The Classic of Supporting Life with Acupuncture and Moxibustion: Volumes I-III

The Zhēn Jīu Zī Shēng Jīng 針灸資生經 (The Classic of Supporting Life with Acupuncture and Moxibustion) by Wáng Zhízhòng 王執中as translated by Yue Lu (with editing by Lorraine Wilcox) is an absolutely phenomenal resource for the clinical use of acupuncture and moxibustion. This text stands out amongst many of the Classics for several reasons: the first of which is that Wáng Zhízhòng was a keen researcher, who would not only compare source materials against each other, but also cite which source materials he compared, and how they were the same or different. Secondly, while Wáng was a gatherer of information, he was also practical, and this book is filled with his many many pearls of how he used a point prescription, why and what the results were of his own tests of the material. Thirdly, to date there is no other classical material which is as complete in subject matter as the Zhēn Jīu Zī Shēng Jīng. Wáng categorized not only the point locations, and how to use the points with what method, but systematically collated 196 disease patterns from the most exterior down to the deepest levels, documenting multiple presentations and treatments for each pattern. Lastly, Wáng's primary focus was on supporting or nourishing life through the use of these techniques, and therefore there are a significant number of these treatments that either use moxibustion as the primary treatment method, or use moxibustion after the primary treatment method. In the modern age, we are extremely lucky to have access to the classical sources for East Asian Medicine, and this is partly because of the hard work of translators like Yue Lu and Lorraine Wilcox.