Volume 6, Number 4 | Winter 2011

Medical History in Japan
Historical Significance of the Standardization of AcupointLocations”, the Second Japanese Acupoint Committee (4)“Detailed Guide to the Location of Acupoints” from thecalssics to the WHO standardization”, pp411-422, Tokyo,
Ishiyaku Publishing, June 2009 (partially revised)
Makoto Mayanagi
Graduate School of Humanities
Ibaraki University

a family from the early Han dynasty along withvessels for making decoctions that had thecharacters "medical craft" engraved on them [6].
Judging from both material and form of these goldand silver needles allows to rule out that they were
sewing needles and they are currently the oldest
metallic needles for use on the human body inexistence. However, they are not as thin as thefiliform needles and could probably only be inserted
to a depth of about 5 mm below the skin.

(continued from KAIM Joural vol.6 no.1, no.2 andno.3)

3. Spread of metal needles and increase in thenumber of acupoints

Figure 3 Silver needle (the two on the left) and gold
needles (the four on the right)

The excavation of the Mawangdui medical texts
revealed, that the meridian concept had been used
for therapeutic purposes prior to the second century
BC, using mainly moxibustion. However, as thecenturies passed by, this too changed. From the early
Han period in the second century BC the regular useof iron vessels in China began to replace the former
use of bronze vessels. In the late Han period of thefirst century filiform iron needles also seemed tohave spread. Also, for the royalty and aristocracy
gold and silver needles were used.
Figure 3 shows replicas of gold needles (the four onthe right) and silver needles (the two on the left) that
had been buried in 112 BC in the Han dynasty tombof Mancheng 満 城 漢 墓 , along which a modern
Chinese long needle (12 cm) is placed for comparison.
These artifacts have been excavated form the tombof Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan, member of26

Figure 4 Stone relief (second century BC)

On the one hand, materials allowing to speculate
about the acupuncture treatment include about 8
stone reliefs unearthed in Shandong province that
had been decorating the tomb walls [7]. All of whichdate back to the first half of the second century BC,
where a creature with a human face and a bird's
body takes a hand of a person facing it, while it holds
something up towards the person with the other
hand (Figure 4, 5). On these stone reliefs thecreature with a human face and a bird's body does
something to the persons, all of whom have longflowing head hair. Appearing with not formally tiedhair is considered to be a characteristic of sick people.
In Figure 4 a crow like bird is sitting on the wings ofthe creature with a human face and a bird's body.
This bird is said to be a magpie and the Chinesename for magpie is "鵲" = Que. Moreover, what thecreature with a human face and a bird's body isholding over the sick person is big and thick andThe Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

Volume 6, Number 4 | Winter 2011

therefore considered to be a stone needle that wereused to drain pus etc.
By the way, in the "Historical Records" (Shiji) there is
description of the legendary famous doctor "扁鵲" =Bian Que. The first character of the name "扁" and thefirst character in the term for stone needle = " 砭" =bian had in the past and today still have the samepronunciation. It may thus be surmised, that stones(bian) were used und the magpie (que= 鵲) was a
symbol for a bian que called group of physicians. The
motif depicted on these stone reliefs, where Bian Que
takes the hands of the sick people is conceivably asymbolic representation of the pulse diagnosis. Pulse
diagnosis is a major characteristic of the Bian Que
school and it has presumably been recognized at thattime. Further, as a reproduction of the rubbed copy
shown in Figure 5 unearthed in the same Shandong
province shows, there are also stone reliefs depicting
the retaining of thin metallic needles. It can be
deducted from these materials that metal needles had
spread throughout the entire region of the Shandong
province by the first half of the second century BC.
Considering the migration of people at the time andthe transmission of knowledge, it can be inferred, thatthese had been transmitted to a considerably large
area throughout China.

In the original form of the "Sun Wen" and "Ling Shu"of the first century a unification of the 12 regularmeridians, the conception and governor vessels aswell as the 365 acupoints was attempted, but inpractice the number of acupoints was only about 130
points. Yet, by setting the ideal number to 365 points
and the spread of metal needles the number ofacupoints doubtlessly increased rapidly thereafter.
However, because determination of individual point
locations varied with period, school and region, theoccurrence of differences was inevitable. The
recognition that the meridians have a certain course
andthattherenew

extraordinary

meridians

probably led to confusion on a theoretical level.

Figure 5 Stone relief (first half of the second centuryBC) rubbed copy, reproduction

The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

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