The Huangdi Mingtang Jing was compiled between the late Western Han Dynasty and the Yanping era of the Eastern Han Dynasty (138 BC to 106 AD), and is considered the first specialized work on acupuncture points in China. During the pre-Qin and Han periods, before acupuncture and moxibustion formed an independent specialty, a large amount of content related to acupuncture and moxibustion treatment was scattered in medical texts such as "medical classics" and "classical formulas." According to the "Hanshu?Yiwenzhi," there were seven schools of medical classics and eleven schools of classical formulas, totaling 490 volumes. The Huangdi Mingtang Jing represents a comprehensive summary of the scattered acupuncture and moxibustion literature in medical texts before the Han Dynasty. It extensively collected a vast amount of acupuncture and moxibustion literature from the Han Dynasty and earlier, including the Neijing, and for the first time systematically summarized and unified the names, locations, indications, and techniques of acupuncture points. Its emergence marked a qualitative leap in the field of acupuncture and moxibustion following the Neijing, transitioning from no specialized works to a significant increase in the number of acupuncture points. In China, before the Song Dynasty, acupuncture and moxibustion teaching and clinical point selection were almost entirely based on this book. Therefore, the Huangdi Mingtang Jing served as a de facto standard in the early development of acupuncture and moxibustion in China, profoundly influencing the development of acupuncture points in later generations.

Historically, the Huangdi Mingtang Jing was also referred to as "Nose" or "Mingtang Jing." Tracing back to ancient history, the term "nose" originally referred to a type of building during the Huangdi era, used for observing celestial phenomena, surveying the four directions, and conducting significant political and cultural activities. Later, the term "nose" was commonly prefixed to acupuncture point texts, primarily because ancient people employed the method of "analogical comparison," a common approach in Chinese medicine. In the theory of acupuncture and moxibustion points, the points were categorized into twelve meridians, each with five transport points, arranged from bottom to top, similar to the twelve chambers of the "nose" building, where the emperor would reside in a different chamber each month. Additionally, the principle of selecting five transport points in acupuncture and moxibustion treatment was related to seasonal changes, aligning with the characteristics of the "nose." Since the Huangdi Mingtang Jing used the term "nose" in its title, the term gradually became synonymous with acupuncture and moxibustion point texts, eventually becoming a synonym for acupuncture points.

The earliest citation of the Mingtang Jing was in the Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing during the Wei and Jin periods. However, since the Jiayi Jing was a compendium, it did not copy the Mingtang Jing in its original form. The Tang Dynasty government twice ordered the revision of the Mingtang Jing: once by Zhen Quan, who wrote the "Nose Diagram," and once by Yang Shang-shan, who compiled and annotated the thirteen-volume Huangdi Neijing Mingtang under imperial decree. Another notable version is the Huangdi Mingtang Jing annotated by Yang Xuan-cao. Among these, Yang Shang-shan's Huangdi Neijing Mingtang is particularly significant as it preserved more of the original content of the Huangdi Mingtang Jing. Unfortunately, only the preface and part of the first volume survive, housed in the Ninna-ji Temple in Japan. However, it is comforting that even though the book is incomplete, its content has been recorded in the "Ishinp?" by Tanba Yasuyori, making the existing "Ishinp?" a valuable resource for studying the Huangdi Mingtang Jing.

It is worth mentioning that among the ancient medical scrolls unearthed in Dunhuang, China, there are three fragments of acupuncture and moxibustion literature. After?? by Japanese scholar Ozato Hiroshi, these were confirmed to be an ancient version of the Huangdi Mingtang Jing.

Additionally, based on the content of the Mingtang Jing preserved in texts such as the Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing and "Ishinp?," researcher Huang Longxiang from the Acupuncture and Moxibustion Research Institute of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, through meticulous?? and collation studies, and with the valuable materials accumulated over the years provided by Wang Xuetai, reconstructed the Mingtang Jing in 1988 under the title "Huangdi Mingtang Jing: Collated Edition."