oldest surviving Japanese medical text. It was completed in 984 by Tamba Yasuyori and is 30 volumes in length. The work is partly based on a Chinese medical work called Zhubing Yuanhou Lun 诸病原候论 (Treatise on the Many Illnesses), compiled by Sui Dynasty author Chao Yuanfang. Many of the texts cited in Ishinpō have been lost in China, and have only survived to the present through their inclusion in the work. It is a national treasure of Japan.
The structural organization of the text is as follows:
The Ishinpō is notable for preserving some of the Taoist sexual manuals from the Han to the Tang dynasty. The twenty-eighth section of the Ishinpō contains a complete transcription of a Daoist text known as The Classic of Sunu which is a dialogue between the Dark Maiden and the Yellow Emperor, with the former providing advice on sexual practices to the latter.
While the text is written in kanbun, Japanese terms are written to the side in Man'yōgana for plants, animals, and minerals.