Origin of AcupunctureAcupuncture most likely originated in China about 2000 years ago. The first known text on acupuncture is the book called Huang Di Nei Jing translated as The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic said to date from 200–100 BC. It describes systems of diagnosis and treatment with herbs and needles. Another classical book on acupuncture The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion for the first time listed the main 361 acupuncture points used today. Throughout the development of acupuncture in China there were many different schools dispersed all over the china each with their own philosophy. Therefore there was no uniform system of acupuncture in ancient China the way we know it today.
Demise of Acupuncture in ChinaSurprisingly the interest in acupuncture in China began to decline from 17th century and it was eventually excluded from the Imperial Medical Institute by decree of the Emperor in 1822. The final blow for acupuncture in china came in 1929 when it was outlawed along with other forms of Chinese medicine. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine survived in china only because of rural healers.Rebirth of AcupunctureThe rebirth of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine came with the raise of communist party – probably the only major world contribution. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine was reinstated in 1949 by Mao Tse-tung possibly both out of national pride, but also because it offered low-cost medicine which was the only means of providing even basic levels of health care to the massive population.Standardization of Acupuncture and TCMGiven the existing chaos and lack of uniformity that made it difficult to teach and research TCM, Mao Tse-tung forced standardization leading to creation of TCM- Traditional Chinese MedicineTCM as we know it today. TCM became available in Western-style hospitals in China and has been used ever since alongside with western medicine. Acupuncture research institutes were established and lots of our current understanding of how acupuncture works came out from their research.
