The Literature Research Of Ancient Acu-moxbustion Verses

The verses of acupuncture and moxbustion are a valuable cultural heritage of traditional Chinese medicine; they are the distillation of ancient physicians'scholarship, clinical experiences and lessons. Passed down for thousands of years, they solidified into rich and unique categories. Such verses are well respected and widely recited by beginning acupuncturists as rhyming mnemonics for their conciseness and ease of memorization.The myriad of acu- moxbustion verses exists in a messy collection and is scattered across various literature; its patterns of origination, development, and evolution are also incredibly complicated. Previous studies have not comprehensively surveyed or systematically analyzed the verses'development, content, quantity, categories, functions, and lineage. This dissertation aims to comprehensively synthesize and systematically analyze the ancient acu- moxbustion verses by collecting various verses; recording each verse and analyzing its background, content, and functions drawn from the ancient acupuncture literature; comparing their differences; charting their lineage; and elucidating their development origins. This paper seeks to attain general knowledge concerning the origins, development, content, quantity, categories and functions of the verses.Research shows that the acu- moxbustion verses originated in Song Dynasty, flourished in Jin and Yuan Dynasties, matured in Ming Dynasty and declined in Qing Dynasty. Within the 45 acupuncture-related works, there are 1045 acu- moxbustion verses– discounting the duplicate verses within the 1497 verses calculated by the minimum unit. They fall into five categories– combination therapeutic 405 verses, meridians and points 539, eight therapeutic methods and points 31, liuzhu 34 and countraindication 36. Each category holds significant value in literature and serves important clinical functions. By researching the content, functions, and lineage of each verse and category, the paper arrives at a thorough understanding of the development and evolution of the ancient acupuncture scholarship.