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Therefore, the Great Man…

He takes
Heaven as his canopy
Earth as his carriage;
The four seasons as his steeds,
And yin and yang as his charioteers…
He superintends the four corners [of Earth]
Yet always turns back to the central axis.1

Huainanzi

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PREFACE

‘So tell me. Where you will be going to work?’

The lovely singsong voice with disarming Spanish accent came from the
young lady sitting at the computer station to my left. Rosa and I were work

of Madrid. She and several other colleagues were curious to know why I
had resigned a lucrative post in charge of the Middle Eastern markets for
an international corporation.
The truth was, I was hoping my boss would mistakenly think I would be
working for the competition and show me the door before my designated
leave date, with full pay of course. I was cutting it close. I still did not
have an apartment in Portland, Oregon where I would be moving to attend
acupuncture school. But there were no signs of an early dismissal, so with
one month left I felt safe telling her the truth.
‘I’m going to study acupuncture!’
‘Ja. Ja. Seriously. What are you going do?’
I’m going to study acupuncture!’ I repeated in the same excited tone.
After a couple more rounds of the same, she decided to take me at my
word. The alarm and disbelief which followed caused me to doubt for
a brief moment my decision: ‘My God!...Have you gone crazy?...Are you
serious?...WHY?’
‘Because it’s the love of my life!’
That love of a lifetime had saved me from what may otherwise have
been a tragic professional betrothal. Two years earlier I had been in North-
ern Virginia in the process of interviewing with the CIA for clandestine
service. In the post 9/11 environment, the agency had been desperate for
Arabic speakers. I had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco and had

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stayed on there as a tour guide. Thereafter followed a half decade of work images of my deceased grandfather. He had been a doctor in Hollywood at
as a trip researcher and tour guide in different areas of the Middle East,
Europe, China, and India. Always in search of adventure, and despite some he met my grandmother and was never to leave the East Coast again. He
very deep moral objections, it had seemed like working with the CIA would was a generous man and utterly dedicated to both his profession and his
be the next illogical step to take. loyal following of patients. He was known to make house calls at any hour
After several interviews I received a letter from the agency putting the of the night and even accept the occasional chicken as payment if that was
all the patient had to offer.
demonstrate the capacity to perform in a closed environment. A couple He would ultimately die of cancer, but not without leaving behind a
of months later a friend who worked at Expedia.com mentioned that the deep impression engraved upon my psyche. Watching my friend at work in
company was looking for someone with certain language skills and a back- such a magical setting I recalled that as a child I had often told my parents
ground in negotiating to take over the Middle Eastern markets. The plan that I too would one day be a doctor. As I grew older, my mind was drawn
was to work a year at Expedia then resume the vetting process with the to other pursuits and I had forgotten about that childhood longing until,
government. I jumped at the idea, brushing up on my French and Arabic, that day, being immersed in the calm, majestic, nurturing ambience of my
hiring a tutor to show me in the ins and outs of Excel, and reading about friend’s clinic, the forgotten yearning was reawakened.
something which didn’t interest me in the least - revenue management. Af- While my friend was treating patients, I walked back to her bedroom and
ter a year of bureaucratic holdups and interviews with executives in France, leafed through several books. One that particularly held my attention was
one of the classic Western works on Chinese medicine entitled The Web That
contract arrived something beautiful had happened. Has No Weaver by Ted Kaptchuk.
For the past two decades I have made it a point to attend at least one 10- What I discovered in this book was a highly poetic approach to heal-
ing. In Chinese medicine, diagnosis was not a question of which physio-
in which my job took me from country to country, hotel to hotel. I attended logical cause was producing unwanted symptoms, but rather a search for
these retreats as way of trying to keep my center amidst all the outer (and the overall pattern out of which the causes and symptoms manifest them-
inner) chaos. While serving at a retreat in Florida, I met an acupuncturist. selves. The practitioner of Chinese medicine takes into consideration the
I had seen a bit of acupuncture while living in China but never took partic- entire internal landscape of the patient of which disease is merely one com-
ular interest in it as I never had reason to consider it a particularly effective ponent. Though I had some doubts about the literalness of the concepts
form of treatment. he used, I was enraptured by this poetic blend of psychology, medicine,
After the retreat, I went to visit my new friend at her clinic located in and philosophy. And what was more, judging from the results I saw in my
a small, cozy home in Savannah, Georgia, with the entrance hidden away friend’s clinic, this stuff appeared to work!
Lying at the threshold between art and science, this medicine took the
best of both, combining these diverse aspects into one highly effective
with a sense of peace. While several of her patients were awaiting their healing art. I was sold. Why would I run about the world representing a
treatments, I sat in the waiting room and asked them questions like ‘Does government I didn’t believe to be all that benevolent, when I could settle
this stuff really work?’ The response to this questioning was an excited bar- down and delve into the intricacies of my newfound passion?
rage of stories of cures: arthritis, depression, and a host of other ailments. Many people relate the experience of entering a room, catching sight of
My interest was piqued. a particular person and realizing ‘this is the love of my life.’ I had never ex-
Seeing my friend at work in such a nurturing environment conjured up perienced that with another person, but what I felt in that moment toward

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acupuncture must have been something similar. My childhood yearning had the modernization of health care through promotion of a Western medical
structure were high on the to-do list. Coming out of a long and grueling
civil war with the economy in ruins, China was in no position to provide
I decided to accept the job in Madrid and set aside some money to universal health care, much less via an expensive Western model. In 1956
minimize the debt I would be incurring during three years of post-gradu- the health ministry communicated the need ‘to train large numbers of doctors
ate studies. Thus I passed almost two years, biding my time, like a soldier of Chinese medicine’ in order to satisfy the ‘requirements of the masses.’3 By
at war, until I could (in the form of proper schooling) fall into the arms 1959, several schools had been founded and the textbook contents stan-
of my beloved. Like the love-sick soldier who reads postcards and smells dardized to impart a version of medicine known as TCM. Taylor says this
perfumed letters, I read a host of acupuncture books and even stuck myself institutionalization of medicine was a ‘means of mass producing future
with the occasional needle. doctors of the medicine, of controlling their knowledge and practice, and
During that honeymoon period I had idealized to some extent the art of of raising the status of the medicine.’4
acupuncture. And that phase slowly began to unravel once I began formal
esteemed acupuncturists penned a letter to the Ministry of Health stating
around a barrage of theory (initially fascinating) and observing acupunc- that TCM as it was taught in the government-sponsored institutions was
ture treatments which rarely had immediate effects (ultimately disheart- ‘neither profound nor thorough’ and that ‘they felt that the general spirit
of the medicine was not being properly communicated.’ Unfortunately for
explaining to the patient that they were treating the root of the problem, the doctors, their protests did not go unheard. The letter was denounced
and as such, it could take several treatments before results were noticed.
This was despite the fact that treatment strategies generally included ‘reci- all descriptions.’5 One of the gentlemen was ‘beaten until his ribs broke and
pes,’ or point prescriptions aimed at treating symptomatic complaints. The then locked up in a pen.’6 All but one died during the Cultural Revolution.
technique of placing a needle directly to the affected area and other point Acupuncture broke through the ‘Bamboo Curtain’ and into the US short-
recipes completely diverged from what initially drew me to Oriental med- ly after President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. Impetus was provided by
icine: the concept of treating the inner landscape as a whole, rather than NY Times reporter James Reston after he came down with an acute case
symptomatic complaints. Thus, it was not only the tepid results but the of appendicitis while in China preparing for the president’s arrival. Surgery
technique itself which left me demoralized by our course of studies. was necessary and post-operative pain relief was administered with acupunc-
Our school, like most others in the United States, teaches what is known ture. Soon thereafter, Reston penned an article which would help catapult
as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Anyone wishing to practice in acupuncture across continents. Just as China felt the need for Western tech-
the US needs to study this style to some extent as TCM is considered the nology, the Western world apparently had a yearning for Eastern wisdom.
standard form and the content of the National Board Exam is based upon Some twelve years after Nixon’s visit to China, the Oregon College of
its principles. But I need to make an important distinction here. Despite
its name, Traditional Chinese Medicine is a relative newcomer to the acu- respected institution I was going through a deep crisis of faith. I turned to
puncture scene. several professors and older students as confessors. While acknowledging
my doubts about the effectiveness of TCM, I heard profane murmurings
government-created, institution-bound medicine that has existed in the
PRC since 1956.’2 The Chinese Communist Party rose to power in 1949 encounter with one of these heterodox alternatives came toward the end
and a wake of sweeping reforms were to follow. Free medical care to all and

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Prior to the standardization of acupuncture with TCM there were many method for solace after my disillusion with TCM, I felt I had thrown the
currents of acupuncture with very different approaches to diagnosis and baby out with the bathwater.
treatment. Individual families, clans, or townships had their own particular Then one day in the clinic as a second-year student, I observed one of
styles with closely guarded secrets and many of their techniques resisted the legendary professors of our school, Dr. Eric Stephens, making a diag-
inclusion into the newly standardized system of TCM. One of these cur-
rents belongs to the Tung family. A particular aspect of their system was up, he reached each of his arms around the patient’s back as if giving her a
later organized and made famous by a charismatic acupuncturist named hug, running his hands up and down either side of the spinal column. He
Richard Tan and presented as the Balance Method. According to this then proceeded to palpate different areas of the front of the body. Was
method, one part of the body is said to mirror another part. For exam- this massage therapy or acupuncture?
ple, a big toe mirrors a thumb, an ankle a wrist, and an elbow a knee. By That initial puzzlement was almost instantaneously transformed into a
placing a needle in the representation of the affected area (e.g. a point sense of rapture. This hands-on approach of two energetic bodies com-
in the elbow to treat the knee), pain can be diminished or outright elimi- muning, struggling, arguing, seeking to understand one another, and ulti-
nated. The practitioner had only to understand certain correspondences mately making up, was what my soul had been seeking. This was no ana-
between meridians to discern the exact point needed to effect the treat- lytic diagnosis of a mind brought to bear upon a body. The good doctor
ment. The results were generally instantaneous. At the time, this style was playing the body like a piano, checking organ alarms up and down the
was heretical to the orthodox TCM taught at our institution, so I paid one front and back of the body then conversing out loud with whatever organ
of the school’s more brilliant professors who specialized in this system to seemed to be out of balance. (‘Oh liver…you are mighty feisty today…and
teach me at his private clinic. you Mister Lung you are jealous of old man liver aren’t you!...well just take
-
timism, 1,000 needles, and a small backpack, I set off on a 500-mile hike individual organs which they represented. These were referred to as organ
from Lourdes, France to Santiago de la Compostela, Spain. Each year tens alarms. Then with a single needle the recalcitrant alarm would immediately
of thousands of pilgrims walk the Way of St. James, generally covering 10- release, and sometimes symptomatic complaints would be reduced as well.
20 miles daily, many suffering from problems such as sprained ankles, knee This was acupuncture!
pains, headaches, and backaches along the way. During the hike I treated Observing that treatment was a turning point in my life. I felt as if a
over 100 pilgrims and was amazed that in over 90% of the cases the prob-
lems were resolved almost immediately after applying needles. The Balance had opened up before me, calling to be explored. As I was just a newly
Method was so simple and effective in removing pains and aches along minted second year student, studying directly with Dr. Stephens was out of
certain sections of the meridians that I thought I need search no further the question. However, one of the interns working in the clinic told me
for an effective form of acupuncture. that if I liked palpation I should check out the work of Kiiko Matsumoto.
And yet, deep inside, I felt that there was a serpent lurking in the gar- Kiiko Matsumoto is a brilliant Japanese acupuncturist who has studied
den. Though the system was remarkably effective, the intricate internal with many of the great Japanese masters of the 20th century and has inte-
terrain with all of its poetic beauty that had attracted me to acupuncture grated their methods into a powerful form of diagnosis based almost com-

than TCM and managed to take into account on at least some level the
body’s energetics, the treatment strategy was still determined by symptoms seemingly unrelated areas of the body, the practitioner is frequently able
rather than an overall view of the body’s internal terrain. By turning to Tan’s to eliminate symptomatic complaints. For the next few weeks, rare was

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the day on which I attended a majority of the scheduled classes at school. Despite these inconveniences, each waking day exuded the magic and
Rather I sat in a corner of the library watching the half-dozen Kiiko sem- energy of Christmas in childhood. The only thing better than having forty

and after devouring it wrote up sixty pages of ‘Kiiko cliff notes’ which I the body was watching those same people leave the makeshift clinics with
left as a reference on the clinic computers. And thus began my passion for
palpating anyone who would let me near them. ever met a people I could describe as ‘noble.’ They possessed a stoic pride.
Once I entered the clinic as an intern, my favorite moment of the day Though poor, their generosity (mostly in the form of fruits from their
was when I could palpate the body, and by releasing one or two painful backyards, many liters of soda pop, and meals of chicken broth with hand-
areas, thereby relieve symptomatic complaints which seemingly had no re- made tortillas) was heartwarming. Though I was still in the middle of my
lationship whatsoever with the areas just released. For example, by relieving studies at school I promised to return the following month.
a sore point near the umbilicus on one patient, her headache and shoulder Thus began weeks of missed classes, rescheduling in the clinic, threats
pain disappeared almost instantaneously. This system seemed just as ef- from supervisors, and unbridled bliss in monthly trips to Mexico. On
fective as the Balance Method, yet seemed to address the body’s overall one of those trips I had discovered by accident a way of opening several
energetic system rather than its symptoms. The only things that took away meridians with one needle. On another I found a variety of alternate ways
from that pleasure (apart from having to watch point selections nixed by to open entire areas of the abdomen with one needle. On yet another trip
I came across a simple way to open the extraordinary meridians. And on
at our institution), were the necessary charting and the perfunctory ques-
tioning imposed upon us by supervisors. The objective line of questioning the clinic at school where at most we could treat eight people a day under
and the blanks on the intake sheet left me cold. The body was a miraculous the bridle of supervisors, many of whom kept a close hold on the reins.
organism with so many facets to be explored. What I really wanted was to The great Han dynasty physician Sun Simiao once wrote: ‘In the
great physician’s therapeutic practice, he must make his mind serene and his

So it was with great excitement that during the spring break of my a compassionate and merciful frame of mind and vows his willingness to
second year of studies I travelled down to Oaxaca, Mexico to offer free save all sentient beings from suffering.’7
treatments in rural Mixe and Zapotec communities. That initial trip lasted One obstacle to this ‘compassionate and merciful frame of mind’ is
the huge debt with which students today are riddled when leaving their
there were no hotels in the area, most nights I slept in a disheveled priory institutions of learning. I graduated from acupuncture school $75,000
which housed two priests. One had actually asked to be sent to this area; in the hole. At that time all I could think of was returning to the moun-
the other was there as punishment after being accused of homosexuality
impulse was to leave the US along with my debt (or at least the illusion
post (the fathers barely collected enough at mass to pay their gas and elec- thereof), and if I ever returned would incur the wrath of the powers that
tricity). To say that I slept by night may be a bit of a stretch, as between be. After graduating, I decided to take the less extreme solution of mov-
the sweltering heat, the bed bugs, loud music from some drunks next door, ing to Xalapa, Veracruz. It was a sizable city and here I set up a private
and even a thief entering my room one night, ‘sleep’ may be more aptly clinic to cover my living expenses and student loan payments. I also had
described as a light state of trance which came and went numerous times time to visit the surrounding communities to help those who otherwise
throughout the night. could not afford it.

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One group of people who could not afford medical care was the inmates count of the technique I call ‘Neoclassical Acupuncture.’ The name im-
at a nearby prison. The prison is informally controlled by an infamous car- plies a new (neo) look at or a revival of a form of acupuncture as it may
tel known as the Zetas. They served at one time as the mercenary wing of have been practiced in classical times. Though it would be all but impos-
the Gulf Cartel but eventually broke off from their employers (killing many sible to demonstrate with complete certainty that the present system was
of them) and formed their own operation. While the inmates belonging exactly that used by healers in the Han and Pre-Han periods, I do hope
to this cartel are brought TVs, prostitutes, and a host of other amenities to show that the basics of this now unorthodox method were well estab-
which, for them, seem to make life more palatable, the rest live in deplor- lished in classical times and, in some circles, provided the foundation for
able conditions, subject to (amidst other things) rape, servitude, extortion, a seemingly miraculous form of treatment.
and unsanitary conditions. The day before I was scheduled to arrive for the This method is excellent for practitioners working in the ever-expand-
pilot inner prison clinic there was a riot (the prisoners had received nothing
to eat but stale tortillas for several days) which left several dead and dozens at in less than a minute and the few needles needed to effect a cure means
seriously injured. rapidity of treatment as well. When participating in social work in the
To witness acupuncture’s capacity to penetrate and transform a toxic communities outlying the city where I live in Mexico it is not uncommon
environment is truly awe-inspiring. Not more than a month after the in- to leisurely treat 10 patients per hour. Even then around 90% of the
patients experience complete or near complete alleviation of aggravat-
most sleeping, all silent) with needles protruding from their bodies, a guard
dressed in black stood hawkishly observing them with a keen and cautious treatments is often needed for a complete cure. Again, as the treatment
eye. I hadn’t even asked him if he wanted a treatment. Amidst the com- is based solely on a diagnosis of elemental imbalance, these results can
- be achieved without even knowing the patient’s symptomatic complaints
nored. Suddenly the dour sentinel asked, ‘Have you got any more of those beforehand.
The rediscovery of the system began with the detection of a complex
group of one-time murderers, drug addicts, and thieves; snoring in unison set of correspondences between meridians. A needle to a certain point of
with the people he was commissioned to guard. one meridian could open several other seemingly unrelated meridians. By
The style of acupuncture I have been using in prisons, immigrant opening the meridian, I mean removing any pain or sensitivity previously
shelters, impoverished mountain communities, Palestinian refugee discovered along the entire length of a channel.
camps, my private clinic, and the same system presented in this book, I initially thought that I had reached the end of my investigations once
has completely transformed my practice, and more importantly the lives I had charted out the various ways of opening several meridians with one
of thousands of patients. In my experience, with the use of this tech- needle. But then something quite unexpected occurred. As correspon-
dences were being charted out and tested in a clinical setting some strange
though subsequent treatments are usually necessary to effect a total cure. incidences were noted. It was found that points often opened distinct
areas which had no correspondence to the intended meridian. These ar-
menstrual problems, and a multitude of others regularly receive a total
cure in as few as 1-4 treatments. All of this is achieved without taking other sections on the trunk and extremities.
into account symptomatic complaints in the diagnosis and relying solely For example, any point which opened the right Lung meridian also opened
on an elemental approach. the right upper quadrant of the abdomen. Any point which opened the right
The information presented here contains a theorical and clinical ac- Large Intestine meridian opened the lower right quadrant of the abdomen.

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Shortly before his death in approximately 1082, the Taoist master Chang
Po-tuan distilled the essence of what he had experienced to be the proper
path to illumination into a short work which he left with a patron: ‘All I
have learned in my life is herein,’ he is reported to have said on this occa-
sion. ‘Circulate it, and someday there will be those who arrive at the way
through this book.’8 Though it may not have been the illumination he had
in mind, Po-tuan’s cryptic literary gift helped to shed light on the nature
of what up to that point I could only call ‘dynamics.’ The passage which

Yet the same was not applicable to the left side of the body. Through
trial and error I found the left upper quadrant of the abdomen was released intertwine.’9 Had the 17th century commentator Liu I Ming not provided
upon opening the left Liver meridian, and the left lower quadrant was re- his generous elucidation of this and other passages from Chang’s work, the
leased by opening the left Gallbladder meridian.
to make on that passage:

The ‘dragon’ is yang, it commands the life-impulse. It belongs to the sphere

of ‘wood’ in the eastern direction. In humans, it is the essence. The ‘tiger’ is
yin; it commands the death-impulse. It belongs to the sphere of metal in the

harmony their natures become isolated.10

Under the most recent and inadequate terminology, I had been calling the
upper right quadrant of the abdomen ‘Lung dynamic’ and the lower right
something strange and exciting. Often, by opening the most painful of quadrant ‘Large Intestine dynamic.’ These two organs are the represen-
tatives of the Metal element. And so it piqued my interest that this 11th
etc.) would vanish immediately and, more excitingly, any symptomatic com- century Taoist had proclaimed that Metal was to be found in the West i.e.
plaints the patient had been experiencing disappeared instantaneously. the right side of the abdomen. I felt just as shocked about his statement
It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that I felt a similar that Wood could be found in the East. I had previously assigned the upper
sense of adventure and excitement that Alice may have experienced after left quadrant to the Liver and the lower left to the Gallbladder. These two
her plunge into the rabbit hole. This led to the second stage of investiga- organs are representatives of the Wood element. And, congruent with the
tion which was to map out these unusual sections and discover how best text, they lie on the ‘Eastern’ side of the abdomen.
to employ them in a coherent therapeutic model. I had no idea what to
call them other than, let’s say, ‘Lung dynamic,’ or ‘Large Intestine dynamic’ Wood organs on the ‘West’ side of the abdomen, and those corresponding
until I came across a book which was to have an enormous impact on how to Metal to be on the ‘East’ side just as the texts explained? Could it be that
this model was structured. these ‘dynamics’ I had stumbled upon, which yielded miraculous results,

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were in actuality what the ancients referred to as ‘elements?’ I then proceed- Though I had been taught throughout my formal education that there
ed to chart out the location of the remaining elements. What I discovered
was surprisingly in line with Chinese cosmology in general, but quite differ- and Ministerial). Could it be that these were really two distinct entities?
ent from the abdominal mapping implied in the classical acupuncture texts. Astonishingly, when I assumed this to be the case and began balancing
Earth with the ‘other’ Fire, via its two representatives the Pericardium and
Triple Burner, the same surprising results occurred. This led me to scour
over the ancient texts to see what they had to say on the matter. Parts I and

the ensuing investigations.

-

There is nothing radical about the idea that at one time there existed a
six-element structure. Paul Unschuld, in Medicine in China (at text found in
Diagnosing the imbalance of a particular element is a pretty useless tool just about any budding acupuncturist’s library) concedes that at one time
if there is no accompanying form of treatment. So I set about attempting ‘a sixth phase was conceptualized, allowing for three yin and three yang
various methods for righting the imbalance under the broader concept of phases.’11 Rather than setting out into insurgent territory, it is our hope to
‘element’ rather than treating individual quadrants. Several options were bring about a resurgence of this forgotten system. The vagrant sixth element
tried using the commonly used generating and controlling cycles. However, has been mentioned in most modern-day acupuncture texts in the form
no consistently effective means was found until I stumbled across a method of Minister Fire. But the distinctness of its essence has not been stressed
which pits one element against its ‘opposite’. Again, the correct formula was
arrived at via the same 11th century text by Cang Po Tang, mentioned above. Water or Wood.
In this text Water is contrasted with Fire. Metal contrasts with Wood. And As we shall see, the shadowy ambiguity which surrounds this mysteri-
Heaven is contrasted with Earth. ous element has its origins in the concept of its representative organ, the
A simple schema for using this bi-polar interaction was eventually de- Pericardium. This mystery began in the late 3rd century BCE, when, in the
veloped and the results were mind-blowing. For example, this system
was used in treating a patient with extreme migraines where the Wood was denied its position amongst the lay lines of the body. It culminated
section of the body was found to be painful. When Wood was balanced in the 8th century when not only had it been bequeathed its own meridian
with Metal, not only was there an alleviation of pain in the Wood area, and organ, but also its own element. The sovereign nature of this element
but also an immediate alleviation of all aggravating symptoms. A sim- plays a key role in making possible the application of the second unique
ilar phenomenon occurred when the Water element was found to be in feature of this style.
predominance. When this element was balanced with Fire, symptomatic Arising from pre-Han times, generating and controlling cycles have be-
complaints generally vanished at once. There was, however, a sobering
problem remaining. The common consensus was that in Oriental medi- the basis of elemental interaction in Neoclassical Acupuncture is an older
mode of interaction which consists of three axes, each with its yin/yang
with Earth. polarity (Metal/Wood, Fire/Water, Earth/Ether).

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While this alternate mode of interaction once played a predominant role INTRODUCTION
in classical cosmology and medical theory, in the ensuing centuries it fell
into all but complete disuse. I say ‘almost’ because a vestige of it remains
in the well-known Fire/Water polarity. Ultimately, the clinical effectiveness
of the present method in and of itself should corroborate its validity.
The sixth element and the way these six elements interact - the present
work - is dedicated to expounding upon these two important themes within We are leaving our time now.
the broader context of Taoist cosmological and medical thought. In doing We are leaving our time now.
so we will be privy to an exciting gaze across the ancient landscape from There are places where time moves more slowly than here.
which this unique system of acupuncture arose several millennia ago. We honor the four directions.
I have tried to be as clear and detailed as possible to avoid any misinter- East. West. North. South.
pretations or misunderstandings. I would ask in advance to be forgiven by
students and seasoned acupuncturists alike for any redundancies or over- The vertical one.
Which is in us.
Today.
Here.1

Robert Bly, Poet

It was the year 139 BCE The Emperor Wu had ascended the throne to

Huainan, set off en route to the imperial court on an important mission.

He carried with him a text which contained a vast, encyclopedic assortment
of occult, administrative, philosophical and ritualistic knowledge. The con-
tents of the document were said to be the cumulative input of thousands
of scholars and ‘masters of esoteric techniques’ which were assembled for
the purpose of its compilation.2 While borrowing heavily from existent
texts such as the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi, it contained original material
as well. It is thought to have been the most complete exposition of Taoist
thought of that era.
While nowadays we curry a teacher’s favor with an apple, it seems the
ancient rulers were a bit more demanding. Liu An certainly hoped to curry

his political views. The latter reason must certainly have been on Liu An’s
mind as he travelled to the court.

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The Han Dynasty was in a bit of a conundrum at the time. There was We have created and composed these writings and discourses as a means to
much discussion going on as whether to centralize the imperial power or Knot the net of the Way and its Potency
leave more autonomy to the rulers of the individual kingdoms which made And weave the web of humankind and its affairs,
up the empire. It is understandable that Liu An would have wanted a little Above investigating them in Heaven,
freedom to rule his ever-dwindling kingdom. A little push in the direction Below examining them on Earth,
of Wu-Wei and the hands-off form of governance which it proposed would And in the middle comprehending them through patterns…
have certainly have been to the astute king’s advantage. If we [only] summarized the essentials or provided an overview and our
Some three decades earlier, Liu An’s father, who happened to be the words did not discriminate the Pure, Uncarved Block and differentiate the
brother of a previous sovereign (Emperor Wen) had rebelled against his Great Ancestor, then it would cause people in their confusion to fail to
elder sibling. The rebellion, to put it lightly, was no success, and Liu An’s understand them4
rebellious father passed on, taking his place amongst the ancestors while
on his way into exile. Liu An’s discourse goes on to speak of just how one is to ‘discriminate
Emperor Wen was not to take revenge for the ‘sins of the father’
on his nephews, and after breaking the kingdom of Huainan into three of this work, ‘Originating the Way,’ ‘[begins with] the six coordinates
parts, it was divided amongst the deceased rebel’s surviving children. contracted and compressed and the myriad things chaotic and confused.’5
One of the territories conserved the name Huainan and was given to The six coordinates referred to here are Heaven, Earth, and the four
directions.
to the imperial capital). To understand the order beyond the chaos of the myriad beings, the six
Growing up to be a rather intelligent sort, Liu An had likely learned from Huainanzi
the experience of his father that outright rebellion was not the safest of could thus be summed up as an unpacking of the six coordinates in an
options. Rather he turned his passions toward subtler ventures and was to attempt to understand and even manipulate the universe as we experience
it. Thus Liu An would have presented to a hopefully receptive emperor the
writer. His greatest work (or editing job) was to be the Huainanzi. And essence of his remarkable tome of wisdom, and by extension the reason
this was the document he now carried with him to present to the emperor. for his voyaging so many long and perilous leagues.
Some prominent scholars believe it likely that upon arrival at the impe- Had the emperor been impressed with these words? The answer to that
rial court, Liu An was received personally by Emperor Wu. If that were belongs to a moment unrecorded or at least forgotten in time. What is
the case, it is likely that the 21st known is that the work was duly placed within the archives of the imperial
‘An Overview of the Essentials,’ was read by Liu An to the emperor library. This was a most fortunate book deposit, as it is for this reason that
himself.3 the masterpiece is still with us today.
If you have ever been nervous at reading a work of poetry in public, One would like to imagine that after all that toil and trouble, the tome
imagine what Liu An must have felt when coming before the emperor was not a dust collector. It would perhaps even give us pleasure to believe
to present a summary of his work; a work which had most likely taken that on some winter’s day when his highness was not preoccupied with
decades for he and his many scribes to take down. Any additional tension subduing the uprising of minor kingdoms or performing seasonal rituals,
would have been understandable considering that the brother of the man he may have sauntered into the royal library to peruse Liu An’s work. Had
he opened the masterpiece to the opening stanzas he would have found the
voluptuous praise to the emperor, Liu An would have begun thus: following lines, much in keeping with Liu An’s oral exposition:

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As for the Way:

It covers Heaven and upholds Earth. around the turn of the 1st
It extends the four directions…. -
Therefore,
doctrine. Sinologist Robin Yates says that ‘by the third and four centuries
Stretch it out horizontally: it encompasses all within the Four Seas. C.E. it was virtually forgotten and the tradition was interrupted, nevermore
Unwind it limitlessly: it is without distinction between dawn and dusk.
Roll it out: it expands to the six coordinates.6 Chinese governments.’7
Those same coordinates which Liu An spoke of had been around long
Again those same six coordinates are mentioned. More than mentioned, before his group of editors decided to make them the centerpiece of Early
they would have been (so to speak) drilled into the emperor’s royal head. We Han cosmology. Their roots extend deeper into a dark and distant past.
have here a poetic device in which Liu An’s group of literary magi repeatedly Just as these six coordinates appear in the opening passages of the Huanan-
refer to the six coordinates both directly and indirectly. The six coordinates zi, so they make an appearance in the opening passage of China’s oldest ex-
are invoked not once but three times in quick succession as if to plant a seed istent historical work, The Book of Documents, dating back to 500 BCE. Here
in the mind of the lector. First there is mention of Heaven, Earth, and the
four directions. This is followed by a reference to Heaven, Earth, and the through the four quarters (of the land) and reached to (heaven) above and
Four Seas. Finally, to allow no doubt about the prime importance of this (earth) beneath.’8 In addition to laying out a six-coordinate structure, this
theme, ‘the six coordinates’ are mentioned directly.
From the outset, the Huainanzi divides the comprehensive division of metal, wood, soil, and grain: these must be duly regulated.’9
The philosopher A.G. Graham maintains that these coordinates may
of these coordinates are represented by an element, while the sixth, Heav- have in fact been precursors to the elements themselves.10 So what hap-
en, would go unmentioned.
The Huainanzi, with its stress on the six coordinates, represents the cul- elements we so commonly refer to today?
mination of early and pre-Han thought, ironically just as the Daoist school On the surface, it would seem obvious that by the time of the compi-

year 122 BCE Liu An was ordered to return to the imperial court to face Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen (approx. 2nd century BCE), the sixth element
serious charges. It appears that he had taken on his own imperial emblems which would have occupied the sixth coordinate of Heaven had either been
and the emperor believed this to herald rebellion. forgotten or at least gone underground. In the present work we will show
Seventeen years earlier, Liu An had travelled to the imperial court with that this sixth element never really disappeared. At times the Han texts
the Huainanzi make explicit reference to it, and at others, the silent, incongruent omission
work would inspire. One could easily imagine that on his long journey to of the sixth element and its corresponding meridians and organs speaks
see the emperor he had carried with him the cumulative insight of centuries louder than any claims to the contrary.
of thinkers not only armed with the intention of gaining political advantage, In the chapters that follow we will explore the nature of the sixth coor-
but also the desire to safeguard the collective wisdom of that era. dinate, its corresponding organs, and by de facto its corresponding element.
Rather than return to the imperial court under these less auspicious cir-
cumstances, Liu An opted to take his own life. The bulk of Liu An’s works

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By digging into the ancient knolls of the early Chinese classics, it is our moment when the Pericardium was at last given its due and referred to as
desire to piece together a coherent archeology of that most mysterious and an organ. Now we get an inkling as to why the authors of the Mawangdui
polemical of organs - the Pericardium. The Pericardium has been a point texts had left out the Pericardium meridian. For with the Su Wen’s inclu-
of contention amongst practitioners and commentators ever since it ap- sion of that mysterious meridian, the door to new possibilities within the
peared on the scene in the Han era. No other organ has been more prone Meridian/Organ/Element matrix had been left wide open…well, almost.
to misunderstandings or the subject of such heated debates. At times this Though the Pericardium’s meridian and even its loyal organ had trundled
obscure organ was omitted altogether, at others it was said to exist without across the threshold into the light of day, conservative tendencies were
really existing. Once its tenuous foundation was established, some texts not ready allow a sixth element through the portal. In what was perhaps
would not assign it an element. Others would declare it to be a sub-set a deliberate act of obfuscation we shall see some ancient sleight of hand
of Fire. Within the meridian/organ/element matrix each meridian has a was called upon in smashing the Pericardium into an already existent Fire
corresponding organ, and each organ pair has a corresponding element. element along with a couple of other organs.
To understand the sixth element, an appreciation of the evolution of the In Chapter 5 (‘The Joy of Confession’) we voyage to the 8th century
Pericardium is imperative. and the Tang Dynasty, where the Tang intellectual Wang Bing takes on the
In many ways, the present work can be considered a rags-to-riches biogra- remarkable travail of editing and salvaging a Su Wen which, by that time,
phy of that enigmatic organ, following its transmutation from lonely vagrant was in pretty bad shape. Wang Bing seems to have been quite a prodigious
to prominent member of the exclusive fellowship of organs. Ultimately the editor - so much so that he increased the size of the original manuscript
revelation of the Pericardium will bring to light its elusive element. by 50%!12 In this ‘new’ section Wang Bing brings the Pericardium mystery
It is our intention to demonstrate clearly that that the ancient Han doctors (begun in the Mawangdui texts) to a head by stating explicitly that Fire can
had not only a theoretical space reserved for the unmentionable sixth ele- be divided into two separate elements, making six in total. Pericardium and
ment, but that it played an important role in Han clinical practice as well. Triple Burner are seemingly bequeathed their very own element.
In Chapter 1 (‘The Extraordinary Case of the Missing Meridian’) we In Chapter 6 (‘The Sound of Silence’) we examine the motive for such
explore the mysterious absence of the Pericardium meridian in the earliest a crime of omission which was to span across centuries.
text in which those energetic lines, so fundamental in the clinical practice of In Chapter 7 we examine how the sixth element which represented the
acupuncture, are mentioned. The text discussed is part of the Mawangdui space encompassing the other elements presented a similar quandary for
texts, and is thought to have been composed around 300 BCE.11 Indian and Greek philosophers as well.
In Chapter 2 (‘The Elephant in the Room’) we travel ahead on our time- -
line (circa 150 BCE) to the Early Han dynasty where the Pericardium as
a meridian suddenly appears on the scene; even then for some reason the to the more renowned generative, controlling cycles. This ancient model
early medical practitioners were loath to admit its existence as an organ. which managed to conserve Yin and Yang as the prime motor of elemen-
In the next chapter, ‘Huang Di and the Numinous Orchid Chamber’, we tal interaction, may seem to have been lost in the ancient mists of China’s
listen in on a conversation between the Yellow Emperor and the feisty Qi philosophical medical system, but as we shall see it was there all the while.
Bo who is forced to cough up a little secret due to his interlocutor’s crafty The ultimate goal of this archeology is not only to introduce a new
prodding. But no sooner is this vital information revealed than it is hidden conceptual framework but rather to reintroduce the clinical application
away, only to be divulged to the chosen few. which it implies. The clinical use of a six-element model will be the theme
In Chapter 4 (‘The Nan-ching and the Amazing Mr. Ping’) we make our of Part III.
way to the twilight of the Han Dynasty (circa 150), to that all-important

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