Atlas of the extraordinary acupoints (Revised edition). Jinkai Hao. editor
Extraordinary Acupoints were first described 2500 years ago in the Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor. Subsequently, 187 extraordinary acupoints were recorded in Tang dynasty (600 B.C.), and 144 extraordinary acupoints described in the Qing dynasty (1874). The Atlas of the Extraordinary Acupoints was first published in 1963, and was the first book to collect all known 588 extraordinary acupoints in medical history. The collection extended to 1,007 acupoints in the first revised version published in 1974. The chief editor, Dr. Hao, Jinkai is an outstanding physician with 56 years experience in acupuncture who searched all available documents on acupuncture from the past 2500 years in big libraries in China and USA and published numerous classical books. The title on the cover is calligraphy by Moruo Guo, the first President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is a famous Chinese author, poet, historian and archaeologist. His calligraphy is so famous that he was invited to write the name for the Forbidden Palace, Bank of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and many other famous places in China. Thus, this book is a perfect combination of Chinese medicine, Chinese culture and Chinese art. This book is listed in China Science and Technology Events. The book is translated to Japanese and is considered a seminal masterpiece.
The chief editor of this the current revised edition Dr. Hao, Jinkai began studying physiology and performing biophysics research on acupuncture-meridians with Professor Zhu, Zhongxiang in 1977. Their area of expertise includes accurate biophysical measurements of acupoints, including latent propagated sensation along channel (LPSC), low impedance line of meridian (LIP), and high vibration frequency (PAP). These methods demonstrate that the width of meridian is only one millimeter and verify the objective existence of the meridian system. The authors drew detailed maps of acupuncture-meridian corresponding to ancient description in the Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor (500 B.C.–300 B.C.), and published data in the book Acupuncture and Acupuncture-meridian Biophysics, published in 1988 (the English edition was published in 2010). Subsequently, Dr. Hao, Jinkai introduced his book Experimental Acupuncture-meridians treatment based on accurate biophysical measurement of acupoint and oxygen intake for acupuncture. Two related books were published in 2008 and 2009 with 230,000 successful cases providing evidence of effectiveness.
The Atlas of the Extraordinary Acupoints (Revised edition) is edited on the basis of Experimental Acupuncture-meridians (Figure 1). Experiments show that the effect acupuncture is significantly better if performed on the meridians rather than away from meridians. Thus, the first chapter lists 345 extraordinary acupoints based on experimental acupuncture-meridians data. The other parts of the book list history documents as reference for future research. The second chapter lists 1219 extraordinary acupoints in sequence of head, neck, trunk, four limbs. The third chapter lists collections of 91 acupoints. The acupoints are demonstrated and explained in extensive illustrations. This book is a superb guide and reference for professionals and trainees who are interested in research on acupuncture and meridians and extraordinary acupoints.
Acknowledgements
Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
