Xie's Veterinary Acupuncture

Huisheng Xie, Vanessa Preast

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118692196
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Veterinary Medicine

Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine has been used to treat animals in China for thousands of years. Until now, the majority of the literature on Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine has been written in Chinese. Xie's Veterinary Acupuncture serves as a comprehensive and accessible reference on the basic principles, techniques and clinical application of veterinary acupuncture. Written by a world renowned authority on veterinary acupuncture and a panel of experts, the book incorporates a traditional Chinese approach to veterinary acupuncture, including ancient and newly developed acupuncture techniques for both small and large animals. With the growing interest in veterinary acupuncture worldwide, this ground-breaking and authoritative text is a timely resource for practitioners and students alike.

1

Introduction to Meridians

Huisheng Xie and Vanessa Preast

Upon arriving at an unfamiliar location, visitors orient themselves by obtaining a map of the city. Equipped with a clear illustration of the region’s roads, they easily recognize their current position and understand what routes will take them to the places they wish to visit.

Similarly, when starting to learn acupuncture, one must first know the Jing-Luo because it provides a map of the body and thus helps the novice to understand how to reach the goal. Like the highways and streets of a city, the Jing-Luo functions in a body by connecting one location to another. This system is so important that Ling-Shu (Spiritual Axis), a classical ancient text (published more than 2,200 years ago), states, “it determines life and death, treats all the diseases, and regulates both the Deficiency and Excess Patterns” and recommends that one “has to gain a thorough understanding of it” (chapter 10).

1-1. THE JING-LUO SYSTEM

There are two major components in the Jing-Luo system: Jing-Mai and Luo-Mai. Jing can be translated as meridian, channel, or major trunk. Mai means vessels. Luo is a collateral or branch. Thus, Jing-Mai translates as major trunk vessel, and it is also known as the channel. Luo-Mai refers to the collateral or branch vessels. These channels are the body’s equivalent of telephone lines, airways, rivers, highways, and city roads, which provide a means of communication and transport. The Jing-Mai is like a main telephone line, a major highway, an international airport, or a large river. The Luo-Mai is like a telephone extension, a small street, a minor connection airline, or a small river.

Jing-Mai consists of 12 regular channels, 8 extraordinary channels, and 12 regular channels’ associates, including 12 divergent meridians, 12 muscle regions, and 12 cutaneous regions. Luo-Mai consists of 15 collaterals, small branches (Sun-Luo), and superficial branches (Fu-Luo) (fig. 1.1).

The Jing-Luo system is the pathway through which Qi and blood circulate. It regulates the physiological activities of the Zang-Fu organs. It extends over the exterior of the body, but it pertains to the Zang-Fu organs located on the interior. It connects and correlates all the tissues and organs, forming a network that links the tissues and organs into an organic whole. Chapter 33 of Ling-Shu (Spiritual Axis) states that “twelve regular Channels are connected with the Zang-Fu organs internally and with the joints, limbs, and body surfaces externally.”

A. Discovery of the Jing-Luo System

The term Jing-Luo was first documented in the book Huang-di-nei-jing (Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine). Ancient Chinese medical practitioners discovered and gradually established the Jing-Luo system during their extensive clinical experiences. Two popular theories describe the discovery of this system: from a point to a line and from a line to a point.

FROM A POINT TO A LINE

In the beginning, ancient people may have observed that accidentally puncturing their body surfaces with a sharp object (such as a stone or twig) could relieve discomfort and pain. Later, they intentionally began to use the sharp objects to puncture the body at specific loci in order to treat illness and discomfort. These trials successfully relieved pain and encouraged the people to make special tools for this purpose.

The bian-shi was one such tool made during the Neolithic period (about 8,000 years ago). It was a quadrilateral, pyramidal stone about 4.5 cm in length with one end tapered to a very sharp point. The middle part was flat so that it could be held between two fingers (fig. 1.2). Archaeologists concluded that the bian-shi functioned in excising boils and stimulating certain points on the body. Thus, the bian-shi may have been a first-generation acupuncture needle, and the body loci at which it was used were acupuncture points (acupoints). As awareness increased and more people used the bian-shi, they discovered additional acupoints.

Further developments in tools occurred over time as technology advanced. A sharp bone needle (approximately 8,000 years ago) and then a metal needle (Shang Dynasty, 1600 to 1100 B.C.) were invented. These finer needles could be inserted to a deeper level into an acupoint. This increased the probability of achieving better clinical results and opened possibilities of treating additional diseases with acupuncture. Improvement of the tools led to discovery of more and more acupoints.

1.1. Parts of the Jing-Luo system.

The ancient practitioners reviewed their clinical results and linked the acupoints with similar functions to form a meridian (Jing-Luo) line. Thus, in this theory, the development from point to meridian is similar to how ancient towns were established first and then roadways were built to link the cities.

1.2. A bian-shi stone needle.

FROM A LINE TO A POINT

The needling sensation, or de-Qi, was well documented by ancient practitioners. After a needle is inserted at a certain point in the body, the patient will first feel soreness, numbness, heaviness, and distension around the point. The sensation then travels up or down along a special line in the body called the acupuncture sensational line. These sensational lines are the meridian pathways or channels. Much historic evidence indicates that the meridian lines were discovered before all of the individual acupoints. After identifying the path of a meridian, the ancient practitioners found the acupoints one by one.

In 1973, many ancient medical books were unearthed from the No. 3 Han Tomb at Mawandui, Chang-sha, Hunan Province, China. These included two silk scrolls containing the books Zu-bi-shi-yi-mai-jiu-jing (Foot-Hand Eleven Meridians and Moxibustion) and Yin-yang-shi-yi-mai-jiu-jing (Yin-yang Eleven Meridians and Moxibustion). As these were written earlier than the third century B.C., both books are older than Huang-di-nei-jing, which had been previously thought to be the earliest known explanation of the theory of Jing-Luo. Although these two books did not document the names of acupoints, they described the pathways of 11 channels (not including Pericardium) on the body surface.

Additional evidence that supports the line-to-point theory is that only 295 acupoints were recorded in Huang-di-nei-jing but 654 points were documented in Zhen-jiu-jia-yi-jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) written by Dr. Huang Fu Mi in A.D. 282, which was about 500 years...