Although Ch’i is a core principle in acupuncture, different schools have evolved over the centuries and developed their own interpretations of how Ch’i flows through the body. For instance, some acupuncturists work on the basis of fourteen main meridians carrying Ch’i, while the majority support the notion that the body contains only twelve main meridians. Similarly, different schools of acupuncture have included additional concepts, such as yin and yang, and interpreted them in different ways. While some schools divided yin and yang into three subcategories, others divided them into four. Because there are so many schools of acupuncture, it is impractical to give a detailed description of each of them, but these are the core principles:
Each meridian is associated with and connects to one of the major organs.
Each meridian has an internal and an external pathway. Although the internal pathways are buried deep within the body, the external ones are relatively near the surface and are accessible to needling.
There are hundreds of possible acupuncture points along the meridians.
Depending on the school and the condition being treated, the acupuncturist will insert needles at particular points on particular meridians.
The penetration depth varies from 1 centimetre to over 10 centimetres, and often the therapy involves rotating the needles in situ.
Needles can be left in place for a few seconds or a few hours.
Before deciding on the acupuncture points, as well as the duration, depth and mode of needling, the acupuncturist must first diagnose the patient. This relies on five techniques, namely inspection, auscultation, olfaction, palpation and inquiring. Inspection means examining the body and face, including the colour and coating of the tongue. Auscultation and olfaction entail listening to and smelling the body, checking for symptoms such as wheezing and unusual odours. Palpation involves checking the patient’s pulse: importantly, acupuncturists claim to be able to discern far more information from this process than any conventional doctor. Inquiring, as the name suggests, means simply interviewing the patient.
Claims by the Chinese that acupuncture could successfully diagnose and miraculously cure a whole range of diseases inevitably aroused interest from the rest of the world. The first detailed description by a European physician was by Wilhelm ten Rhyne of the Dutch East India Company in 1683, who invented the word acupuncture in his Latin treatise De Acupunctura. A few years later, a German traveller and doctor named Engelbert Kaempfer brought back reports of acupuncture from Japan, where it was not restricted to specialist practitioners: ‘Even the common people will venture to apply the needle merely upon their own experience…taking care only not to prick any nerves, tendons, or con siderable blood vessels.’
In time, some European doctors began to practise acupuncture, but they tended to reinterpret the underlying principles to fit in with the latest scientific discoveries. For example, in the early nineteenth century Louis Berlioz, father of the famous composer, found acupuncture to be beneficial for relieving muscular pain and nervous conditions. He speculated that the healing mechanism might be linked to the findings of Luigi Galvani, who had dis covered that electrical impulses could cause a dissected frog’s leg to twitch. Berlioz suggested that acupuncture needles might be interrupting or enabling the flow of electricity within the body, thereby replacing the abstract notions of Ch’i and meridians with the more tangible concepts of electricity and nerves. This led to Berlioz’s proposal that the effects of acupuncture might be enhanced by connecting the needles to a battery.
At the same time, acupuncture was also growing in popularity in America, which prompted some physicians to conduct tests into its efficacy. For example, in 1826 there was an attempt in Philadelphia to resuscitate drowned kittens by inserting needles into their hearts, an experiment based on the claims of European acupuncturists. Unfortunately the American doctors had no success and ‘gave up in disgust’.
Meanwhile, European acupuncturists continued to publish articles reporting positive results, such as one that appeared in the Lancet in 1836 describing how acupuncture had been used to cure a swelling of the scrotum. At the same time, the therapy became particularly popular in high society thanks to its promotion by figures such as George O’Brien, 3rd Earl of Egremont, who was cured of sciatica. He was so impressed that he renamed his favourite racehorse Acupuncture as an act of gratitude towards the wondrous therapy.
Then, from around 1840, just when it seemed that acupuncture was going to establish itself within mainstream Western medicine, the wealthy elite adopted new medical fads and the number of acupuncturists dwindled. European rejection of the practice was mainly linked to disputes such as the First and Second Opium Wars between Britain and China, which led to a contempt for China and its traditions–acupuncture was no longer perceived as a potent therapy from the mysterious East, but instead it was considered a sinister ritual from the evil Orient. Meanwhile, acupuncture was also in decline back in China. The Daoguang Emperor (1782–1850) felt it was a barrier to medical progress and removed it from the curriculum of the Imperial Medical Institute.
By the start of the twentieth century, acupuncture was extinct in the West and dormant in the East. It might have fallen out of favour permanently, but it suddenly experienced a revival in 1949 as a direct result of the communist revolution and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Chairman Mao Tse‑tung engineered a resurgence in traditional Chinese medicine, which included not just acupuncture, but also Chinese herbal medicine and other therapies. His motivation was partly ideological, inasmuch as he wanted to reinforce a sense of national pride in Chinese medicine. However, he was also driven by necessity. He had promised to deliver affordable healthcare in both urban and rural regions, which was only achievable via the network of traditional healers, the so‑called ‘barefoot doctors’. Mao did not care whether traditional Chinese medicine worked, as long as he could keep the masses contented. In fact, his personal physician, Zhisui Li, wrote a memoir entitled The Private Life of Chairman Mao, in which he quoted Mao as saying, ‘Even though I believe we should promote Chinese medicine, I personally do not believe in it. I don’t take Chinese medicine.’
Because of China’s isolation, its renewed interest in acupuncture went largely unnoticed in the West–a situation which changed only when plans were being made for President Nixon’s historic trip to China in 1972. This was the first time that an American President had visited the People’s Republic of China, so it was preceded by a preparatory visit by Henry Kissinger in July 1971. Even Kissinger’s visit was a major event, so he was accompanied by a cohort of journalists, which included a reporter called James Reston. Unfortunately for Reston, soon after arriving in China he was struck by a stabbing pain in his groin. He later recalled how his condition deteriorated during the day: ‘By evening I had a temperature of 103 degrees and in my delirium I could see Mr. Kissinger floating across my bedroom ceiling grinning at me out of the corner of a hooded rickshaw.’
It soon became obvious that he had appendicitis, so Reston was urgently admitted to the Anti‑Imperialist Hospital for a standard surgical procedure. The operation went smoothly, but two nights later Reston began to suffer severe abdominal pains which were treated with acupuncture. He was cared for by Dr Li Chang‑yuan, who had not been to medical college, but who instead had served an apprenticeship with a veteran acupuncturist. He told Reston that he had learned much of his craft by practising on himself: ‘It is better to wound yourself a thousand times than to do a single harm to another person.’