Volume 6, Number 2 | Summer 2011

Medical History in Japan"Historical Significance of the Standardization of Acupoint
Locations“, the Second Japanese Acupoint Committee (2)"Detailed Guide to the Location of Acupoints“ from theclassics to the WHO standardization“, pp 411-422, Tokyo,
Ishiyaku Publishing, June 2009 (partially revised)

Makoto Mayanagi

Graduate School of Humanities
Ibaraki University(continued from KAIM Joural vol.6 no.1)

2. Secondary standardization – unification on thelevel of meridians and acupoints
The meridian concept has developed and been fused
during the above described circumstances, but therewere differences between schools etc., so that theprogressive spread of acupuncture and moxibustion
therapy made a unification of the concepts necessary.
And approximately one century after the forerunnerof the "Su Wen" and "Ling Shu" had been edited, theconcepts pertaining to meridians and acupoints wereunified. The form of the "Su Wen" and "Ling Shu" wesee today is not a document of that time, but rather
the product of extensive modification and from a
considerably later time. However, some of thefoundation. During that process yin and yang were
further divided into three yin and three yangresulting in a concept found only in medicine but notelsewhere in Chinese philosophy or thought. In thisway the concept of the six viscera and six bowels
from the "Su Wen" and "Ling Shu" and thecorresponding

concept

thetwelve

regularmeridians were unified and standardized. Moreover,because this was important in order to create a yet
another system also comprising the conception andgovernor vessel explaining the production of theiroffspring, those were placed on the same level as thetwelve regular meridians and now form the basis of
the modern meridian concept.
On the other hand, since the modern form of the "SuWen" and "Ling Shu" refer repeatedly to the number
acupoints as being 365, the forerunners of both texts
from the first century most likely mentioned thesetoo. However, the actual number of points given inboth works does not exceed 132 points [5]. Thisreveals that by the first century only about 130
points had been developed, but based on deductions
from the numbers of heaven the figure 365 wasstandardized into the ideal concept.

contents have unmistakably be transmitted fromentries in the Mawangdui medical texts and thus candefinitely be traced back to before the common era.
Astronomical knowledge was adopted to render theconcepts of meridians and acupoints in the originalform of the "Su Wen" and "Ling Shu" from the first
century absolute. At that time it was accuratelyrecognized in astronomy that there are 12 cycles ofwaxing and waning of the moon and about 365 daysin a year and these figures accepted as absolutetruth. From those absolute figures of heaven thefigures of man were deducted and thus theunification of the meridians and acupoints planned.
The astronomical concept of the yin-yang theory andthe five element theory were used as the theoreticalbasis for this work. Moreover, the "heaven-earthman" (tian-di-ren) trinity theory was also used andthus the figures 6, 12 and 360 put on a logical

24ofThe Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)