Anatomical Roots of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture

The earliest historic reference to a dissection of a human cadaveris found in the biography of Emperor Wang Mang who in 16C.E. ordered the m e d i c a l dissection of the b o d y of a rebelnamed Wang Sun-Ching. （ O c c i d e n t a l a n a t o m yb e g a n o n l y 1 5 0 0 y e a r s l a t e r . ） Measurementswere made of his internal organs, and bamboo rods were insertedinto his blood vessels in order to discover where they begin andwhere they end for the purpose of a better understanding of howto cure diseases. Similar anatomical dissections are mentioned inchapter 12 of the Huang-Di Nei-Jing Ling-Shu entitled Jing-Shui . The ancient Chinese characters for bodydissections given here are the same as in modern Chineseanatomy, namely Jie-Pou . The courses of the pathways aslaid out in chapter 10 of the Ling-Shu-Jing are basic foracupuncture and could well be the result of such dissections.Otherwise it cannot be explained why ancient Chinese physiciansw e r e a b l e t o d e n o m i n a t e the respective visceraproperly with names still in use today, how they could locate themtopographically in correct position, and link them to the vesselpathways leading to the periphery of the human body. The majorityof Western acupuncturists adhere to far-fetched assumptions about“meridians”, “channels”, “points” and “energy” which have neverexisted. That is why modern acupuncture finally needs ananatomical nomenclature for daily practice and scientificresearch including all structures involved which are still the sameas some 2000 years ago.