Acupuncture

History of acupuncture

To those people who are used to the Western tradition of medicine, the Chinese diagnosis of illness in terms of invasion of the body by wind, heat, or other factors may seem bizarre. You must remember, however, that this diagnosis is intended to be less a literal description of what is going on within the body (although it can sometimes be extremely accurate) than an indication of what form the treatment should take, since diagnosis and treatment are inextricably linked. When an acupuncturist puts a needle into a point that is specific for dispelling wind from the body, he doesn't expect a rush of air to occur, as though it was being released from a pricked balloon. What he does expect, however, is that when he has diagnosed a disease as being due to invasion by wind, the use of such wind-dispelling points will enable him to improve the patient's condition.

In Western medicine a single diagnosis does not necessarily mean that only one form of treatment is available to the patient. For example, a woman who has abnormally heavy periods may be treated with hormone tablets or with a "scrape" of the uterus. A patient suffering from depression may be offered antidepressant tablets, electroconvulsive therapy, or psychotherapy. And if a condition is treated with medication, the doctor may be able to choose from among a large number of medications that work in different ways. But in acupuncture treatment is far more clear-cut. If a patient has a disease that has been caused by invasion by heat, then the treatment is to rid him of the excessive heat, to balance out any consequent imbalance of yin and yang, and to restore the flow of Chi to normal.

For a patient in whom an injury has caused a blockage of the normal flow of Chi (for example, a patient with a sprained ankle) and where pain is being caused by the blockage or by stagnant blood, the treatment is to release the block or disperse the blood. Naturally, this all sounds very unscientific, as well it might when you remember that these are the descriptions that have been used for more than two thousand years. However, it is the indication that these descriptions give us as to treatment that is important. And since in the hands of an expert a diagnosis - and the treatment that automatically follows from it - can produce remarkably beneficial results, it seems unimportant that the diagnosis is couched in terms that have no relevance to modern Western medicine.

The concepts of energy and Ying-Yang

The Chinese ideogram for "energy," pronounced ch'i, depicts the lid of a pot being raised by steam while on a fire. What is shown is not the steam but the force or energy of the steam. As with the falling apple of Newton, we see the effect (the lid being raised) but not the force causing the effect. This force, whether Newton's gravity or the Chinese ch'i, is extant though invisible. The Chinese consider good health to be a state of energy balance within the human body; therefore they regard body tissues and structures primarily in relation to the energy activating them. There is in this a superficial similarity to the Western medical concept that an organ's activity is sustained by chemical and neurological impulses - in effect, energy.

But the Chinese view energy not only as the force maintaining bodily processes but as the primary component of all physiological activities. Furthermore, this energy varies not only quantitatively but qualitatively, manifesting in the polar forms of yin and yang energy.

Energy in its basic, undifferentiated state - as potential rather than active force - is termed Tao, the One underlying all phenomena. Tao is manifest in all things through the dynamic interaction of the two polar energy - forces called yin and yang, antagonistic yet complementary in action. As the Nei Ching states: "The universe is an oscillation of the forces of yin and yang and their changes."

There is no absolute yin or yang. Each exists relative to the other, and their relativity and inseparability are symbolized by the inclusion, in the Chinese yin-yang symbol, of a small portion of each within the other. Neither can exist without the other. This relativity of yin and yang and the dynamic tension of their interaction are the basis of thought and expression in Chinese philosophy, religion, literature, and art, as well as medicine.

We may think of yin and yang as the negative and positive poles, respectively, within a galvanic current flow; each is separate and distinct in expression, but both are part of the current. The current itself cannot exist without the bipolarity of its elements. The Chinese have extrapolated from this to consider the feminine as yin, the masculine as yang. Cold, dark, the passive, that which is deep or hidden are yin; heat, light, the active, that which is on the surface are yang. The earth and moon are associated with yin, the sky and sun with yang. Water is considered yin, while fire is considered yang. This dualism persists through all things: foods, attitudes, personal characteristics, and so on. At the same time, yin and yang are constantly interacting and changing, for one never exists in isolation from the other. In terms of medicine, this interaction is the basis of the energy pervading and activating the body, and imbalance in the relative amounts of yin and yang energy is seen as the root of all pathology.

This dynamic force of energy is constantly circulating within the body by means of the meridians; its movement in the body is a necessary condition for life. Energy is constant of itself but varies in manifestation. The Chinese use a simple example to illustrate this "changing sameness." A vertical plank has a top and a bottom; on reversing the ends of the plank the bottom becomes the top, and vice versa. The plank remains the same, but its parts have different names according to their positions relative to the center, and their properties vary according to their relative positions. The top has a greater energy potential than the bottom because of the force generated by falling. Likewise, the energy of the body is constant but shows different aspects according to the way it is used and the modifications it undergoes.

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