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The two techniques are so closely related that they are referred to in Chinese with one word, zhenjiu -- acupuncture (zhen, needle) plus moxibustion (jiu, to burn).
A new English word containing these two meanings, acu-moxa, has been coined recently.
However, the intrinsic differences between acupuncture and moxibustion make it necessary to consider their origins separately.
Moxibustion is a type of traditional Chinese medicine that treats disease and disorder by stimulating the acupoints and meridians with heat.
The invention of moxibustion was directly related to the discovery and use of fire by prehistoric humans.
All animals, people included, instinctively prefer warmth and dislike cold.
Even plants exhibit phototaxic or thermotoaxic properties.
The application of heat for healing is universal, and has been part of numerous recorded medical traditions including those of ancient Greece and Rome.
At some point in prehistory, our ancestors discovered that fire could be used not only to cook their food and warm their bodies, but also to relieve or even cure their ills.
But puncturing the body with needles is by no means an instinctive reaction when one is sick or in pain.
Most people prefer not to be punctured with needles, and associate needling with pain and injury.
No wonder, "to give somebody the needle," means to displease or to irritate in English.
Many plants and animals have taken advantage of this natural response, and evolved thorns or quills as weapons to protect themselves from attack.
Needling will cause some degree of physical trauma, no matter how fine the needle or skillful the practitioner.
A modern report shows that when a needle 0.
2 mm in diameter, the size of modern acupuncture needles, is used to puncture a rabbit, four to twenty muscle fibers and ten to twenty nerve fibers are damaged1.
The degree of trauma was much greater in antiquity, when needles were much more massive.
Even in the more recent past, thick acupuncture needles, up to 2 mm in diameter, were still occasionally used.
What seems even more illogical is that acupuncture is often applied distally, rather than locally.
It is clear that the direct application of warmth can relieve local discomfort.
It is also clear why it may be necessary to cause further trauma to an injured area in certain situations, such as when surgery is required or a broken bone must be set.
But it is by no means obvious why acupuncture often calls for needling points far distant from the location of the problem.
One of the principles of acupuncture instructs: Needle the lower to cure the upper.
For instance, a common acupuncture treatment requires needling LI4-Hegu, located on the hand, to relieve toothache.
It would seem to the layperson that the healthy hand has nothing to do with the diseased head-- why should it be traumatized? Although acupuncture can sometimes be painful, it causes no serious or lasting injury when carried out correctly.
Many people are willing to endure the minor pain of needling in order to relieve a major problem.
Unfortunately, acupuncture may seem frightening to some, especially in the West where it is often misunderstood and misrepresented.
For instance, the entry for acupuncture in as respected a source as the Encyclopedia Americana contains a picture of a man's head punctured with over seventy needles.
However, a properly trained and experienced acupuncturist would never needle in such an exaggerated and excessive manner.
Most surprisingly, among all the holistic systems of healing invented in the ancient world, acupuncture alone was unique to China.
There are no corresponding or even similar healing systems in the early medical traditions of other cultures.
Acupuncturists today still adhere to the same doctrines and manipulate needles in the same ways as their counterparts in the days of the Nei Jing, or Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor, the earliest known treatise on acupuncture (circa 104-34 BC).
Despite the introduction of painless and non-invasive methods such as acupressure or point stimulation using electricity or shortwaves, needling has remained the primary treatment method in acupuncture.
Notes and References 1.
Wang Benxian, Foreign Research on the Meridians (Guowai Dui Jingluo Wenti De Yanjiu).
Beijing: People's Health Press, 1984, p.
260 .
If you would like to learn classical Chinese acupuncture and its relation to traditional Chinese cultures lick on over to Bai Xinghua's site at http://www.
visibleholism.
com
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