Yi Zhi Research Articles

Extract of Yi Zhi Fang improves learning and memory behaviours of mice and its possible mechanisms

The effects of Yi Zhi Fang extract (YZF) on learning and memory performances were investigated in mice using passive avoidance tasks. Oral administration of YZF improved learning and memory disorders induced by chemicals in both normal and senile mice. The acetylcholine (Ach) concentration, the muscarinic Ach receptors (M-R) and the monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) activities were analysed by a radioimmunoassay, a radioligand receptor binding assay and UV spectrophotometry, respectively, using senile decapitated mice. The oral administration of YZF to the senile mice increased the M-R concentration, while the concentration of Ach and the activity of MAO-B decreased in senile mice brains. From these results it is evident that YZF promotes the function of the central cholinergic system and inhibits the activity of MAO-B in mice brains resulting in an enhancement of learning and memory.

A First Reading of the Mawangdui Yijing Manuscript

Among the texts discovered in December, 1973, at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan, was by far the earliest manuscript text (copied about 175 B.C.) of the Zhouyi or Zhou Changes, together with various commentaries, some known—such as the “Xici” or “Appended Statements”— and others —”Ersanzi Wen” or “The Two or Three Disciples Ask,” “Yi zhi Yi” or “The Propriety of the Changes,” and “Yao” or “Essentials”—not heretofore known. Despite the great anticipation with which scholars learned of this discovery, it was not until twenty years later, 1993, that this manuscript was finally published, and even at that only incompletely. In this comte rendu, the author introduces the state and contents of the manuscript, including especially how it varies from the received text, and some of the debate that these variora have already engendered among historians of Chinese thought.