The Atlas of Layered Anatomy of Acupoints

As a beginning TCM student, I was looking for a reference on the order of Worsley's (hard to find) Traditional Chinese Acupuncture. I ordered this "Atlas" sight unseen, and was rather disappointed. The plates are a bit small to be as precise as I would like, especially for the feet. The book is arranged according to body area rather than channels (which I find frustrating for learning purposes). Not all of the appropriate points are shown on the expected plates. The written descriptions are in a different section of the book than the plates, so comparing them is unecessarily inconvenient. Also, the nice little prescription section in the back lists points only by their pinyin name. There's no alphabetical cross reference, so they are pretty darn hard to find unless you know them already by pinyin name.

I teach anatomy to acupuncture students, with strong emphasis underlying structures around acupuncture points. In my ongoing quest to find helpful images and references, I came across this book in hopes of offer a few image worthy of mention in class. Sadly this text doesn't really offer clear or useful images. As the most general of references, it has some value. So far the best text is Thieme's Teaching Atlas of Acupuncture, or Elmar Pueker's works.

I am not sure the prior reviewer realized the intent of this book as an anatomical atlas, rather than a introductory textbook. This book is intended for one who has other books which suit that purpose, or who has already travelled some distance into the world of acupuncture. It also appears to have been intended first for a chinese audience, later adapted to English. Its goal is not to teach channels, techniques or the purpose of points. Instead, it is a precise artistic work of hand-drawn detailed anatomy which attempts to show the user how a given point relates to the underlying structure of muscles, vessels, major nerves and bone. I have the first edition from 1999. In our computer age, I think we no longer readily appreciate the effort invested in older medical illustrations. This is analogous to the "NETTER" books of western medical illustration provided for the world of acupuncture. It was developed by a remarkable man, Gao Hualing, born in 1926 as a native of Heilongjian Province, predating the communist revolution. He is clearly a talented anatomist, clinician and artist. A combination we don't see too often nowdays, but who would have been a significant part of the history of acupuncture in China before TCM. The anatomical drawings are done with obvious loving care, accuracy, precision and definitely hold my respect. The translation to English requires the reader to work a bit harder. Some diagrams may not show the English name or WHO numerals and it is sometimes necessary for me to track points of interest across 2-3 drawings in order to clarify. However after gaining experience with the points through other texts, then this is a lovely resource to which I return and ponder the deeper spacial relationships between points and their underlying anatomy. I know there may be newer atlases with the same material, perhaps some with photographs of points superimposed on cadaver photos. I have Q-dex which uses computer-simulated layering of the underlying structure. It is no where near sufficient in the important detail provided on every one of Gao Hualing's drawings. Just like in western anatomy -- I have times when I need a detailed photograph derived from cadaver, Xray, CT or MRI imaging. Sometimes instead I need the uncluttered, elegant drawings of Frank Netter which are accurate and "to the point". I experience this as an analogous work from a chinese anatomist and artist whom I suspect Frank Netter would have respected as well. Consistent with the intent of the book, all explanatory text, other than labels on the drawings, is organized in appendices (as shown below). It is definitely not a how-to manual for new students. It is a summary for more advanced students who are digging deeper. And with that purpose in mind it is small enough to carry around in a briefcase or backpack. Appendix 1: Is curiously in the middle of the book and briefly describes nomenclature organized by MERIDIANS and the general course of their points with cursory information about their global functions. Appendix 2: Includes point names and WHO numbers organized by REGION of the body with criptic reminders of position for needling, depth and a few representative indications. Appendix 3: Summarizes precautions for points organized by MERIDIANS. Apprendix 4: Includes some selected point combinations and their modifications for common illnesses -- these only show the point names in Pin-Yin, so one would need to cross-reference to get back to WHO numbers. The organization of the illnesses is not apparent to English readers (nonalphabetical, nor by region or meridians) but perhaps was alphabetical in the original chinese version. One just has to scan through here to see what treasure is calling out at the moment to be excavated. Given that it is now translated and aimed at an english speaking audience, I would have rated it a 4, --if there were an updated edition correcting some of the missing point names (English or WHO numerals) on all the drawings --and if it underwent a good publishers transformation of the organization of these appendices to correspond with those of us users who are unfortunately confined mostly to english.

Clear text and detailed helpful pictures.