針灸始于春秋戰國時期，宋代以前只有文字敘述或圖形表示，而且錯訛較多。北宋天圣5年(1027年)，東京翰林醫官王惟一，經過反復研究，集針灸、鑄造、雕塑之精華，終于由他設計、監制而鑄造了中國和世界上最早的兩具針灸銅人。這兩具銅人，—具放在翰林醫官院，一具放在開封大相國寺。
        
    針灸銅人身高162厘米，胸圍88.6厘米，為男性全裸立像，造型逼真，結構精巧，全身鑄有經絡和針孔穴健354個。銅人四肢內有木刻骨骼，體腔內有木制臟腑，可分可合。銅人經涂蠟穿衣，內注清水，即成為教學和考試的模型，受試者如能準確地找到穴位，則針入水出，稍有偏差針就不能刺入，這是世界醫學史上最早的醫學教學模型和人體解剖模型，在鑄造藝術史上也占有重要地位。宋以后各代均將其視為國寶，稱為“天圣銅人”。天圣銅人在開封陳列了整整100年，北宋亡后，幾經滄桑，一具至明末戰亂時丟失，一具于18世紀末流落到日本，現藏于日本東京國立博物館。
 

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.