论《黄帝内经》脏腑的实体解剖观

非中医学人士往往根据传统中医理论中“肝生于左”的记载,认为中医学的人体解剖观不正确。我们认为,传统中医理论中的脏腑指的是某一种特定的功能系统,而并非现代医学所谓的只是一种实体解剖器官。因此,传统中医学与现代医学对于脏器的概念不是完全相同的。通过研究《黄帝内经》,我们发现“肝生于左”实际上是指肝在中国传统文化卦象中的相对位置,而非人体脏腑的解剖学或形态学位置。脏腑的本义是指实体解剖器官,其解剖位置与现代医学的认识基本一致,其功能也与现代医学的认识有某种相同之处。

Gross conception of anatomical structure of zang-fu viscera in Huangdi Neijing

The scientificalness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is often doubted and criticized for the record in Huangdi Neijing that the liver is located in the left of the human body. The most popular explanation of this criticism is that the conception of zang-fu viscera in TCM is quite different from which defined in Western medicine. It means that the zang-fu viscera in TCM are not exactly the corresponding anatomical organs in modern human anatomy but reflect the functions of some systems in human body. According to the classical theories of TCM in Huangdi Neijing, we consider that the record of liver located in the left of the human body is based on the Ba Gua (Eight Diagrams) of traditional Chinese philosophy, not the human anatomy. In brief, the conception of zang-fu viscera is initially a gross anatomical conception, and in a sense the anatomic sites and functions of which are mostly similar to those described in Western medicine.