Frontier science promotes exploration of principles and methodologies of acupuncture in traditional Chinese medicine / 针灸推拿医学（英文版）

ABSTRACT

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), a theoretical medical system founded about three thousand years ago, originated from the richness of Chinese culture with the support and development of ancient astronomy and the Taoist philosophy of heaven and man. It has revealed many mysteries and illuminated interactions between nature and human beings. Those mysteries have not been easily understood by the public because TCM's conceptual system differs in form and essence from modern sciences. In modern times, some of the mysterious processes have been gradually discovered or confirmed by an advanced science quantum physics. Quantum science is considered to break through basic concepts of mechanistic science, thus providing an entry to understanding of Chinese culture and TCM theories. Some experimental results of contemporary quantum physics shake the foundations of conventional scientific concepts. For example, quantum mechanics theory helps expand the limits of three-dimensional observations. It helps explain the phenomena that the consciousness with certain human functions interfere some experimental results. Viewing new things in a high-dimensional time-space framework helps people understand the real and virtual characteristics and their interaction; this leads to understanding the function of advanced human wisdom and intelligence in dealing with more complex objects (systems) such as the universe, the human body, life itself and consciousness. It may help people in developing simple models of the complex world and is believed more conducive to grasping the essence of human life and gradually removing the veil over many wonderful phenomena of Chinese culture and TCM. For example, TCM's 'Imagery Analogism' is attained in the quiet state of well-trained meditation practitioners. Their intuition and inspiration have significant advantages in understanding complexity of objects such as the universe, human body, life, and consciousness. The methodology of thinking helps to derive simple models so as to better grasp the essence of complex objects. Many phenomena of Chinese culture and TCM acupuncture remain incompletely understood. This paper selects a few examples to discuss, including human consciousness and sub-consciousness, human body's energy system, invisible qi, functional phenomena as well as special functions of the heart and Triple Energizer (Three Jiao) in six Fu organs. The 'new finding of an unrecognized interstitium in human tissues' as declared by a group of Western scholars is actually referring to Triple Energizer that had already been revealed and written in Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) three thousand years ago. Both the concept and functions of Triple Energizer have been utilized throughout TCM clinical practices. Through the discussion, the authors attempt to explain the superiority of TCM theories, to strengthen the confidence for TCM innovation and Chinese culture because they believe that offering an integration of TCM practice into the public health and life science would advance human wellbeing and pave a right path for TCM mission and development.