Since the sixth century BC ancient literature has recorded the treatment of disease with a stone needle.
Original needles were made of refined stone and were later made from bronze, iron, gold and silver.
The practice is believed to pre-date history and to be rooted in the Taoist tradition, which goes back more than 8 000 years.
This tradition observed the flow of energy and focused on balance, hence formulating the two major forces of the universe — the yin and yang.
When using acupuncture to treat people, therapeutic rules were discovered and they were soon developed into the concept of meridians.
Silk medical books unearthed in the tomb of West Han Dynasty described 11 meridians of foot and arm and 11 yin and yang meridians.
It was Huangdi’s Canon on Medicine which lay the foundation for the theory of acupuncture and guided its future development.
The writings detail meridians, acupoints, needling methods, cautions, therapeutic principles, and diagnosis and syndrome differentiation.
Even in ancient times acupuncture began to spread outside China and by the sixth century AD knowledge of the practice had reached Korea and Japan.
Once the People’s Republic of China was founded, a policy was made by the government to develop traditional Chinese medicine and the academic studies of acupuncture developed rapidly and has now become commonplace worldwide.
Source: J Zhao, Z Li and R Chen: “Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion”