Chapter 1　Theory

1　What Are Acupoints?

Acupoints are sensitive places on the surface of the body that emerge during the disease process, and are where acupuncture and moxibustion can be performed to regulate the body for disease prevention and treatment.

By stimulating points, acupuncture and moxibustion activate the channel qi to regulate the physiological and biochemical functions of the human body to prevent and treat disease. The clinical effect is directly affected by the accuracy of the point location.

What are acupoints? Long-term clinical practice has showed that various changes,including morphological and functional changes, can be observed or felt on the body surface. Morphological changes include cords and knots in muscle and subcutaneous tissue, as well as color and other changes to the superficial blood vessels. Functional changes include reduced resistance, and changes in skin temperature and sensitivity to external stimulation. Sometimes these characteristics are found alone and sometimes in combination, but all of them occur during disease, change as the disease changes,and disappear when the body recovers. These points on the surface of the body that accompany disease, also called disease-response points, were the predecessor to what we now call acupoints. Ancient practitioners eventually discovered that pain could be relieved when these response points were massaged, pressed or tapped. The modern concept of acupoints was formed gradually from the accumulation of experience over many years.

Until now, acupoints have mainly been described functionally instead of morphologically. Normally, these points do not exist, but can be found in disease-related areas during active pathology. Although the full nature of these points is still not fully understood, rules on how to use them to regulate the body have been established. In brief,acupoints can be described as sensitive places on the body that emerge during the disease process that can be stimulated by acupuncture and moxibustion to regulate the body to prevent and treat disease.

As is said in The Spiritual Pivot – Back-shu Points, “These joints are where spirit and qi exit, enter, travel and stay, and are not skin, flesh, tendon or bones.”[3] That is to say,points are not fixed places with specific structures like skin, flesh, tendon and bones, but rather are dynamic locations where spirit and qi can move. Further in the same chapter,the sensitive feature of these points is described, “To determine the point is correct, press it. If there is an internal response and pain is relieved, it is the point.”[4]