Chinese acupuncture
Introductions
“It was said that 5000 years ago, in the period of Huang Di, an eminent doctor named Ma Shihuang was not only good at curing people, but also animals, especially dragons. Once a dragon circulated low in the sky. On seeing Ma Shihuang, it immediately drooped it ears, opened its mouth and wagged its tail as if in great agony. Ma Shihuang said, “the dragon is ill, I will cure it”. He took out a needle from his box and applied acupuncture on its lips and inside its mouth then gave it decoction of Radox Glycyrrhizae to drink. After treatment, the dragon rose high into the sky with all the suffering gone. Since then, quite a few appeared on the mountain slope close to the house of Ma Shihuang to ask Ma to cure their disease. One day, a dragon was seen carrying Ma Shihuang on its back, flying into the sky to some unknown place.” (Zheng, 1996).
Acupuncture, one the oldest forms of therapy known, is believed to have evolved from the beginnings of prehistoric era to treat bodily injuries. At this point, people discovered that pressuring the painful emplacement could alleviate pain at the spot of injury. In the course of time, utensils were shaped and used in the same order, to soothe the pain. These techniques have continued to improve and soon started to play an important role in Chinese medicine. From using hands to flints needles, and finally needles, acupuncture is dating from 7000 to 5000 B.C, indicating that Neolithic humans were familiar with the practice of inserting needles into the body to relieve pain and sickness.
“Acupuncture is not the exclusive possession of the Chinese.” (Felix Mann, 1981). Egyptians in 1550 B.C used the same principle of the 12 meridians of acupuncture to alleviate the pain. The great contribution of the Chinese to acupuncture is that they developed a “fairly complete systematic method” (Felix Mann, 1981) and catalogued and described it in numerous textbooks as an important Chinese