[4] According to translator Vivienne Lo, it dates back to around 186 BCE,[4] during the Western Han dynasty,[8] although Ori Tavor suggests that the text "(reflects) a textual corpus that was already circulating as early as the 3rd century BC.

[10] Lo writes that it is "the earliest extant treatise on the Chinese tradition of daoyin", which she defines as "a regimen which adjusted personal hygiene, grooming, exercise, diet, sleep and sexual behaviour to the changing qualities of the four seasons.

The text, presented as the "way of Ancestor Peng"[12] (彭祖之道也) discusses the causes of sickness and introduces gymnastic exercises and sexual practices that are named after either animals or the specific ailments that they are thought to target.

Sweating profusely, they plunge themselves into water and proceed to lie down on the cold earth, not realizing that they should put on clothes.The Yinshu concludes by surmising that unlike "noble people",[17] members of the lower social classes were more prone to "(having) many illnesses and (dying) easily" because they were ignorant of daoyin and regulating their qi.

[18] The Yinshu echoes content found in the Huangdi Neijing, while a range of exercises listed in the former text are illustrated in the Daoyin Tu discovered at Mawangdui;[15] Charles Buck writes that the Yinshu "clarifies" the Daoyin Tu, citing an example of the former text explaining a "leading and declining" exercise illustrated in the latter work.