针灸始于春秋战国时期，宋代以前只有文字叙述或图形表示，而且错讹较多。北宋天圣5年(1027年)，东京翰林医官王惟一，经过反复研究，集针灸、铸造、雕塑之精华，终于由他设计、监制而铸造了中国和世界上最早的两具针灸铜人。这两具铜人，—具放在翰林医官院，一具放在开封大相国寺。
        
    针灸铜人身高162厘米，胸围88.6厘米，为男性全裸立像，造型逼真，结构精巧，全身铸有经络和针孔穴健354个。铜人四肢内有木刻骨骼，体腔内有木制脏腑，可分可合。铜人经涂蜡穿衣，内注清水，即成为教学和考试的模型，受试者如能准确地找到穴位，则针入水出，稍有偏差针就不能刺入，这是世界医学史上最早的医学教学模型和人体解剖模型，在铸造艺术史上也占有重要地位。宋以后各代均将其视为国宝，称为“天圣铜人”。天圣铜人在开封陈列了整整100年，北宋亡后，几经沧桑，一具至明末战乱时丢失，一具于18世纪末流落到日本，现藏于日本东京国立博物馆。
 

Bronze Acupuncture Status 
         
 

    Acupuncture and moxibustion stems from Chunqiu and Zhanguo Era. There were only simple word descriptions and pictures and many of them were often wrong. In Tiansheng's fifth year of Northern Song, a medical official in the Imperial Palace, Wang Weiyi, studied trial and error and designed-created two bronze acupuncture statuses, which combined the essence of acupuncture, foundry and sculptures together and was the earliest examples in China as well as in the World. 
         
    Bronze acupuncture status is a naked male figure with 162 cm height and 354 pinhole acupuncture holes, vividly and ingeniously. There are wood skeleton in his arms and eggs, wood internal organs in his stomach, which can be broken up and united together as well. After waxed, dressed and put into water, they can be used as models to teach and have tests. These are the most early medical teaching models and human anatomy models, and are also set an important position in foundry art history. Every imperial court after Song Dynasty regarded them as national treasure and called them Tiansheng Bronzed Status. These two statuses were exhibited in Kaifeng for 100 years until the ruin of Song Court. Later, one of them was lost at the end of Ming Dynasty, another wandered to Japan and nowadays is stored in Tokyo National Museum.