"The Woodcarving Three Emperors and Sun Simiao's Portrait" and the System of Sacrifice to Three Emperors

Abstract

"The Woodcarving Three Emperors and Sun Simiao's Portrait" of the Ming Dynasty preserved at the Chinese Museum for History of Medicine is the historical witness of the System of Sacrifice to Three Emperors. The "Three Emperors" are original ancestors of Chinese nation. In the Song and Jin Dynasties, they were gradually regarded as an ancestor of traditional Chinese medicine with a single entity and the father of medicine by medical practitioners. Until the Yuan Dynasty, side by side with the medical schools nationwide, the government regarded the "Three Emperors" as Medical Immortals set up the Temple of Three Emperors, and held two yearly national festivals in the spring and autumn, respectively, thus creating the System of Sacrifice to Three Emperors. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this System gradually evolved with its political halo faded away. The Temple of Three Emperors and Temple of King of Medicine appeared at the same time, and they incorporated and developed into a common temple where people pray for getting rid of diseases.