The Officials, being personifications of the twelve functions, are more easily related to in terms of Body, Mind and Spirit than mere Organs would be. At the level of structure, category three, even the acupuncture Points partake of this personification. The traditional Point names, which are quite ancient, are seen as embodying the Spirits of the individual Points. Thus the Point Liver 14, Gate of Hope, might be an important site for treatment in a case of depression and despair, particularly if suggested by other confirmatory diagnostic findings. For this reason, in LA it is important to learn the names of all 361 Points as was traditionally done, rather than just their modern alphanumerical classification. As for etiology, category four, instead of focussing on the six climatic factors which are classified as exogenous Evils, LA is mostly concerned with the so-called seven emotional factors which are traditionally classified as the endogenous Evils. There are various versions of the seven emotions, but LA concentrates on five specific emotions which have a fixed association with the Five Elements. Thus Wood is associated with anger, Fire with joy, Earth with sympathy, Metal with grief and Water with fear. The concept is that any emotion when expressed or suppressed beyond the normal healthy range might then become a source of illness. LA teaches that in the modern world, where most individuals have at least adequate food, shelter and clothing, our persistent susceptibility to both acute and chronic illnesses is more a reflection of the emotional damages transmitted through our Minds and Spirits, than through any Evil factors attacking our Bodies. The resulting pathologies are usually inhibition (Deficiency) or overexcitation (Excess) of any of the twelve Officials in the majority of cases, while more serious pathology might involve various forms of energetic pollution such as “Aggressive Energy,” “Demonic Possession” or “Husband-Wife” imbalances. These latter three pathological entities are not included in the lexicon of TCM, and the whole concept of pollution is again more reminiscent of a shamanistic heritage where purification rites were an important part of the ritual of healing. The examination, category six, in LA is naturally organized around the Five Elements. Its most important aspects include determining the presence or absence of subtle colors, odors, vocal qualities and emotional tendencies which correlate with the Five Elements as in Figure 18.
As in TCM, the examination of the pulse is of major importance in LA, but rather than focussing on the various pulse qualities, the important point is now the overall strength or weakness of the radial pulse at the different positions correlated to the twelve Officials. LA does not emphasize examination of the tongue, but instead employs various techniques such as abdominal palpation and Akabane testing(17) of the Meridians which are not commonly used in TCM. By using its own methods of examination, LA gathers the necessary information to make a diagnosis, which almost always includes a determination of which Element and/or Official has been most seriously imbalanced, which now becomes designated as the Causative Factor, or CF. Other ancillary diagnostic findings may include the level of Body, Mind or Spirit at which the imbalance is manifest, and the presence of any of the special cases of pollution (or other special situations which are included in the category called blocks in LA) mentioned above. As an example, the hypothetical patient whose case was presented in the description of TCM involving abdominal bloating and diarrhea might also be likely to have a yellowish complexion, singing voice, fragrant odor and craving for attention and sympathy. Of course all these signs need not be present, but if this pattern seems evident, then the patient would be diagnosed as having an Earth Causative Factor. Careful questioning into the vicissitudes of his private life might reveal a particularly devastating disappointment by his mother at a formative age with an unwillingness to fully engage himself in life from that time onwards. Diagnostically, this could indicate an imbalance of the Earth Element at the Spirit level, and while the treatment protocol used in TCM might be effective in stopping the diarrhea, the case would not be considered successfully treated in LA unless the Spirit was restored as well. This might occur in the course of routine treatment, which in LA involves transferring energy into the Deficient Earth Officials from those Officials found to have Excess Qi, or a hyperfunctional state of excitation on the pulse. In order to transfer energy, use is made of the Creative and Control cycles of the Five Elements and their association with the Five Element or Command Points on each Meridian.(18) For instance, if the Heart and Small Intestine had Excess energy, then a typical treatment would involve tonifying the Fire points of the Earth Officials, i.e. Points Spleen 2 and Stomach 41. Needles are typically removed immediately following stimulation in this method. Only if this routine approach to energetic balancing failed to accomplish the goals of treatment after a reasonable period of time would a special Point with more potent access to the Spirit such as a “Window of the Sky Point,” Stomach 9 for example, be employed (Fig.23). Each treatment would be monitored for immediate changes in color, sound, odor, emotion and pulses indicating an improved state of balance. Treatment might be continued intermittently over a longer period of time once the presenting symptoms were under control until the underlying spiritual injury began to heal. Only then would the case be considered successfully treated, and the patient might be advised to return for evaluation periodically at the changing of the seasons, for instance, to correct any minor energetic imbalances that might occur.
Figure 23: TREATMENT FOR AN EARTH CAUSATIVE FACTOR
In LA as in TCM there is no single “correct” treatment for each diagnosis, but a range of possibilities that must be considered for the individual patient. This illustration shows a six needle treatment in which the Points on the feet help transfer energy from the Fire to the Earth Element, while the Point on the neck focusses this extra energy to assist in the recovery of the patient’s Spirit.
3
Legendary Lessons in Virtue
In the Orient a legend, fairy tale or myth might begin with the phrase “Back in the time when tigers used to smoke,” which would be roughly equivalent to our “once upon a time” (Fig.24). We can think of “smoking tiger time” in two different ways: either as “long, long ago,” or alternatively, as something like the aboriginal “dream-time” which is always right now in an alternate view of reality. It is this latter interpretation which I would like to emphasize in beginning this history book with what might be called a folk-tale.
Like other cultures, the Chinese have a creation myth: before the beginning, there was nothing but chaos, existing in a timeless state and stateless time. Then slowly, chaos began to solidify itself into a colossal stone, within which formed a cosmic egg, and the egg gave birth to a creature, named Pangu (Fig.25). For 18,000 years, Pangu labored to separate the two parts of stone which gave him birth, and these he pushed apart, growing at the rate of ten feet a day. One of these parts became Heaven and the other became Earth, with Pangu himself becoming the pillar between them. Eventually he died, and his two eyes became the sun and moon, his breath the wind and clouds, his voice the thunder, his body and limbs the mountains, his bones the stones and minerals, his flesh the soil, his blood the rivers and seas, his hair the trees and flowers, and his fleas and lice the ancestors of all living creatures, including you and me(19).
Figure 24: THE SMOKING TIGER,
a Korean folk theme in which the wily rabbit tricks the powerful tiger (perhaps by inducing an altered state of reality?)
Figure 25: PANGU,
the primordial being who evolved from chaos, and in turn was transformed into the entirety of creation. He is holding the Yin/Yang symbol which represents the force that brings order out of chaos.
The Daoist philosopher Zihuang Zi relates another version of the demise of Chaos, who is identified as Hun-tun, the Emperor of the Center(20): The Emperor of the South was called Shu, the Emperor of the North was called Hu, and the Emperor of the Center was called Hun-tun(21). Shu and Hu at times mutually came together and met in Hun-tun’s territory. Hun-tun treated them very generously. Shu and Hu, then, discussed how they could recipr
ocate Hun-tun’s virtue, saying: “Men all have seven openings in order to see, hear, eat and breathe. He alone doesn’t have any. Let’s try boring him some.” Each day they bored one hole, and on the seventh day Hun-tun died.
For a long time I have been fascinated by Zhuang Zi’s version of this tale without knowing quite what it meant. In the prologue to one of his books, Stan Steiner gives an interpretation that seems to both explain the tale’s meaning and also indicate the spirit in which I have tried to approach writing about historical matters:“No one can say what another human should be. If one human being tries to make other human beings into his own image, he shall surely kill them. This is true even of gods. And it is true of people in a book, who are made of paper and words. Maybe more so. When a writer describes people and tells their story, if that writer recreates them in his or her own image, the story may be successful but the people may not survive, except as shadows of the writer’s ego.”(22)
With that in mind, let me point out that there is a very fuzzy line between the realms of mythology, legend and history. This book is primarily about history, but history’s own origin lies in the nebulous world of myth. Myths captivate us partly because they deal with the symbolic and poetic, which have a timeless character, allowing even old myths to seem quite contemporary. Thus, the story of poor Hun-tun was given a modern twist in this poem by the Zen monk Han Shan (Fig.26):How pleasant were our bodies in the days of Chaos
Needing neither to eat or piss! Who came along with his drill, And bored us full of these nine holes?(23)
Morning after morning we must dress and eat
Year after year, fret over taxes, A thousand of us scrambling for a penny,
We knock our heads together and yell for dear life.(24)
Back in 1984 I was asked to give a brief presentation to the annual conference of the Traditional Acupuncture Foundation in Columbia, Maryland. Shortly before coming to Maryland, while I was supposed to be preparing my speech, I came down with the flu. The most I could manage to do was to lie in bed and read, and the book I had in hand at the time was The Chinese Heritage by K.C. Wu. It covered a period of about 2500 years, and told the story of the kings who ruled China starting in antiquity. You know how it is when you’re feverish–all I could think about was those 25 centuries of ancient Chinese kings, so when I got to Maryland, that’s what I talked about.
FIGURE 26: HAN SHAN & SHI-DE,
Zen (Chan) monks of the Tang dynasty whose irreverance for social mores harkened back to the Daoist ideal of spontaneous simplicity or chaos. They are commonly portrayed as lunatics.
Now, I only had about a half-hour to speak, so for 25 hundred years of kings, that worked out to about 83 years per minute and a new king about every ten seconds....You may think I’m only joking, but I do have a serious point to make, which is that traditional thought in China was fundamentally different from our modern Western way of thinking, and this distinction applies even to the concept of time. Time was not something that could be understood by being measured, but rather by seeing how different times have their own distinctive natures, just as different places do. Thus, the nature or quality of some period of time–be it a king’s reign or the length of a dynasty—was much more important than how many years, decades or even centuries were involved. A year could equal a century if their natures were the same. Thus, time was a relative issue, bringing into coordination the timescale of the universe with that of man. The universe was spoken of as the Macrocosm, while man was felt to be a parallel Microcosm. The two realms obeyed the same fundamental laws or principles, and this was true for notions of both time and space.
Where did these traditional ideas come from? We don’t really know, because their origin goes back before the invention of writing–before recorded history. Can you imagine living in a time without written records? “Record” comes from the Latin recordari, to call to mind, which is itself composed of two roots: “re,” again and “cor,” heart. Thus, Latin tells us that the mind is associated with the activity of the heart over time, and this is virtually the same concept as that of the ancient Chinese who used the same word, xin, ( ) for both heart and mind, and considered it the “king” of all the components of the human microcosm.
Another way of communicating ideas is through pictures, as illustrated in the the word heart above, which actually formed the basis for Chinese writing, as opposed to our Western languages, which are alphabetic rather than pictorial. I’ll be using a lot of illustrations, partly to make up for this linguistic imbalance. The most well-known pictures in the field of acupuncture are, of course, the charts of the Meridians, as in Figure (27). This shows a contemporary Chinese illustration of what is called the Bladder Meridian, the pathway connecting the acupuncture Points on the surface of the body which the ancient Chinese described as having a relationship to the Urinary Bladder. Of course, the ancient Meridian charts looked somewhat different (Fig.28). I much prefer looking at the latter, but I’m rather old-fashioned. I’ve often wondered at this gentleman’s distinctive headdress. Images which come to mind are a rooster’s comb and the heat-dissipating fins of the stegosaurus. In a moment of feverish delirium, I even saw him as a “punk mandarin,” no disrespect intended. Actually, I’ve seen quite a few similar looking characters on the streets of London and San Francisco lately (Fig.29)—it’s the “Mohawk” look, which brings to mind an old theory, that the American Indians and the Chinese share a common origin—back in this period before recorded history. Wouldn’t it be something if it turned out that Americans originally discovered acupuncture? Although I’ve yet to identify the mysterious headgear, I did come across the following brilliant hypothesis in a widely-read American journal (Fig.30).
Figure 27: THE BLADDER MERIDIAN.
A contemporary rendition that emphasizes anatomical relationships.
Figure 28: THE BLADDER MERIDIAN.
A more traditional rendition that emphasizes the poetic names of each of the acupuncture Points which lie on its path.
Now I’ve shown you that history can be fun, but it has its serious side, too. I chose the topic of the Chinese Kings because it illustrates the role of virtue in traditional Chinese thought. In the West, we’re used to separating morality, which falls in the field of religion, from the disciplines of sociology and medicine which we think of as sciences. Traditional Chinese thought did not make this distinction—nothing was profane, every act was sacred. This idea was embodied in the concept of the Three Powers: Heaven was the source of virtue, which in acting on Earth, produced Man and all the 10,000 beings as a consequence. Man was thus the central factor in the cosmos, and depending on how he behaved, so would go the world. I think in our hearts we all know this is true, and yet how far we are from acting on it. Anyway, for the Chinese, the representative of Man, as the central factor, was the King, who was called the Son of Heaven. If his virtue was pure, Heaven gave him its mandate to rule, but if he ceased to be virtuous, Heaven would just as easily remove the mandate and pass it on to another.
Figure 29: THE “MOHAWK” LOOK,
one of the more extreme examples of “New Wave” fashion which emerged among the youth counter-culture in the 1980’s.
Figure 30: MANDARINS AND MOHAWKS
Charlie Brown supplies a possible connecting link in this strip by one of America’s favorite cartoonists.
This idea of the crucial role of virtue was not confined to politics and history. For example, Chapters 13 and 14 of the oldest and most revered text on Chinese medicine the Su Wen, include the following discussion between the Yellow Emperor, Huang Di, and his esteemed teacher Qi Bo:“Huang Di said: In ancient times, diseases were cured by prayers alone . . . , but nowadays, physicians treat disease with herbs . . . and acupuncture . . . and the disease is sometimes cured and sometimes not cured. Why? Qi Bo answered: the ancient people lived... with neither internal burden of wishes and envies nor external burden of chasing after fame and profit, it was a life of tranquility which made them immune from the deep
intrusion of vicious energies... Nowadays... they worry a great deal, they work too hard, they fail to follow the climates... they have lowered their moral standards, with the result that they are under the attack of vicious energies frequently... and when the patient’s spirits are not positive, and when their will and sentiments are not stable, the disease cannot recover.”
Thus, whether talking about a person or a state, the principles are the same. Sick nations are just like sick patients in this regard, and need to embrace virtue, if they are to prosper. Keep in mind this close parallel between medicine and history and its emphasis on virtue as I begin my story in the distant past, before written records were kept.
Figure (31) shows an overview of 5,000 years of Chinese history, from legendary times all the way to the present century. I’ve indicated the successive dynasties and their dates, along with some outstanding individuals and their accomplishments. The present chapter introduces the first half of this period, when the mode of thought characteristic of traditional China was being crystallized. Several important figures, Fu Xi and Shen Nong, belonging to the early legendary phase of Chinese history will be discussed in Chapter Four, but the story of the Kings more properly begins with the later Yellow Emperor, Huang Di, who is credited with the discovery of both acupuncture and writing (Fig.32). In fact, Huang Di is the dividing line between China’s epoch of legendary Culture Heroes and its actual recorded history, which starts with a series of Premier Emperors and Sage Kings.(25)
In the Footsteps of the Yellow Emperor Page 4