Eight Section Brocade

In 1973, archeologists in China excavated the tomb of king Ma who lived in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD). In this tomb at Mawangdui, on the outskirts of the city of Changsha in Hunan Province, they discovered medical manuals, compilations, and a silk scroll on which were drawn 44 humans in various poses or postures. Under each pose, or Dao-yin diagram, was a caption with the name of an animal or the name of the disease that the posture might help cure. A number of the postures in the Dao-yin Tu closely resemble some in the Eight Section Brocade (The Wonders of Qigong, 1985, pp. 13-17).