Acupuncture Point Combinations from the Classics

Hello to you all,

David Hartmann here and as most of you know I am writing an Acupuncture Point Combination textbook (due for release in May 2019). Whilst researching the classics I have come across heaps of different point combinations. Today I wanted to briefly discuss three of them with you. They are called:

* The Three Powers – Heaven, Earth, Human (Tian Di Ren).

* Bright Foyer, Watch Tower, Court, Fence and Shield.

* The Great Five.

      1)      The Three Powers – Heaven, Earth, Human (Tian Di Ren)

This is a point combination from a book written by Yang Ji Zhou in 1601CE/AD titled ‘The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion/Zhen Jiu Da Cheng’ and the quote goes:

“One Hundred Meetings [GV 20] is a point on the head, it echoes the sky [Heaven/Tian] above. Jade Pearl [CV 21] is a point on the breast, it echoes man [Human/Ren] himself. The Bubbling Spring [KI 1] comes through two points on the sole of the foot, echoing the earth [Di]. These are the Three Powers” (Bertschinger, trans. 2013, p.102).

What are your thoughts on The Three Powers combination? Personally I like it because it activates what I call the Chinese medicine triumvirate of Heaven, Earth and Human, or Tian Di Ren.

By gaining access to the Heaven’s (Tian) we have the ability to dream big, dream our grandest dream; be inspirational, artistic, poetic, spiritual and philosophical. Up here we believe that anything is possible.

By gaining access to Earth (Di) we have the ability to do big, be big (Wu Wei), walk our talk. On earth (Di) we take our dreams and make them reality. Earth (Di) gives us our driving momentum to achieve great things.

As you can see it’s also very important for Heaven (Tian) and Earth (Di) to be connected because it provides for a link between our dreams and our actions. Without that link we would either dream up ideas every day but then never do anything; or the opposite would apply and we would live a structured life that was never open to new exciting possibilities because we have lost the ability to dream.

But we also need the third part too, which is our Human (Ren) part. This is the part of us that provides us with our self-esteem. It makes us who we are as a person. Are you extroverted or introverted? A sensate or an intuitive? A thinker or a feeler? And so on.

Our Human (Ren) part is also needed to take a dream from Heaven (Tian) and plant it into the Earth (Di) for action. Our Human (Ren) part is the part that decides if the dream is worth becoming reality.

This combination allows us to hug Heaven (Tian), hug Earth (Di) and hug ourselves (Ren). In my upcoming book I will be providing the reader with at least seven different point combinations for The Three Powers.

QUESTION 1:

For those of you that take the time to answer my questions, ten of you will receive a discount off my book and workshop series. All you have to do is be one of the ten closest to my point combinations (from the upcoming book) and the prize is yours!

What point combination would you use for The Three Powers (Tian Di Ren)?

The rules are that you need one point for Heaven (Tian), one point for Earth (Di) and one point for Human (Ren). You cannot, however, use any of the three points mentioned in the quote above. You must choose three different ones.

As I have already said, I have at least seven different point combinations in my book so it will be interesting to compare our combinations.

Use the two tables (1 and 2) below to construct two different treatments using only three points in each. Obviously this would mean you won’t have a point in each of the rows below. Also provide a brief explanation for why you chose the points you chose.

Table 1 – The Three Powers Point Combination – 1st Altered Treatment
Location of Point	Points
Head/Face
Trunk (Front)
Trunk (Back)
Arms/Hands
Legs/Feet
Total points needled (bilateral or unilateral?)
Explanation

Table 2 – The Three Powers Point Combination – 2nd Altered Treatment
Location of Point	Points
Head/Face
Trunk (Front)
Trunk (Back)
Arms/Hands
Legs/Feet
Total points needled (bilateral or unilateral?)
Explanation

      2)      Bright Foyer, Watch Tower, Court, Fence and Shield

This is a point combination from ‘The Spiritual Pivot/Ling Shu (part of the Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic) which was written somewhere around 200BCE/BC and the quote goes:

“Huang Di said, ‘The Bright Foyer is the nose. The Watch Tower is between the eyebrows. The Court is the forehead. The Fence is the cheek. The Shield refers to the area around the Ear Door [TE 21]. For these places and in between one would desire that they be correct and large’” (Wu trans. 1993, p.172 – 49^th Essay).

This point combination is one that can treat the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, throat, face and head. Sounds great doesn’t it?

I’m a massive fan of this point combination apart from one rather crucial component: The Spiritual Pivot (Ling Shu) doesn’t actually provide any points for the Bright Foyer, Watch Tower, Court, Fence and Shield point combination.

So in effect we have to come up with our own combination, which I have done several times in my upcoming book. In order to do that however we need to look at what each of the names represent on the face and head. According to the 49^th Essay of the Spiritual Pivot (Ling Shu) each name represents the following:

* Bright Foyer – nose.

* The Watch Tower – eyes and throat.

* The Court – forehead, head and face.

* The Fence – cheek and mouth.

* The Shield – ears.

Similar to The Great Five below, I’m not a fan of stacking all my points in the one area – in this case on the head/face region. Therefore I would personally look to do local and distal points.

QUESTION 2:

In the two tables (3 and 4) below provide two different treatments for the Bright Foyer, Watch Tower, Court, Fence and Shield point combination.

As you can see from the table headings, you also need to provide one local point and one distal point for each of the five combination names. That will be a combined total of ten points listed.

Now that might seem like a lot of points to needle in a patient, and to be honest, I would be unlikely to needle that many. But this is still an excellent activity to make you think about the points you want in your combination. In reality you might find that in a clinical situation that you did this combination across one, two or even three separate treatments, and that would be perfectly okay. All of us have differing ideas on how many needles to use on our patients.

Regardless, for this activity you need to provide ten different points in the rows provided. This is to be done across tables 3 and 4, with you providing two different treatments in both tables. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Also provide a brief explanation for your choice of points in the space provided.

Table 3 – The Bright Foyer, Watch Tower, Court, Fence and Shield 1st Point Combination
Combination Name	Location of Point	Point Name
The Bright Foyer – nose	Local
	Distal
The Watch Tower – eyes and throat	Local
	Distal
The Court – forehead, head and face	Local
	Distal
The Fence – cheek and mouth	Local
	Distal
The Shield – ears	Local
	Distal
Total points needled (bilateral or unilateral?)
Explanation

Table 4 – The Bright Foyer, Watch Tower, Court, Fence and Shield 2nd Point Combination
Combination Name	Location of Point	Point Name
The Bright Foyer – nose	Local
	Distal
The Watch Tower – eyes and throat	Local
	Distal
The Court – forehead, head and face	Local
	Distal
The Fence – cheek and mouth	Local
	Distal
The Shield – ears	Local
	Distal
Total points needled (bilateral or unilateral?)
Explanation

      3)      The Great Five

This is a point combination from a book written by Yang Ji Zhou in 1601CE/AD titled ‘The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion/Zhen Jiu Da Cheng’ and the quote goes:

“The two Mounds, two Qiao points and two Crossings connect and tie up the Great Five [arms, legs and head]. The two Mounds are the Yin Mound Spring [SP 9] and the Yang Mound Spring [GB 34]. The two Qiao points are the Yin-Qiao (meaning the Illuminated Sea) [KI 6] and Yang-Qiao (meaning the Extended Meridian) [BL 62]. The two Crossings are Yin Crossing [SP 6] and Yang Crossing [GB 35]. They connect, meaning they join and connect onto. The Great Five are the five ‘limbs’ of the body. These six points present a connection to both arms, both legs and the head” (Bertschinger, trans. 2013, pp.103-104).

The Great Five is an interesting point combination because it is activating our five extremities (arms, legs and head). This is extremely beneficial in situations where the vital substances have left the extremities to move back into the organs.

In this instance, however, there is the possibility that your patient is quite deficient and so the question is, “Should we use The Great Five point combination to move the vital substances back into the extremities?”

Personally I would not use The Great Five in a patient that was deficient because this would put more strain on the vital substances because when you force them to leave the organs it will start to burn up the patients valuable (and limited) vital substances stock or supply. I would instead focus on building the deficiency for a number of treatments. When they have built up a good healthy supply of vital substances I would then consider using The Great Five point combination.

If however the patient isn’t deficient then using The Great Five could be very beneficial to flush the extremities.

The next thing I need to decide is would I use all of the points listed in the quote. They are:

* SP 9 (Yin Ling Quan).

* GB 34 (Yang Ling Quan).

* KI 6 (Zhao Hai).

* BL 62 (Shen Mai).

* SP 6 (San Yin Jiao).

* GB 35 (Yang Jiao).

They are all wonderful points but I’m not a big fan of having all my points in the one spot (legs). Therefore I would seriously consider swapping out 2-4 of the six points and include points in the arms and head.

I would ensure, however, that I keep SP 9 (Yin Ling Quan) and GB 34 (Yang Ling Quan) as one partnership; KI 6 (Zhao Hai) and BL 62 (Shen Mai) as another partnership; plus SP 6 (San Yin Jiao) and GB 35 (Yang Jiao) as another partnership.

These partnerships (within the larger partnership of The Great Five) are important because they are on leg channels that move in opposite directions. We want to ensure that this component of the overall point combination isn’t compromised when we take/swap out 2-4 of the six points.

QUESTION 3:

How will you alter The Great Five point combination to ensure that you have points in the legs, arms and head?

There are three groupings (in tables 5-7) to create your own Great Five point combination. Please add in two points for the head/face region and two points for the arms/hands region. Along with the two points already provided in the legs/feet this will give you a combined total of six points in each of the three treatments.

Please also offer a brief explanation for why you chose the points you chose.

Table 5 – The Great Five Point Combination – 1st Altered Treatment
Location of Point	Points
Head/Face
Arms/Hands
Legs/Feet	SP 9 (Yin Ling Quan) GB 34 (Yang Ling Quan)
Total points needled (bilateral or unilateral?)
Explanation

Table 6 – The Great Five Point Combination – 2nd Altered Treatment
Location of Point	Points
Head/Face
Arms/Hands
Legs/Feet	KI 6 (Zhao Hai) BL 62 (Shen Mai)
Total points needled (bilateral or unilateral?)
Explanation

Table 7 – The Great Five Point Combination – 3rd Altered Treatment
Location of Point	Points
Head/Face
Arms/Hands
Legs/Feet	SP 6 (San Yin Jiao) GB 35 (Yang Jiao)
Total points needled (bilateral or unilateral?)
Explanation

FINAL THOUGHTS:

As I mentioned earlier, for those that answer my questions ten of you will receive a discount off my book and workshop series. All you have to do is be one of the ten closest to my point combinations (from the upcoming book) and the prize is yours!

The deadline for submitting your answers is the 18^th September 2018 and I will announce the ten winners on the 24^th September 2018. This gives you all a month to come up with your answers.

The next workshop I am doing on acupuncture point combinations is at International Lectures in Amersfoort, The Netherlands from 28-30 September 2018. Please click on the link below if you are interested in attending.

http://www.internationallectures.com/

http://www.internationallectures.com/International-Lectures/nl-NL/cursussen/overzicht+cursussen/49877911135387649mtkxrtu2ndizmtjfntaxrgrlytllyziwltzkodctndaxms04ogy5lwjjyjy1ntcynjuwnza1.aspx

I will also be doing one in Brisbane, Australia in the middle of February 2019, along with a series of workshops around Australia throughout the rest of 2019. I am also organising other workshops around the world in 2019. When I have concrete dates I will be sure to let you all know. If any of you have locations in mind and can assist me in any way please get in contact with me via the email address below. Thank you in advance for that!

If this activity proves to be successful I will do another one in November 2018 and perhaps again in Feb 2019 with brand new point combinations.

When you have completed your answers please send them through to my email address which is:

dahartmann8@gmail.com

I look forward to reading your responses. Good luck and happy point combining!

Love and light to you all

David Hartmann

REFERENCES:

Bertschinger, R. (2013) The Great Intent: Acupuncture Odes, Songs and Rhymes. London: Singing Dragon. The book is a translation of Ji Zhou Yang’s ‘The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion/Zhen Jiu Da Cheng’ Volume II and III. Originally published in 1601 CE.

Wu, J.N., trans. (1993) Ling Shu or The Spiritual Pivot. Washington D.C.: University of Hawaii Press. Originally written somewhere between 200-0 BCE.