Ancient Acupuncture Treatment Gough Acupoints Discussed

PurposesVerses on acu-moxibustion are an important component of Chinese ancient acupuncturology literature and have once made a great contribution to the popularization and development of acu-moxibustion medicine. The verses on acu-moxibustion not only cover meridian-collaterals and acupoints of the basic theory, but also involve needling, moxibustion and clinical treatment, of which, verses for clinical treatment are of greatest value.Verses on acu-moxibustion treatment are short, concise, comprehensive, easy to recite and very useful, and thus are cherished by acupuncturists of generations. Verses of acu-moxibustion embody the academic thoughts of Chinese ancient doctors, and are their crystallization of wisdom from abundant clinical experience and lessons, and passed on through thousands of years. Therefore, their academic contents in the verses are worthy of exploring and learning.However, in the past, systematic researches on the verses of acu-moxibustion, particularly on the extract of acupoints valuable in clinic, have been seldom seen.The present paper, as one of the sequent research contents of "the Project of National Standard for Acupoints and Their Clinical Indications" and one part of the "Chinese Dictionary of Acupoints" subsidized by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the State Administration of TCM of the People's Republic of China (PRC) respectively, aims to make an systematic investigation on the ancient verses on acu-moxibustion so as to refine the fundamental essences of the clinical indications and regularities of acupoints from literature on acu-moxibustion verses, through which, the outcomes can be used as the evidence for and supplements to the "National Standard for Clinical Indications of Acupoints" (draft ) from the angle of acu-moxibustion verses, and further, in order to provide a useful reference for the compilation of "ChineseDictionary of Acupoints", as well as to add new contents to the researches on the literature and clinical experience of acu-moxibustion.ContentsThe main contents of the present paper are:( 1 ) On the basis of systematical investigation on the verses of acu-moxibustion, this paper will point out or correct various errors, meaning to eliminate the false and retain the true;(2 ) Extracting the main contents of clinical indications of acupoint described in the 21 popular verses on acu-moxibustion, meaning to discard the dross and to choose the essential;( 3 ) By comparing the extracted clinical indications of acupoints from the verses with those in the text and annotation of the "National Standard for Clinical Indications of Acupoints" (draft), the present dissertation will propose adding some supplements to the "National Standard";(4) Making a standard description about the extracted indications of acupoints, including both the expression form and the terms of disease and its symptoms;(5 ) Summarizing the acupoint-selection according to diseases and symptoms described in the verses on acu-moxibustion.MethodologyThis dissertation emphasizes the use of multi methods, including annotation of the verses, comparison of literatures of same origin, investigation on the original literature, contrast of the related acupoint literature, comparison between the indications of acupoints in the verses and those in the "National Standard for Clinical Indications of Acupoints" (draft), and application of digital literature' system, by which, the credibility of the research outcomes of the present thesis is improved as much as possible.Results and ConclusionsBy systematical and deep investigation on the origin and development of the ancient acu-moxibustion verses, the present dissertation, for the first time, points out the heritage relationship among some important literature on acu-moxibustion verses, such as Tong Xuan Zhi Yao Fu (Ode to the Apprehension of Abstruse Essentials of Acupuncture), Yu. Long Ge (Jade Dragon Verse), Za Bing Xue Fa Ge (Verse on...