Following the discovery of the Han Tombs at Tianhui in Sichuan province, the mention of skin color examination in the medical bamboo texts Maishu shangjing (脉书·上经, Book of the Channels: Book One) and Ni shun wuse mai zang yan jingshen (逆顺五色脉臧验精神, Contrary and Complying, Five Colors, Channels and Viscera in Observing the Essence and Spirit) found there has received considerable attention. In particular, it has not easy for scholars to understand the meaning of the term “tongse xiangcheng” (同色相乘, the same facial colors cover each other), because of a lack of relevant materials in received medical texts. In this paper, based on both excavated and received medical texts, the author asserts that the term “tongse xiangcheng” reflects the concrete application of the color diagnosis in the bamboo slips. In addition, following the principles of kese (客色, the color of the face reflects the pulse conditions and syndromes) and bense (本色, the facial color corresponding to the four seasons of nature), and the dictum that “if the inner dominates the outer then death will occur, and if outer dominates inner it can be treated”, the meaning of “tongse xiangcheng” should be: in the five sensory organs, the facial color corresponding to the four seasons covers the sick color presented by the five organs through the five channels, and thus dominates. The idea of attaching importance to bense in the theory of color diagnosis in the bamboo slips still existed in later medical records
Ning CHEN (Sun,) studied this question.