Page 10 RAIN May/June 1984 immediately withdraws it, moving quickly to the next point. By the end of an hour-long treatment, he may have made 25 to 50 insertions. In addition. Dr. Wong uses moxibustion, a related technique that applies heat from herbs—principally mugwort—to those acupuncture points. Dr. Wong's manner is loving, concerned, reassuring. "I have a patient who said that her doctor frightened her," he tells me. "Now how can anyone be cured by someone who frightens them? There must be trust between doctors and their patients." Dr. Wong is 72 years old. ("Seventy-four in the Chinese way of calculation," he laughs). He learned acupuncture in China from his grandfather, and he had the opportunity to study in many different places. In addition to being a recognized master of the arts of herbal medicine and acupuncture—he served on the California Board of Acupuncture Examiners and was one of the first licensed acupuncturists in that state— Dr. Wong has practiced the ch'i arts (martial arts and t'ai chi), taught yoga in Hong Kong for 25 years, and is a Taoist priest. Going to him for acupuncture has been far more than a series of physical treatments. It has been a precious experience in learning about integration and balance in all aspects of life. □ □ ACCESS: Acupuncture Celestial Lancets: A History and Rationale ofAcupuncture and Moxa, by Lu Gwei-djen and Joseph Needham, 1980, 427 pp., $105 cloth from: Cambridge University Press 32 East 57th Street New York, NY 10022 Authoritative, scholarly, thorough. This book gives a cogent and reliable discussion of the history and working of acupuncture, but you'll need to have a medical dictionary at hand as you read. Celestial Lancets is part of the "Science and Civilization in China" series of volumes, a massive scholarly undertaking that encompasses the whole of the Chinese scientific tradition. As historians of science, Lu and Needham discuss what the Chinese acupuncturists thought they were doing and how they used theory to complement practice. Then, as scientists, they go on to discuss plausible explanations for acupuncture in terms of Western medicine. The authors exhibit a remarkable depth FROM: The Web That Has No Weaver and breadth of knowledge. They bring in cross-cultural examples to reveal parallels between Chinese science and Western science. Furthermore, their discussions of biological clocks—their place in the ancient Chinese corpus and their rediscovery in modern Western science—and of the neurophysiology of pain perception are fascinating. The bibliography, which runs to 60 pages, provides probably the most complete reference to both English and Chinese writings on acupuncture. —TK The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine, by Ted Kaptchuk, 1983, 402 pp., $9.95 from: Congdon & Weed 298 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10001 The first premise of this book is that you cannot begin to understand Chinese medicine in the context of Western medicine. The two systems of healing exist simultaneously, each having grown from its own world views. They are utterly different. Each can be considered as what it is, and what it can do; how the two can in a larger sense complement and critique one another can be seen. But comparisons won't work here. Ted Kaptchuk is a Westerner who studied Chinese medicine in China. His introduction expresses some of the difficulty in explaining Chinese concepts with a Western vocabulary, but his chapters clearly explain the basics. Some of the discussion, well illustrated with examples, includes the fundamental substances, the organs, the meridians, examinations and diagnosis, and patterns of yin and yang. He also discusses herbalism. Detailed notes follow each chapter. The last 130 pages consist of appendices of tables and notes that supplement the chapter discussions, a selected bibliography, and an index. —Nancy Cosper Acupuncture: The Ancient Chinese Art of Healing and How It Works Scientifically, by Felix Mann, revised edition, 1971, 234 pp., $1.95 from: Random House 201 East 50th Street New York, NY 10022 A fairly reliable discussion of acupuncture. What sets this book apart is Mann's liberal use of case histories, taken from his practice, to illustrate his points. Mann's (half-dozen or so) books on acupuncture, along with works by Manfred Porkert (The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 1974, MIT Press; and a more recent book on Chinese diagnostics), comprise the most reliable popular works in English, besides the books by Kaptchuk and Lu and Needham reviewed above. For more detailed information, consult Chinese sources translated into English. Two notable texts are Essentials of Chinese Acupuncture (compiled by the Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and The Acupuncture Institute of the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1980, 432 pp., $29.95 cloth from: Foreign Languages Press, 24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing, China), and Acupuncture: A Comprehensive Text (by the Shanghai College of Traditional Medicine, translated and edited by John O'Connor and Dan Bensky, 1981, 741 pp., $55 cloth from: Eastland Press, PO Box 4910, Chicago, IL 60680). Both of these books have excellent introductions (particularly the latter), which explain Chinese medicine clearly and concisely. The American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2400 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, CA 94115) publishes a quarterly journal on Chinese medicine. —TK
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