Feb., 1912. Jade. 67 



"The Tung shan king says: 'The mountains of Kao-shih and Fu-li 

 abound in the stone for acupuncture needles.' Kuo P'o (276-324 a. d.) 

 remarks in his commentary to the dictionary Erh-ya that instead of 

 pien also chen can be written. — The medical work Su wen i fa fang i 

 lun says: 'In the regions of the eastern quarter there is a place where 

 salt is fished from the sea. The water along the beach of the sea is 



Fig. 10. 

 Stone Hatchets in Ornamental Composition (from Fang-skih mo p'u). 



wholesome in the cure of sores and ulcers and conveys its beneficial 

 effects to the acupuncture stones; hence the latter come also from the 

 eastern region. — Wang Ping, a physician of the eighth century, states 

 in his commentary (to the Huang-ti su wen): 'The stones called pien 

 are like jade and may be called also needles (chin). The ancients 

 made the acupuncture needles of stone; the more recent generations 

 substituted iron for the stone. The people of the present time use a 

 porcelain needle to perform acupuncture on the same principle derived 

 from the stone needles. Only we do not know any longer the stone 



