"The points are not merely normal, each has a profound
meaning." Sun Si Miao
Acupuncture Points. The word "point" is a linear concept; a
coordinate, the intersection of two lines. The Western system
for recognition of the names of Acupuncture Points is distinctly
different than what the Chinese student learns. To the Western
mind, memorization of a numbered sequence, channel by channel,
and the linear points that are identified by alphanumeric codes
is all that is required.
However efficient this may seem to the Western mind, Western
students of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture to be
specific, have been deprived of a significant advantage that the
Chinese Acupuncture students have had for millennia: insights
into Chinese culture, medicine and learning about each
individual Acupuncture point in and of itself.
Traditionally, the knowledge of Chinese Medicine was handed down
from father to son, teacher to apprentice. The son was required
to memorize the classics, and point names with mnemonic symbols
helped in remembering the important information of Acupuncture
Points. The Master may also have hidden his secrets in point
names, with the meanings known only to his students, thus
protecting his secrets from other practitioners and further,
protecting his income.
The selection of Acupuncture point names is a direct reflection
of the Taoist view of man as a microscopic manifestation of the
entire universe, the Confucian commandments of social propriety
and China's agrarian culture's observation of and dependence on
nature. "With heaven above and earth below," man was viewed as
the ever flowing interchange of yin and yang subject to the five
phases and utterly inseparable from the Tao itself.
With time and study, the Acupuncture point names become much
more than labels- they become guides to the understanding of the
points and the system of medicine that named them.
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