Acupuncture in Ancient China: How Important Was It Really?
Overview
Rehabilitation Medicine
Authors
Affiliations
Although acupuncture theory is a fundamental part of the Huangdi Neijing, the clinical application of the needle therapy in ancient China was always a limited one. From early times there have been warnings that acupuncture might do harm. In books like Zhang Zhongjing's Shanghanlun it plays only a marginal role. Among the 400 emperors in Chinese history, acupuncture was hardly ever applied. After Xu Dachun called acupuncture a "lost tradition" in 1757, the abolition of acupuncture and moxibustion from the Imperial Medical Academy in 1822 was a radical, but consequent act. When traditional Chinese medicine was revived after 1954, the "New Acupuncture" was completely different from what it had been in ancient China. The conclusion, however, is a positive one: The best time acupuncture ever had was not the Song dynasty or Yuan dynasty, but is now - and the future of acupuncture does not lie in old scripts, but in ourselves.
Proteomics and its application in the research of acupuncture: An updated review.
Zhong Z, Sun M, He M, Huang H, Hu G, Ma S Heliyon. 2024; 10(12):e33233.
PMID: 39022010 PMC: 11253069. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e33233.
Dr. Lian Zhu: A Founder of Contemporary Acupuncture Medicine.
Fan A, Faggert Alemi S Med Acupunct. 2023; 35(4):195-201.
PMID: 37609552 PMC: 10440647. DOI: 10.1089/acu.2023.0034.
Li L, Wang X, Guo J, Chen Y, Wang Z Front Neurosci. 2023; 17:1167620.
PMID: 37123377 PMC: 10133506. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1167620.
Mahasti S, Caroline B, Bernard A, Yunfen L, Jianyun N, Dequan L J Tradit Chin Med. 2022; 42(2):289-295.
PMID: 35473351 PMC: 9924663. DOI: 10.19852/j.cnki.jtcm.2022.02.008.
Wang C, Han E, Jenkins M, Hong X, Pang S, Whitehead L Palliat Care Soc Pract. 2022; 16:26323524211070569.
PMID: 35036916 PMC: 8755931. DOI: 10.1177/26323524211070569.