The Meaning Characteristics of 聖人 in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Classic Huangdi Neijing

Abstract

Since the Western Zhou dynasty in China, the word 聖人began to have a special meaning, entered various social fields such as literature and history and medicine, and gradually integrated into Chinese traditional culture. As an important symbol of traditional Chinese medicine culture, 聖人 shows a basic category of the core concept and value system of traditional Chinese medical classics represented by the book of Huangdi Neijing(also named The Inner Canon of Huangdi) in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties. In Huangdi Neijing which is the foundation work of the theoretical system of traditional Chinese medicine, 聖人is not only a man with perfect personality under the traditional Chinese moral and ethical concepts, but also a regimen practitioner and a master of universe laws and the best model of physical and mental health. Based on the traditional Chinese medicine book Huangdi Neijing, this paper uses the knowledge of Chinese philology and traditional Chinese medicine culture to trace the origin meaning of the Chinese word 聖人 from the perspective of genesis, and examines the semantic evolution of 聖人 and its cultural characteristics in the development of the Chinese nation and the Traditional Chinese medicine