ACUPUNCTURE 2

Finishing the treatment session was not easy anyway, especially to treat the large number of patients coming today. Moreover, Zhu Su, Zhu Youdun, and Hu Nayin could not give much help, this time what they did was no more than being Gao Qing's assistants - pulling out the needles and cleansing patient's blood.

"This time our patients are really... the whole hell of a lot! It drains my energy so much!" Zhu Youdun shouted, he was very exhausted and he felt pain all over his body. "It's been a long time since the last time of our tiresome activity in Yunnan, and I have to undergo this situation again, it's hard for me to adjust with it."

"Before we only treat one or two patients per day, but now of a sudden our patients are so many. You must be very tired. Me, too." Zhu Su turned to Gao Qing. "But Mr. Gao still looks very well, you are not tired, Sir?"

"No."

Zhu Youdun gawked in amazement. "Wow! Have you trained internal skills until a very high level that you can become such a superpower man?"

"Don't be so superstitious. There is no such thing as "training inner skill to ultimate level" or "mastering god-level internal skills"."

"Haha! It becomes habitual after all, if we meet someone with extraordinary power, we will automatically get such thinking."

"Someone can get power much more than humans in general, because he has the willpower to train himself harder than most people. Only that. Without willpower, even if someone has talent, he won't get what he wants. Only willpower, that's all the point we have to possess."

"You don't believe in the term "God-level internal skills" or something like that?"

"I don't say that I don't believe it. I believe, such a thing does exist. And my another belief is, everyone can achieve that without the requirement to pass the superstitious training as you say."

Zhu Youdun blinked. "But... everyone says, to get god-level of internal skill, you have to train yourself until you can penetrate the spiritual world."

"You just need to train extra hard. But it has nothing to do with occultism. In fact, what we need to do is very related to logic and common senses. For example... is what I'm going to explain now."

The night wind blew hard abruptly. Zhu Su leaned forward a little. "I can't wait for hearing this topic," He murmured, eyes sparkling with excitement.

Gao Qing's eyes twinkled, both corners of his lips raised upwards as well. He smiled. But only for a brief moment. Because after the wind blew hard on the next time, he had been putting on his serious look as usual.

"Acupuncture, although has the same basic theory as herbs has, in the end, it splits up, and forms a separate branch of healing that makes it unique."

"But Sir, isn't the main characteristic of Yi is "Zhengti Guannian" (Theory of Holism) - a theory which believes that everything is all but one entity. Acupuncture is not a distinguished healing method, so it is one entity with herbs?"

"Do you know the principles of "Yin and Yang are a unity" and "Yin and Yang are the opposite"?"

"Ah!" Zhu Su twitched to surprise as he just realized something.

"Is the Heart different from the Liver? They are different. They have their respective functions. The functions of the heart are to pump blood throughout the body and to store Shen - Spirit. While the function of the liver is to regulate the circulation of Qi Flow and to store Blood. * But both of them are one entity - they both are in a human body. There is a contradiction in unity, there is a unity in contradiction."

Zhu Su nid-nodded. "If so, can you explain the reason why acupuncture becomes a unique healing method?"

"So many reasons. For example, acupuncture concerns so much with Theory of Jing Luo (Meridian) while that theory is not so important when applied to herbs, at least it's not as important as in acupuncture."

"I agree with you. I don't really understand Theory of Jing Luo either."

"You must be. And that's what I want to teach you right now."

Gao Qing grabbed his large bag lying on a huge rock beside him. He withdrew a thin yellow book out of it. The book cover depicted a half-naked middle-aged man whose body was filled with lines as well as strange-looked points. The title of that book was "Theory of Jing Luo."

"Jing Luo consists of two words - "Jing" and "Luo". Jing and Luo themselves come from the words "Jing Mai" and "Luo Mai". Jing Kuo itself means Channel. Both Jing and Luo are Channels inside the body. But they are different. Jing, is the Main Channel, like the main road. Jing is large, straight, and not branched. Whereas Luo, is a branch of Jing. Luo is like an aisle. Luo is small, branched, and penetrates throughout even the smallest body parts. Thus, the Theory of Jing Luo discusses anything related to Jing and Luo."

"This Jing Luo, is the same with blood vessels?"

Gao Qing shook his head. "Not the same. If you do human body surgery, you will find blood vessels but not the meridians. Blood vessels can be seen while Meridian cannot."

"So, Meridian is like Qi? It is invisible?"

"True. And because they are both invisible, being a traffic lane for Qi is one of Meridian's duties."

Gao Qing opened his Theory-of-Meridian book to the first page. "After you know the definition of Jing Luo, you need to know its types. Jing Luo consist of Twelve Meridians, Eight Extraordinary Meridians, Twelve Divergent Meridians, Fifteen Main Collaterals, and Muscles along Twelve Meridians. You are just beginners, no need to learn such a difficult level. We will focus on Twelve Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Meridians. Twelve Meridians are 12 kinds of main meridians centered on organs, consisting of: Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin, Large Intestine of Hand-Yangming, Stomach Meridian of Foot-Yangming..."

"Sir, don't say so fast! We still don't get the point!" Zhu Su hurriedly cut off Gao Qing's explanation, before his head blew up since Gao Qing's explanation was at "the level of God" for him.

"Ah... I forget that you guys are beginners in the Theory of Jing Luo. The Twelve Meridians are the most common, most important meridians. It is like a protocol. Qi flows mostly in here." He paused for a moment. "Well then, do you understand what Jing Luo is?"

Slowly, Zhu Su, Hu Nayin, and Zhu Youdun nid-nodded.

"As the name implies, Twelve Meridians consist of 12 meridians. Each is named based on: foot or hand, type of its Yin Yang, and Zang-fu * organs."

"Our Zang organs consist of 5 organs... plus pericardium... there are 6 Fu organs... Ah! No wonder there are 12 channels!"

"Good. You understand things fast. Aside from Zang-fu organs, the naming of the Twelve Meridians is also based on Yin Yang. This is the part that you must memorize, no other way to master it."

"But we still don't really understand, how we can memorize all..."

"That's the best way to learn for something you don't understand. Memorize it first. I'll explain it later. After that, let's try it by yourself, understanding will be much easier for you."

And for the next several moments, the night became a total silent. Only the sound of crickets and crackling sound of campfires filled the atmosphere.

Zhu Su put his book down. Zhu Youdun followed him. They both looked at Gao Qing, who stared back at them.

"You have memorized it?"

Hu Nayin also put her book down. They glanced at each other first before giving the answer.

"Yes, Sir. Now we ask for your help to give us the explanation."

"Alright then. I'll start from the first part of Twelve Meridians - Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin."

...

* The functions of organs in Chinese medicine are different from the functions of organs in Western medicine.

* Zang-fu = is the collection of organs that produce and regulate Qi inside the body. Different from Western medicine, these organs should not be considered as anatomical structures, but rather as interconnected functions that explain how Qi is created inside the body. The functions displayed by each organ are referred to as the organ's Qi (i.e. Heart Qi). There are 11 organs, 5 Zang and 6 Fu. Zang consists of Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung, and Kidney; while Fu consists of Small Intestine, Large Intestine, Fall Bladder, Stomach, Urinary Bladder, and Sanjiao (Sanjiao does not have a Western anatomical equivalent). (https://www.amcollege.edu/blog/what-is-zang-fu)