The acupuncture and moxibustion documentary characteristics of the『Dong-insuhyeolchimgudogyeong(銅人腧穴鍼灸圖經)』can be summarized into 5 parts such as the following.
1. The Index of Books lists the author of『Dong-indogyeong』as ‘Wang-yuil(王惟一)’ in some and ‘Wang-yudeok(王惟德)’ in others. Of these ‘Wang-yudeok’ is the name in the printed book and ‘Yuil(惟一)’ was the name it was changed into in order to make it different from the emperor Jinjong(眞宗) of the Song dynasty. Also, the sequence differs greatly among the original editions and sometimes even conflicts within itself, which makes very likely the possibility that the author of this book is not just one person, and that Wangyuil is just the main editor or screener.
2. The original printed edition of the Song(宋) dynasty has 3 volumes and the Cheonsoeng Seokgak(天聖 石刻) of the Song dynasty also has 3 volumes, but 「Hyeolsudosu(穴腧都數)」, 「Sumyeongdanggyeolsik(修明堂訣式)」, and 「Pichimgugyeol(避鍼灸訣)」 were added to the 3rd volume. Of these three 「Pichimgugyeol(避鍼灸訣)」 explains the 「Chimgupigijido(鍼灸避忌之圖)」 of the 2nd volume in writing, 「Sumyeongdanggyeolsik(修明堂訣式)」 explains the three human drawings from the front, side and lying down views in writing and was used to make bronze figures. 「Hyeolsudosu(穴腧都數)」 was possibly used to draw acupuncture points when making bronze figures.
During the Daejeong(大定) era of the Keum(金) dynasty Jinssi(陳氏) from the Pyeongsuseobang(平水書坊) revised this book and carved it into 5 volumes, and of those the 1st and 2nd volumes have characters that are very different from those of the rubbed copy of the stone carvings[石刻 拓本] from the Myeong(明) dynasty, which shows that it was taken from another book and not from the original text. The 3rd volume has added content from the stone carvings about accupuncture and moxibustion contraindication(鍼灸禁忌).
During the Myeong dynasty the 3 volumes of the『Dong-indogyeong(銅人圖經)』were carved on wood based on the Jungtong Sukgan(正統 石刻), and there were many reprints with the contents that are almost all the same, but the order of the original edition were not all the same. When analyzed from many angles, the original printed copy was carved after the Jungtong(正統) of the Myung dynasty.
3. The content on transport points[輸血] in『Dong-indogyeong(銅人圖經)』comes mostly from books like『Oedae(外臺)』「Myeongdang(明堂)」,『Taepyeongseonghyebang(太平聖惠方)』「Chimgyeong(鍼經)」,『Yeongchugyeong(靈樞經)』, Wangbing(王冰)'s annotation of『Somun(素問)』,『Cheon-geumyobang(千金要方)』「Chimgu(鍼灸)」, and does not have much new content added by Wang-yuil(王惟一). However when Wang quotes past documents, little is summarized, some are edited and most do not have their origin indicated(the titles of other books quoted in the book are to give some supplementary explanation or are copied from another book).
4. There are many mistakes Wangyuil made in using documents and doing historical research and they can be seen in two fields. One is that he did not fix the errors of past documents, and the other is that he did not know the sequence of past documents or did not understand the meaning of the text.
5. The content Wangyuil newly added can mostly be seen in the few annotations and aneo(按語) under the original ‘Geumbu(今附)’(‘Sinbu(新附)’). In order to see Wang's scholarly ideas and achievements we must rely on this part and the meridian entry of the transport points[輸血歸經] in the first part of the book. However we must not give credit to Wang for work that was done by former generations.