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History of Acupuncture
Acupuncture’s origins in Asia are uncertain. Nevertheless, acupuncture has developed over a period of at least 3,000 years. Some ancient needles made of stone and fishbone were discovered in Korea on August 9, 1923.
Wikipedia describes acupuncture; in Europe, examinations of the 5,000-year-old mummified body of Ötzi the Iceman have identified 15 groups of tattoos on his body, some of which are located on what are now seen as contemporary acupuncture points. This has been cited as evidence that practices similar to acupuncture may have been practiced elsewhere in Eurasia during the early Bronze Age.
The following are the abstracts from web site.
On August 9, 1923, needles made of stone and fishbone were discovered in Korea and it is believed that they were used to practice surgery and/or acupuncture. They used to be exported to China because of their better quality than Chinese needles.
In 672, the Shilla Dynasty of Korea exported 400 needles to China (Tang Dynasty).
In 692, the Shilla Dynasty of Korea established a medical college and two medical doctors trained other medical doctors after developing teaching materials, including THE CLASSIC OF SIMPLE QUESTIONS, THE CLASSIC OF ACUPUNCTURE, THE CLASSIC OF THE PULSE, THE CLASSIC OF DIFFICULTIES, and THE CLASSIC OF THE BRIGHT HOUSE.
The following are abstracts from ex-professor Wooyul Jung (Ex-Professor of College of Oriental Medicine, Wonkwang University)’s contribution to the Minjok Oriental Medicine News.
Sometime between 918 - 1392 in dynastic Korea, a Korean doctor went to China and practiced acupuncture. There he divided an inch long hair in ten pieces, inserted a needle in one of them and told other people that the inside of the hair was empty.
The following are abstract from Acupuncture Alliance News’ web site.
In 1093, Korea gave China (Song Dynasty) the book, KOREAN ACUPUNCTURE AND MOXIBUSTION. China later wrote a book called YELLOW EMPEROR’S INNER CLASSIC consisting of two parts, SIMPLE QUESTIONS, which discourses upon general theoretical questions and SPIRITUAL AXIS, which focuses more closely upon acupuncture and based on the book, KOREAN ACUPUNCTURE AND MOXIBUSTION.
For information, YELLOW and EMPEROR in Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic have their own meaning. YELLOW color means center, king, or emperor in China and EMPEROR was a school and was used to distinguish the school from other schools.
The Following are abstracts from Chosun Daily News’ web site.
In 1285, a Korean doctor, Kyungsung Sul of the Koryo Dynasty was invited to China (Yuan Dynasty) and he was honored by the Chinese Emperor because he successfully treated inveterate diseases of the emperor and his sons.
History of Korean Orthodox Saahm Acupuncture
About 400 hundred years ago, during the Korean Chosun Dynasty, an ascetic with the penname Saahm invented the Saahm acupuncture formulas, utilizing YIN YANG and FIVE ELEMENTS theory, after spending 13 years living in a cave. With his methods of acupuncture, unique and never seen before, he treated thousands of patients successfully. Before him, YIN YANG and FIVE ELEMENTS theory had never been properly or clearly understood and utilized for acupuncture treatment.
Unfortunately, his books about his formulas and practice records were buried in a graveyard, and unknown until the early 1950s when Master JaeWon Rhee (whose penname is SohGok) discovered these books.
In 1958, Master Rhee wrote two books, THE OUTLINE OF SAAHM FIVE ELEMENTS ACUPUNCTURE AND MOXIBUSTION, which describes Ascetic Saahm’s formulas and general acupuncture and THE ESSENSE OF SAAHM YIN YANG FIVE ELEMENTS ACUPUNCTURE AND MOXIBUSTION about Ascetic Saahm’s practice records including symptoms and treatment points. He trained hundreds of acupuncturists.
Five Phase Acupuncture or Five Element Acupuncture from Japan had been introduced to western countries based on Ascetic Saahm Acupuncture methods, but used only two points instead of four points, commonly used by Saahm. Actually, KOSA varies the number of points depending on the problem(s).
If there is only one symptom, only one point can be used and if there are complications then the number of points used can exceed ten.
The treatment must be customized. The readers will learn this very soon, later on in the book.
In 1962, my father, Master HyungGwan Kim (whose pen name is SaahOk, born in 1920) was trained by Master Rhee. He had successfully treated thousands of patients with various challenging diseases like Arthritis, Atopic dermatitis, Asthma, Bell’s palsy, Bleeding nose, Bronchitis, Esophagus cancer (or throat cancer), Middle-ear infection, Nephritis, Anosmia (or no sense of smell), Palsy, Pleuritis, Pulmonary tuberculosis, Rigor, Acne, Sinusitis, Pruritus, Urinary bladder cancer, Uterine cancer, and many others.
He also wrote a book THE OUTLINE OF SAAHM FIVE ELEMENTS ACUPUNCTURE AND MOXIBUSTION and has been training approx. 800 people including physicians and OMD’s (Oriental Medicine Doctors) since 1993.
One of Master Kim’s students, Gwangho Kim learned KOSA in January of 1999. Gwangho Kim demonstrated the power of KOSA when he attended the International Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) conference held in Tianjin, China in 10/2006. This demonstration surprised approximately 350 attendees with its quick and excellent effectiveness. An elderly lady who had a frozen shoulder at the conference was treated by him, and he used only one needle on her foot (to be more precise, the EARTH point of the spleen). When the needle was pulled out, she was able to raise her arm. He put a name on that technique 'Korean Single Needle Technique'.
In September of 2001, Mr. JaeHoon Song visited Master Kim and explained his problem to him. His job was teaching Chinese language to oriental medicine doctors and students at an oriental medicine college. He suffered from a cold knee, which none of his students could help for sixteen years.
Master Kim compared both knees using the back of his hand, because the back of the hand is much more sensitive to temperature than the palm. Master Kim found the reason why Mr. Song felt his knee to be cold. It was not really cold, but actually hot. The higher heat dissipation caused by the hotness of his knee made him feel cold. Master Kim treated (subdued) his FIRE point of the Stomach BD located at the ankle, and the cold feeling went away immediately.
Mr. Song was so impressed that he attended Master Kim’s lectures with fourteen Oriental medicine doctors who had three to twelve years of practice experience and one college student, who all were Mr. Song’s students learning Chinese language.
As soon as Mr. Song learned KOSA, he started an organization claiming that they invented Korean YIN-YANG Balancing Acupuncture (Pyung-Chim) and Korean Five-Element Harmonizing Acupuncture (Hwa-Chim).
In May of 2004, Master Kim taught Dr. WooHyun Park, the Superintendent of the East West Hospital in Wien, Austria and Berlin, Germany, a Guest Professor of the National University in Wien, Austria, and a Professor of the National Medical University in Vladivostok, Russia. He has taught KOSA to physicians in Austria, Germany and Russia and they have successfully treated more than 80,000 patients with a success rate of higher than 90%. This rate is an amazing number and is data that no one in the health industry can believe except those associated with KOSA.
Dr. Park’s other students also have successfully treated patients with incurable disease like Parkinson’s disease, Buerger’s disease, and so on.
Master Kim, after his twenty years of practice, eventually made a turning point in medical history defining FOSTERING and SUBDUING, which will be explained later on in this book. Until then, for thousands of years, nobody figured out how to FOSTER and SUBDUE even though they knew they had to do it. They have just been hoping what they were doing was right. That was the reason why no other acupuncture method could show the extremely superb results that KOSA can.
In order to distinguish Master Kim’s acupuncture, he named his acupuncture KOREAN ORTHODOX SAAHM ACUPUNCTURE because there are a few people who claim they also can do Saahm Acupuncture. However, their approaches are quite different than KOSA.
Bonghan Duct and Living Egg
Bonghan Duct
Nobody had proven that the channels and acupuncture points physically exist until Bonghan Kim, MD (1916 – 1966? North Korea) presented his thesis about Bonghan Duct and the Living Egg in 1961. Please refer to L.Ac. David Milbradt’s article on his web site for the more details.
Hereinafter, BDs (acronym of Bonghan Duct) will be used instead of channels (or meridians) to admire Bonghan Kim’s great work.
Living Egg
In addition to the above, in 1965 Bonghan Kim presented another thesis called the LIVING EGG, whose essence is given below:
He confirmed and analyzed liquids flowing in Bonghan Ducts and discovered there are many kinds of life substances like DNA, hormones, hyaluronic acid, etc.
DNA in blood vessels exists in the form of a particle, which is called the Living Egg, and which changes and becomes new cells upon cell division, according to his observation.
There is something even before cells, and it circulates in Bonghan Ducts controlling creation, aging and the destruction of cells. He named it the LIVING EGG.
He also found that Living Cells flow through BDs, and differentiate into other cell types wherever a wounded part is located.
This not only denies traditional theory that cells are created only by cell division, but also makes the classic Bonghan Duct theory a great new system to study.
BDs and Acupuncture Points
In this book, only twelve primary and two miscellaneous BDs are mentioned because the others are not important enough to be dealt with.
In oriental medicine, everybody has twelve Primary BDs on each side (left and right) and two Miscellaneous BDs at the center of the body, front and back (Conception BD and Governor BD, respectively). Those BDs are thought to join the internal organs with the skin, flesh, ligaments, bones and all other tissues, and integrate each part with the whole. Their functions are transferring QI and Blood, moistening and nourishing the body, responding to dysfunction in the body, transmitting disease and acupuncture stimulation, etc.
Acupuncture points are located on the skin on the lines of the BDs, and every point is believed to have its own unique function.
There are 361 points on the body.
Copyright(c) 2002 Korean Orthodox Saahm Acupuncture of the America. All rights reserved.
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