Massage & Bodywork

July/August 2010

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DAOIST PAIN MANAGEMENT As an acupuncture physician, massage therapist, and continuing education provider, I have been exposed to a lot of ancient Chinese acupressure and medical massage techniques, especially as China opened up to the West in the last decade or so. Like many acupuncture physicians and massage therapists, I was taught traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) when I went to massage and acupuncture school in the 1990s. It was only much later, through some visiting Chinese acupuncture masters, that I was exposed to the Daoist way of thinking and achieved a breakthrough in my clients' treatments. WHAT IS DAOISM? Daoism means the "path" or "way" and refers to a mixture of philosophy and religion. However, it is not an isolated and esoteric practice. The principles of Daoism are intertwined with Chinese cuisine, traditional medicine, feng shui, astrology, immortality beliefs, martial arts, and various styles of qigong, with an emphasis on the natural order of things and behaviors. There is no worship involved and no particular sect subscribes to its teachings. Daoism describes the flow of force through the universe, or the flow of qi (chi) behind the natural order. Qi is the essential life force that is the source of our existence. In Daoism, man is not separate from the universe or nature. Instead, humans are a microcosm of the universe and thus follow its universal laws. The five-phase or Five-Element Theory (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) is based on Daoist philosophy, and the theory of yin and yang (complementary opposites that oppose and support one another) owes much to early Daoist Chinese doctors. SYSTEMATIC CORRESPONDENCES One central principle in Daoism is the system of correspondences, which explains much of the medical Summer Noon Spring Morning Autumn Afternoon Winter Midnight Tai Ji symbol showing cyclical relationships. and religious beliefs inherent in the Daoist practice. The concept is so important that the famous German sinologist Paul Unschuld called Chinese medicine the medicine of systematic correspondences. These are correspondences are contained in the classic Chinese medicine text that translates in English to The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine. For our purposes here, we'll call it the Emperor's Classic. According to the Emperor's Classic, "Humans correspond to heaven and earth and should follow the four seasons. They are in conformity to heaven and earth." The text also extends this theory of correspondences to the domain of human biology and medicine. For instance, the Emperor's Classic says: "When the sages stipulated measurement, they must have considered the correspondence to heaven and earth. Therefore, as there are constellations in heaven and there are rivers on earth, so the human being has channels and vessels." 70 massage & bodywork july/august 2010 Within the text, there are even more detailed descriptions of similar correspondences: "Heaven has four seasons, while human beings have four limbs … There are 365 days in the year, while humans have 365 joints (or acupoints) … There are 12 channel rivers across the land, while humans have 12 channel vessels." UTILIZING THE CORRESPONDENCES We see a similar approach of correspondences in shiatsu-anma, which is indirectly derived from Chinese medicine. The principles here are supplementation and drainage. You supplement or strengthen when there is emptiness or vacuity (insufficient qi or life force) present in the client. You drain when there is overwhelming energy, or what the text calls "staleness"—stagnation and congestion over lengthy periods of time. A Western massage analogy is myofascial pain evidenced in trigger points. These trigger points contain surplus energy, in most cases, that has

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