Pricking the Vessels: Bloodletting Therapy in Chinese Medicine

170 Pages·2014·1.39 MB·English

by  Henry McCann

PRICKING THE VESSELS
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PRICKING
THE VESSELS
Bloodletting Therapy
in Chinese Medicine
Henry McCann
Foreword by Heiner Fruehauf

LONDON AND PHILADELPHIA
Chart illustrations in Chapter 10 created by and included with kind permission from Brendan Ford.
First published in 2014
by Singing Dragon
an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers
73 Collier Street
London N1 9BE, UK
and
400 Market Street, Suite 400
Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
www.singingdragon.com
Copyright © Henry McCann 2014
Foreword copyright © Heiner Fruehauf 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including
photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently
or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the
copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron
House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owner’s written
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Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
McCann, Henry.
Pricking the vessels : bloodletting therapy in Chinese medicine
/ Henry McCann ; foreword by Heiner
Fruehauf.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84819-180-8 (alk. paper)
1. Phlebotomy. 2. Medicine, Chinese. I. Title.
RM182.M33 2014
616.07’561--dc23
2013031353
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 84819 180 8
eISBN 978 0 85701 139 8
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Dedicated to my mother and father, who, although
are both gone, continue to inspire and teach me

CONTENTS
Foreword by Dr. Heiner Fruehauf 9
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 11
DISCLAIMER 13
Chapter 1 Introduction 15
Chapter 2 An Overview and History of Bloodletting Therapy 19
Chapter 3 Bloodletting in the Huang Di Nei Jing 23
Chapter 4 Essential Chinese Medical Theory Related to Bloodletting 37
Chapter 5 Functions of Bloodletting 43
Chapter 6 Bloodletting Materials and Methods 49
Chapter 7 Commonly Bled Acupuncture Points 59
Chapter 8 Special Point Categories and Combinations 71
Chapter 9 Bloodletting in the Treatment of Chronic Disease 81
Chapter 10 Tung Lineage Bloodletting 87
Chapter 11 Treatment of Compound Patterns with Bloodletting and
Acupuncture 121
Chapter 12 Ending Thoughts 133
APPENDIX 1 TUNG LINEAGE POINTS ON THE POSTERIOR TRUNK 135
APPENDIX 2 TUNG LINEAGE POINTS REFERENCED IN TEXT 139
APPENDIX 3 POINTS LISTED FOR BLOODLETTING IN THE XUN JING 149
REFERENCES 151
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 155
SUBJECT INDEX 157
POINT INDEX 163