The History of Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an ancient art of Chinese medical which has flourished and developed throughout the centuries. To give a simple history the following information is useful to know (dates may not be exact).

1027-480 BC - Early and Middle Zhou Period
Development of ritual based medicine

480-221 BC - Late Zhou Period
Daoism and Five Phases developed as fundamental medical beliefs

206-220 BC - Han Dynasty
Systemisation of Chinese Medicine with a number of classic text being written including the Nei Jing and Nan Jing

220 BC-589 AD - Six Dynasties
This is a period of Chinese history which was marked by disunity but within acupuncture more important develops are made in documenting acupuncture.

590-617 AD - Sui Dynasty
This marked the period of acupuncture being spread throughout Asia. Each country has differing acupuncture styles today, for example in Tibet a lot of Moxa is used and in Japan a extremely shallow and light needle technique is applied.

980-1264 - Song Dynasty
Period of Confucianism which give acupuncture its systemic correspondences with seasonal cycles.

1368-1643 - Ming Dynasty
A renaissance for all Chinese arts and medicines

1644-1911 - Qing Dynasty
Decline of empire and Chinese medicine

1911- 1970’s - Communism
In 1929 there was an abolishment of traditional medicine in China but in the 1950’s TCM a communised form of acupuncture is created and spreads to the West.