Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgments
CONTEXT
Introduction
Chapter 1 - The Circle
Chapter 2 - TCM and LA
Chapter 3 - Legendary Lessons in Virtue
Chapter 4 - From Mythology to Medicine: A History of TOM
Chapter 5 - History as Mystery: Traditional Acupuncture’s Journey to the West
6
ENDNOTES
APPENDIX - GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND CONCEPTS RELATIVELY UNIQUE TO LA, WITH ...
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Copyright Page
Dedicated to
Yanagiya Sorei and Tobe Soshichiro*–
whose lives embodied not just the letter, but the very spirit of traditional Oriental medicine;
whose work helped build the bridge between East and West across which I invite you to travel with me.
* With a special “thank you” to
Chieko Maekawa
for being my go-between.
PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION
Today, with so many books about acupuncture and Oriental medicine available, the interested reader must have some way to select one, or even a few, that will hopefully match their specific interests. I was fortunate that when I began studying acupuncture in the early 1970’s there were so few books in English that it was not difficult to simply read them all, but that is no longer a reasonable option. With that observation in mind, I would like to describe some of the unique features of this particular book, so that the reader can better determine if it seems likely to match his or her interests.
I will start by classifying this genre of books, not by their subject matter, but by their types of author, because one’s point of view is inevitably colored by one’s relationship to the subject at hand. In very broad terms books on this subject have been written by authors with the following backgrounds: sinologists (scholars of Chinese history and culture), professional practitioners, recipients of treatment and interested laity. Let me examine these one at a time.
Sinologists would seem to be the most excellent resource, especially as concerns the history of acupuncture, but one must exercise caution here. For the most part, the sinologists who have written about acupuncture have little or no practical experience of the material they discuss, and so do not have any meaningful criteria with which to judge what is valuable and reliable clinically, as opposed to what merely makes for an interesting story. They do not even have to believe in either the theory or efficacy of the practices they describe, and this is unfortunately the case with some of the current literature.
Professional practitioners, on the other hand, have a stake in how the subject is portrayed. There are literally dozens of styles of acupuncture practice, for example, and each will have its defenders and detractors. Perhaps the biggest split in this regard, is between physicians and non-physicians, who naturally are in competition for the patient’s health care dollars. Any given practitioner, however, will not necessarily be familiar with the other styles of practice, nor with the long history underlying their profession.
Similarly, patients who have been successfully treated will naturally focus on the style of treatment that worked for them, and will most likely be unaware that other styles of treatment even exist. Finally, lay authors might be expected to be least likely to produce reliable works, as they have neither the education of the sinologists, the training of the practitioners, nor the personal experience of the patients, however they may be excellent writers and storytellers, and for some readers this could be the most compelling criterion.
In this book I have tried to combine as many of these points of view as possible. Writing about Chinese history compelled me to learn a little about the written Chinese language, so I studied under and then taught collaboratively with the late Father Claude Larre, principal compiler of the esteemed Ricci Dictionary of the Chinese language. I am trained as both a physician (M.D. and also Ph.D. in neurophysiology) and an acupuncturist (in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, French, English and other styles), and have taught this subject to members of both of these professions around the world, as well as having been on the receiving end of various approaches to acupuncture treatment.
In addition to the qualifications mentioned, my interest in the varieties of acupuncture styles which have developed in various countries throughout the world has definitely influenced the writing of this book. As the reader has probably already gathered, my writing is very much in a “first hand” style, and for that reason is more suited to those who are not put off by informality. I have tried to steer clear of the classically dry academic text type of presentation.
Who then is this book written for? Ideally, I see it as being of value to both the professional and general readership who seek a deeper, personal exploration of acupuncture and Oriental medicine. We live in an era when interdisciplinary studies happen to be in vogue, and the present work certainly cuts across many fields in tracing the history of its subject matter. I welcome you to read further, and I trust the result will be both educational and entertaining.
Peter Eckman, M.D.
San Francisco
2007
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My heartfelt thanks to the following individuals who allowed me to informally “interview” them–in person, by telephone or through correspondence: John Amaro, Kenneth Basham, Dan Bensky, Stephen Birch, Johannes Bischko, August Brodde, Vivienne Brown, the late Harry Cadman, Cai Jingfeng, Ursula Cantieni (stepdaughter of the late Heribert Schmidt), Cao Guoliang, Pedro Chan, Mme. Veuve Chamfrault (wife of the late Albert Chamfault), Cecil Chen, Alan Covell, Jon Covell, Ralph Dale, John D‘Ambrosio, Jacques De Langre, Luc De Schepper, Mark Drue, William Dufty, Bob Duggan, Jean-Marc Eyssalet, Tony Evans, Gerald Fabian, Peter Firebrace, Galen Fisher, Bob Flaws, the late Geoff Foulkes, his wife Gillian Foulkes, Charles Fox, Fukushima Kodo, Robert Gerzon, Joseph Goodman, Claude Gregory, Gerard Guillaume, Hashimoto Mariko (granddaughter of the late Hashimoto Masae), Joe Helms, Margaret Ho (daughter of the late Hsu Mifoo), John Hsu (son of the late Hsu Mifoo), Anton Jayasuriya, Eric W. Johnson, Ted Kaptchuk, Jean-Marc Kespi, Ronald Kotzsch, Kuon Dowon, Michio Kushi, Stuart Kutchins, Keith Lamont, Roger Langrick, Claude Larre, the late Jacques Lavier, his daughter Marie-Christine Lavier, the late Denis Lawson-Wood, his wife Joyce Lawson-Wood, Miriam Lee, Paul Lepron, Leung Kok-Yuen, the late Li Zhi-sui, Liang Shen-ping, Luying Liaw, Lok Yee-Kung, Royston Low, Ralph Luciani, Chieko Maekawa, Felix Mann, Bryan Manuele, David Marks, Julia Measures, Barbara Mitchell, In Moon, Maurice Mussat, Nagayama Toyoko (wife of the late Nagayiama Kunzo), Diane Nathan, Roger Newman-Turner, Jean Niboyet-fils (son of the late Jean Niboyet), Edward Obaidey, Hiroshisa Oda, Ono Bunkei (via his daughter), William Peacher, Rolla Pennell, Manfred Porkert, Qiu Mao-liang, Ren Jianning, Yves Réquéna, the late James Reston and his wife Sally Reston, Françoise Riviere, Miles Roberts, his wife Chie Roberts, Sidney and Pat Rose-Neil, Michael Rosoff, Mme. J. Schatz (wife of the late Jean Schatz), K.M. Schipper, the late Heribert Schmidt, Claus Schnorrenberger, Mark Seem, George Serres, Miki Shima, Jim Shores, Shudo Denmei, Siow Yong-Chai, Hillary Skellon (daughter of J.R. Worsley), Nicholas Sofroniou, Sorimachi Taiichi, Malcolm Stemp, Frank Sun, Takenouchi Misao, Eric Tao, Bill Tara, Tashima Sensei, Radha Thambirajah, Tobe Soshichiro, Angela Tu, Paul Unschuld, J.D. Van Buren, Marc Van Cauwenberghe, Nguyen Van Nghi, Solange Voiret, Stuart Watts, Mario Wexu, Allegra Wint, Henry Wong, Louise Wong (niece of the late Hsu Mifoo), J.R. Worsley, John Worsley (son of J.R.
Worsley), William Wright, Wu Wei-p’ing, Shinichiro Yamada, Shizuko Yamamoto, Yanagiya Masako (second wife of the late Yanagiya Sorei) Richard Yennie, Clim Yoshimi, Jeffrey Yuen, and Zeng Guoyuan. My apologies to anyone I’ve inadvertantly left out–in a work such as this one, I fear it must be inevitable.
Some of the source material I used is in foreign languages. I am indebted to the following individuals for their translational assistance: Chieko Maekawa - Japanese, Luying Liaw - Chinese, Hai-ja Lew - Korean, Klaus Maaser and Linda Dvornik - German, Joe Helms - French. I have indicated in the text whenever I attempted translations on my own.
Thanks to Judy Cohen for doing all the typing; to Stuart Kutchins for the countless hours of schmoozing during which most of the philosophical issues I discuss first became crystallized; to Neal White for his inimitable drawings, photographic expertise and unflagging editorial encouragement; to Dean Lander and John Worsley for the graphic and moral support of the College of Traditional Acupuncture, U.K.; and to Bob Duggan of the Traditional Acupuncture Institute whom I’ve always (privately) regarded as an ace up my sleeve. I also owe a heavy debt of gratitude to Zhang Xiao-jiang of Cypress Books for seeing to it that my work might reach a wider public than my small circle of friends–he is truly the good fairy who made this dream come true, with the able assistance of Linda Revel–in the graphics and Foster Stockwell who compiled the index.
CONTEXT
Acupuncture is the practice of inserting needles into the body to activate a change in its state of functioning. There are many ways of using acupuncture, perhaps the most well-known being its spectacular ability to substitute for conventional anaesthesia, in allowing major surgery to be carried out on awake and cooperative patients, without their experiencing any pain or suffering. This procedure is called acupuncture analgesia, and was developed in China in the 1950’s (Fig.1).
Thousands of years before that, in the same part of the world, acupuncture was used to treat and prevent disease and other disorders of the human organism. It developed there as part of the indigenous health care system called traditional Oriental medicine. This use of acupuncture is therefore called traditional acupuncture (Fig.2).
This book is about the history of traditional acupuncture, the culture in which it developed, and its migration West.
Figure 1: ACUPUNCTURE ANALGESIA.
This patient is undergoing an open-lung operation in Beijing with acupuncture as the only “anaesthetic.” The two views show the patient smiling and eating watermelon during surgery!
Figure 2: TRADITIONAL ACUPUNCTURE.
There are many styles of acupuncture that have developed in a traditional context. This painting depicts a Japanese approach in which a guide tube is used to insert the needle. The practitioner’s concentration and concern for the patient’s well-being are evident.
INTRODUCTION
There have been three seminal events that catalyzed the tremendous popularity of acupuncture and Oriental medicine in the U.S. in the latter half of the twentieth century. The first two were President Nixon’s visit to the People’s Republic of China in 1972 following shortly after the successful acupuncture treatment for post-operative pain of New York Times reporter James Reston in Beijing. Nixon’s overture to China bespoke an about-face on the part of the previously belligerent power elite towards this communist giant, while Reston’s experience had a serious impact on the media and the intellectual community, which together may be as influential a force in modern America as the power structure’s infamous military-industrial complex. The third event was the publication in 1983 of Ted Kaptchuk’s best-selling book, The Web That Has No Weaver—Understanding Chinese Medicine, (1) a work that for the first time explained many of the principles of Chinese medicine in a personal style that began to affect a much larger segment of the American populace, one which was already in the midst of a period of questioning the monopoly on health care of conventional Western medicine. What ties the affairs of Nixon, Reston and Kaptchuk together in the context of the story you are about to read, is that the image they project of Chinese medicine is that of a well-defined, homogeneous, almost monolithic discipline.
It is curious that no thorough historical account of the development of this popular style of Chinese medicine has as yet been written, at least in English. Were such a history to be documented, I believe it would show that Traditional Chinese Medicine, this officially approved methodology which is promoted by the Chinese government, and which I will henceforth refer to as TCM, was itself a creation of the latter half of the twentieth century, and is in fact only one line of development among many from a conglomeration of theories and practices in the Orient stretching back to the stone age, and which I will refer to by the more generic and inclusive label, traditional Oriental medicine, or TOM.
During the same time that TCM and its style of acupuncture were becoming popular in the West, other styles of acupuncture were emerging from the mother discipline, TOM. As early as the 1930’s, these other styles, reflecting practices in Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other Oriental countries, also began to migrate West, and had their initial impact on Europe.(2) A cross-fertilization occurred, as it will whenever two cultures come into contact, and European acupuncture began to incorporate some of the Western vitalistic ideas which were cognate with the basic theories of TOM, while in China, the influence of Western medical thinking on the nascent TCM was a substantial one, as was also the case in Japan and Korea.
The outcome of this process of historical development is that contrary to popular thought, there are currently many distinct styles of acupuncture, each of which can be considered traditional insofar as it has evolved from the common progenitor, TOM, and honors its original root (Fig.3).
Figure 3: VARIOUS STYLES OF ACUPUNCTURE THERAPY
Although all of these uses of acupuncture have demonstrated their clinical efficacy, this historical study is restricted to the traditional styles, and in particular focuses on the last entry LA, and contrasts it with TCM, the first entry.
It would not be feasible for me to trace in equal detail the evolution of each of these unique styles of acupuncture. For reasons I will explain shortly, I have chosen one particular style, Leamington Acupuncture, which I will henceforth refer to as LA, to be the focus of this historical study. LA, like TCM, represents a style of acupuncture which developed in the twentieth century based on ancient principles and is widely practiced in the United States and Great Britain. It is more commonly known as Five Element acupuncture, after its main guiding theory. TCM on the other hand, is based on a different paradigm, the Eight Principles for Differentiating Syndromes, for which reason its style of practice is popularly referred to as Eight Principle acupuncture. For the benefit of the reader who may not be familiar with these terms, or the other technical material to which I will refer in the historical narrative, I have included two preliminary chapters as an acupuncture primer of sorts. I would like this book to be accessible to the lay reader, while still maintaining its appeal to those in the profession itself. Thus, some of this material may seem either overly technical or too elementary, but I would encourage the reader to persevere through these passages as I have included them for the sake of referencing important material to be introduced later on. Following the didactic section I will begin my tale with a look at ancient China through its mythology so as to recreate the setting in which acupuncture first developed. Then I will trace acupuncture’s historical origin and evolution, first in Asia and finally in the West.
Admittedly, all of what follows is written from a decidedly subjective point of view formed by twenty years in the study and practice of TOM so perhaps I should begin first with a little personal history. My initial training was in Western medicine and physiology, and it was only afterwards, in 1973, that I began to study acupuncture under Kim Se Han , a Korean practitioner living in Los Angeles. My exposure to acupuncture and the panoply of teachings which make up TOM was a transformative experience that determined the future course of my profession
al career. I subsequently began studying with Professor J.R. Worsley of the College of Traditional Acupuncture in Leamington Spa, England, and was somewhat shocked to discover that the Five Element style which he teaches is quite different from the Korean style I had begun learning; and both of these styles were different, yet again, from TCM which I later studied in China. By the time I was exposed to Japanese and Vietnamese styles of acupuncture I was no longer shocked by their differences, but rather eager to discover the unique teachings of each and how they could help shed further light on the nature of human life in health and in illness, which is the essence of TOM.
In my experience, all of the varieties of acupuncture which I have investigated have proved to be powerful and at times miraculous tools for health care when used by well-trained practitioners. My training in England left me however, with a particular fascination regarding the style of practice taught by Professor Worsley (Fig.4). His approach specifically aims at touching the more intimate levels of human experience, especially the life of the Spirit which was one of the original foundations of TOM. Worsley’s style has come to be known as Leamington Acupuncture or LA after the location of the main school where it is taught. The history of LA is even less well-documented then that of TCM, to which I will be comparing it, and has led to insinuations that LA, far from being traditional, was purely a creation of Worsley himself. Certainly, there have been understandable requests for some historical documentation.(3)
Figure 4: PROFESSOR J.R. WORSLEY.
In the Footsteps of the Yellow Emperor Page 1