The Chinese medicine museum near Anguo is a delightful place! This small, well designed space is full of old medical texts, medical devices and antique herbal processing equipment. You defiantly get a feel for the “di dao” (the authentic medicine) it’s history and roots (no pun intended) even as it is practiced today in modern settings.
Here is a bronze man. Life-sized models like this one were used to teach and test students on the correct location of acupuncture points. Some models had tiny cavities drilled at acupuncture points and a dot of pigment inserted into them. For student testing models were covered in a thin layer of paper mache-like rice paper.
In order to pass yearly exams, medical students would be assigned a number of points and an equal number of needles. Students had only one opportunity to correctly locate and needle all the points. If a point was correctly located and needle inserted, the pigment would bleed to the surface of the paper. If not…… too bad! Better luck next year.
This portrait is Dr. Huato. It is said that Dr. Huato’s skill as an acupuncturist was so accurate that he could pass nine long needles through a live chicken without injury to the chicken. (Kids - Don’t try this at home!)
These are some early wooden and bamboo acupuncture needles. Thank goodness we have modern stainless steel today! I don’t think my patients would tolerate these.
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