Dry needling is Acupuncture!

Dry needling is Acupuncture!

Dry needling is one kind piercing of Acupuncture!

First, about 2500 years ago the Chinese doctor already has only piercing muscular tissue methods. 

The book “Huang Di nei jing” work is generally dated by scholars to between the late Warring States period (475-221 BC) and the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE).

Huang Di nei jing su wen??An Annotated Translation of Huang Di’s Inner Classic – Basic Questions??in the Chapter 51?Discourse on the restrictions of Piercing.¹

Huang Di asked:

“I should like to hear about piercing the shallow and the deep sections.”²

Qi Bo responded:

“When piercing the bones, do not harm the sinews. When piercing the sinews, do not harm the flesh. When piercing the flesh, do not harm the vessels. When piercing the vessels, do not harm the skin. ³   When piercing the skin, do not harm the flesh.

When piercing the flesh, do not harm the sinews. When piercing the sinews, do not harm the bones.”⁴

Huang Di:

“I have not yet understood what that is to say. I should like to hear its explanation.”

Qi Bo:

“ ‘When piercing the bones, do not harm the sinews,’ [warns against the following:]

the needle reaches the sinews and is withdrawn; it does not approach the bones.⁵

‘When piercing the sinews, do not harm the flesh,’ [warns against the following:]

[the needle] reaches the flesh and is withdrawn; it does not approach the sinews.

‘When piercing the flesh, do not harm the vessels,’ [warns against the following:]

[the needle] reaches the vessels and is withdrawn; it does not approach the flesh.

‘When piercing the vessels do not harm the skin,’ [warns against the following:]

[the needle] reaches the skin and is withdrawn; it does not approach the vessels.

as for the so-called ‘ when piercing the skin, do not harm the flesh,’ the disease is in the skin.⁶

Insert the needle into the skin; do not harm the flesh.

‘When piercing the flesh, do not harm the sinews,’ [warns against the following:]

[to insert the needle] beyond the flesh and to hit the sinews.

‘When piercing the sinews, do not harm the bones,’ [warns against the following:]

to insert [the needle] beyond the sinews and to hit the bones.⁷  This would be called acting contrary to [what is appropriate].”⁸

Original references:

 [1] yao shaoyu: “?is ?; that is, the piercing follows definite principles. one must not exceed and one must not stay short [of the necessary].” Hu Tianxiong: “?is ??. ??refers to an amount (see Zhou li, Tian guan, Heng ren ??, ??, ??); in the present context, it refers to the degree of depth. When the Ling shu 9 states ?????????, ?????????, then this is the meaning of ??here. yao shaoyu was wrong when he identified the present ?as the ?pronounced in the even tone.” Ma shi: “?is identical with the ?, ‘prescription,’ of later times. Piercing requires ‘prescriptions’ in the same way as prescriptions are written out for medicinal drugs. Hence, the name of this treatise.”

[2] Wang Bing: “That is to say, the sections of the skin, the flesh, the sinews, the vessels, and the bones.”

[3] Gao shishi: “That is to say, when it is appropriate to pierce into the depth, one must not apply shallow [piercing]; if one applies shallow [piercing], then [one hits] the wrong section.”

[4] Gao shishi: “That is to say, when it is appropriate to apply shallow [piercing], one must not pierce into the depth; if one pierces into the depth, then [one hits] the wrong section.” 1114/41: “This is to explain, the most important criterion for [determining] the depth of piercing is the location of the disease-evil. When the disease is in the depth, one pierces into the depth. When the disease is near the surface, one pierces near the surface.”

[5] Gao shishi: “When it is said ‘ When piercing the bones, do not harm the sinews,’ that is to say: if the needle reaches the sinews and is withdrawn and does not approach the bones, then this harms the sinews. etc.”

[6] Wang Bing: “all this is to say [how] one misses the evil. now, since the sinews are affected by cold evil, the flesh is affected by wind evil, the vessels are affected by dampness evil, and the skin is affected by heat evil, [these evils] are missed as is [described in the text]. The so-called ‘evil’ is always an attack by an improper qi.” Zhang Jiebin: “When the disease is in the bones, one must pierce the bones directly and one must avoid harming the sinews. When the needle reaches the section of the sinews, pulls out qi [there] and is withdrawn again, but does not approach the bones, one harms the sinews because no disease is in the liver and by [piercing the sinews] one does not attack an excess there.” In contrast, Ma shi: “ ‘When piercing the bones, the sinews are not harmed,’ is: when the needle reaches the sinews and is withdrawn and does not approach the bones, then the disease in the bones heals by itself and the sinews are not harmed. ‘ When piercing the sinews, the flesh is not harmed,’ is: when the needle reaches the flesh and is withdrawn and does not approach the sinews, then the disease in the sinews heals by itself and the flesh is not harmed. .. all these therapies take a ‘not approaching [the location of the disease]’ as their main [principle].”

[7] Cheng shide et al.: “ ‘When piercing the bones do not harm the sinews’ is by no means to say that the needle is to be withdrawn when it has reached the section of the sinews, so to avoid that by reaching into the depth of the bones one harms − contrary [to one’s  intentions] − the qi of the sinews. rather one should ‘pierce the bones directly, without harming the sinews.’ ”

[8] Mori: “The first section of this text outlines four [types of piercing] that do not reach their destination; the latter section of the text outlines three [types of piercing] that exceed their proper limits. Hence, all [seven] are called ‘acting against [what is appropriate].’ ”

Above References:

Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: An Annotated Translation of Huang Di’s Inner Classic – Basic Questions: 2 volumes

Paul U. Unschuld, Hermann Tessenow

University of California Press, Jul 28, 2011 - Social Science - 737pages

This Submit essay collated and organize by Harry Zou. Lac., O.M.D., from ANIAS.