Ziwu Liuzhu, Linggui Ba Fa, and Feiteng Ba Fa are traditional time acupuncture techniques created by ancient medical practitioners. They are collectively referred to as traditional timing acupuncture therapy. This therapy is based on the cyclical changes in the flow of qi and blood in the meridians of the human body over time. These cyclical changes can be observed in the opening and closing of the original acupoints, five shu points, and eight confluent points of the eight extra meridians. Therefore, acupoints that are open and abundant in qi and blood are selected for acupuncture treatment.
1. Ziwu Liuzhu
Ziwu Liuzhu is a method of selecting acupoints for acupuncture based on the combination of the celestial stems and terrestrial branches of the day and the well, spring, stream, and river (original) acupoints. Depending on the specific method of selecting acupoints, it can be further divided into Naja method, Naza method, and Yangzi moment acupoint method.
1. Basic Knowledge
(1) Ancient time representation: In ancient China, years, months, days, and hours were represented using celestial stems and terrestrial branches. The celestial stems consist of ten numbers: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui. The terrestrial branches consist of twelve numbers: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, and Hai. The combination of the first number of the celestial stems with the first number of the terrestrial branches is called Jia Zi; the combination of the second number of the celestial stems with the second number of the terrestrial branches is called Yi Chou, and so on. This combination continues until it reaches Jia Zi again after six cycles of celestial stems and five cycles of terrestrial branches, resulting in a total of sixty cycles. This is why sixty cycles are referred to as a "huajia." This method of celestial stems and terrestrial branches is used to represent years, months, days, and hours. See table 1-3.
Table 1-3: Celestial stems and terrestrial branches in sixty cycles
