HISTORY OF TCM REFLEXOLOGY THROUGHOUT TIME
Jacqueline Anne Clinkard
CCATCCM – TCM Reflexology
HISTORY OF TCM REFLEXOLOGY THROUGHOUT TIME
Ancient China has a history of foot therapy; in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) the feet have held symbolical importance for both spiritual and physical well-being for many centuries in the Orient.
Many Civilizations have practiced Reflexology. Evidence of this has been documented on four continents, Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The most common theory is that the earliest form of reflexology originated in China as much as 5,000 years ago. Part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Chinese Reflexology is the ancient art of working pressure points on the feet, hands and ears that correspond to different parts of the body. The Chinese are also known to have used Reflexology in conjunction with acupuncture. Dr. Wong-Wei, a Chinese Doctor in the fourth century BC evidently used to position acupuncture needles in the patient’s bodies and then apply very firm pressure with his thumbs to the soles of their feet. This pressure was maintained for several minutes until the desired therapeutic effects were achieved. Dr. Wong-Wei maintained that as the pressure was applied and held healing energy was released into the patient’s body.
Reflexology traveled across India, Japan, Asia and China. Many changes took place in Zone Therapy or Reflexology. Early evidence of Chinese Reflexology dates back to
The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine by Ted J. Kaptchuk is a non-fiction book describing the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine and how it compares to Western medicine. This book does not focus on a specific time period or regions where Chinese medicine is practiced. Rather, it centers on the logic behind Chinese medicine. After studying Chinese medicine in Macao, Ted Kaptchuk returned to America and realized that he could not abandon what he learned just because it was different from Western medicine. Chinese medicine is over two thousand years old and textbooks have dated back to the Han dynasty (202 B.C.E.-220 C.E). These texts will continue to adapt, just as traditions adapt over time. Chinese medicine is still
The traditional Chinese treatment of acupuncture is an affective alternative medicine that has been around for thousands of years. Acupuncture is one of the most researched and documented alternative medicines around (Acupuncture). Although a vast majority of people believe Western medicine is the only cure to sickness, many people benefit from acupuncture everyday. Most people disregard the ancient art all together without giving it a chance because are scared of the needles it involves. Also, since no accurate scientific explanation of how and why it works has been found, people shy away from it. The healing powers of the body are taken to a whole different level with this alternative medicine.
There have been many studies conducted into what kind of effect reflexology can have on various conditions.
When surgery is too inept to restore the patient to full health, orthopedics and traumatology combined could. A fusion of the two is surgery and therapy afterwards. The Confucius Institute Network (2009) has discovered the book: Xian Shou Li Shang Xu Duan Mi Fang (Secrets of Treating Wounds and Rejoining Fractures Handed Down by a Fairy), written by a Taoist priest surnamed Lin of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), is the earliest existing monograph on orthopedics and traumatology in China. This piece of literature describes position, exercise, and medication as the optimum methods for the treatment of fractures. Especially, the method of using small splints to immobilize a local area. Another crucial idea from Xian Shou Li Shang Xu Duan Mi Fang was the therapeutic idea of integrating the splint-induced immobilization and exercise. This became the therapeutic principle for treating fractures and is still used today.
Foot binding is now considered a very extreme and cruel form of body modification. It is almost near impossible to find information on the subject without it being shed in a negative light. The important thing to remember, however, is that body modification in different cultures is usually viewed as a right of passage and honor, not a form of torture. To be able to have your body altered to the definition of beauty in China’s society was a great privilege, and surpassed any pain that went along with the modification.
Acupuncture has been identified as a “method of preventing, diagnosing, and treating disease by inserting metal needles into the body at designated locations¬—acupuncture points— at various depths and angles” (Armstrong, 1972). This specific type of medical treatment was officially introduced to the United States in the 1800’s by Chinese immigrants, but was not properly recognized as a healing method until 1972. During that year President Nixon had traveled to China, where a local New York Times journalist had been treated with acupuncture to help him cope with the pain he had, after experiencing an emergency appendectomy (Updated Acupuncture Lecture, Slide 7). Even though it took years for acupuncture to become acknowledged in the Unites States,
This semester we have heard multiple lectures which centered on the Chinese or Daoist cultures, which have multiple similarities and are in many facets built on each other. In the lecture about Daoism, Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn, spoke of transcendent bodies and concentrated mainly on qi (Littlejohn). While Dr. Yuan-ling Chao’s lecture about Chinese medicine was about maintaining
In the article, Ko highlights the many misconceptions modern people have on footbinding such as keeping a woman’s foot bound, kept them in a hobbled and subservient domestic state or as sex objects . Afterwards, she states that our “certainties may turn out to be dead wrong” suggesting to readers that she is going to shine a positive light on footbinding. Ko goes more in depth about the three things men believed footbinding was, and why the tradition of binding ones foot was important at that time. The Chinese believed that wearing shoes differentiated and distinguished them from beasts as well as savages
Massage therapy has been used for thousands of years as a form of medical care, the earliest time of use dates back to 2,700 BC from a Chinese book called “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine”. The Chinese used this form of treatment for a person with full paralysis or an illness from fever and chills. History shows that Greek and Roman doctors also used massage therapy, as Julius Caesar had a disease called neuralgia and used massages on a daily basis to treat his condition. Hippocrates who was known as the Father of Western Medicine felt that massage therapy was effective, as it could loosen or bind a problematic joint. Massage therapy is also found in the history of Indian Medicine as the Indians used and still use
Reflexology is an ancient method of healing that originated in Egypt and the Orient. More than four thousand years ago, man discovered this treatment for imbalance, and recorded their discovery in drawings on cave walls. It is suggested that reflexology evolved from acupuncture and acupressure. Reflexology flourished in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth
The complex structure and foreign nature of Tibetan medicine makes it difficult to relate its practices to Western medicine, making it difficult to determine the clinical efficacy of Eastern medical practice. Several clinical analysis studies have recently been performed in order to determine the efficacy of the “holistic” practices of Eastern cultures. Whether the studies show Eastern or Western practices to be more effective, I believe that the most effective treatment should be a combination of both practices.
Traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, is one of the oldest systems of medicine to exist among humans, and it is extremely prominent to this day. According to legend, the system has been in use since the third millennium BCE. The views of such an old system differ greatly from those found in modern western medicine. Perhaps most prominent is the fact that TCM focuses more on the patient than the illness. The system considers the human to be a microcosm of the universe, implying that the body is affected by the traditional Taoist forces of yin and yang, the five elements, and Qi in the same way the cosmos are. Each of these forces act upon the “zang fu,” or organ system, directly influencing a patient’s health. Healers use qigong to assist in the restoration of stability in the body. Achieving balance, both internally and externally, is the most important aspect of healing in TCM.
The origin of acupuncture is uncertain. Some believe that it had brought wellness to people as early as 1600 BC, during the Shang Dynasty (Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences). The story is told, a soldier in China had complained of severe pain in
TCM, or Traditional Chinese Medicine, can be traced as far back as 1000 BC, where stone acupuncture needles were believed to be used. Texts from that period also talked of Yin and Yang and other concepts. The first written work on TCM is titled the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, Huangdi Newijing (Gascoigne 11). This book was written in 300 BC, but entries date back to the early 2700’s BC. The book is still used in universities of Chinese Medicine around the world and is often called the bible of TCM. Today, TCM is still thriving in China and all of Asia. In recent years, information on TCM has become available to people in the United States. The United States has several schools of TCM, and it is now much easier to buy the necessary
One important aspect of Chinese culture is Traditional Chinese Medicine, also known as TCM. Chinese medicine has been around for quite awhile, and is still around today. In the United States, we see it as acupuncture and massage. TCM is still widely popular in its home country where it is still practiced as it was a few centuries ago. Chinese medicine is evolving to our modern day times, but it is keeping close ties to its roots. Chinese medicine is also becoming more affluent in different parts of the globe. It is a major part of Chinese history and culture, and the people who participate in it do so with great respect. With Chinese medicine, there is great history, procedures, risks, and how it lives in the modern world.