초록
Objective : Due to the tendency of researchers to avoid anatomical approach to East Asian medical classics, their ideas on seminal pathways have not been clearly reconstructed yet. So we tried to concretely reconstruct the pathway of semen described in ancient East Asian classics. Methods : Besides analysing the literal description about seminal pathways, we gathered and classified the ancient Viscera Drawings drawn in East Asian countries - especially the drawings in lateral view, and morphologically analysed them with some literal material. Results : We found that there were 3 major streams in the ancient Asian ideas on the seminal pathways. The first one was the modality originated from Hwangjenaegyeong(黃帝內經), which suggested the semen flew out of the kidney. The second one was the modality arose under the influence of Taoist thinking, which suggested the semen was originated from the brain and spinal cord. The last one was revision of the first modality by Janggaebin(張介賓), which asserted semen was originated from the kidney, but was ejaculated via Myeongmun(命門). Conclusion : On the seminal pathways, there had been 2 types of ideas focussing on kidney and one idea focussing on brain and spinal cord in East Asian tradition.