Most scholars presume that the original title of the Lingshu was either Zhenjing (鍼經 "Classic of Acupuncture" or "Needling Canon") or Jiujuan (九卷 "Nine Fascicles").
The earliest extant edition was made in 1339 and 1340, under the Yuan dynasty, by a publishing house called the Gulin shutang 古林書堂.
[8] One copy of this edition is still preserved at the National Library of China (Guojia tushuguan 国家图书馆) in Beijing.
Many practitioners through the ages have believed that the name "Lingshu" reflected the complex esoteric nature of the writings.
It has been suggested that only someone of sufficient spiritual advancement (i.e. "Ling") could fully understand its true messages.