How Chinese medicine thinks
Correspondence thinking, the difference between a disease and a pattern, and why two patients with the same label receive different treatments.
How it starts
Chinese medicine is not Western medicine with different remedies. It is another way of organizing clinical information, and anyone who misses that shift in axis ends up doing what almost everyone does: translating each Western diagnosis into a list of points and calling it acupuncture. This lesson is the one that spares you that fate.
The rest of the lesson opens with Acupuntura I.
In this lesson you will learn
- Distinguish “disease” from “pattern” and explain why that distinction is the axis of the whole system.
- Apply the principles of same disease–different treatment and its reverse.
- Understand correspondence thinking without turning it into superstition.
- Decide when to treat the branch and when to treat the root.
- Recognize the four mental operations a Chinese medicine clinician performs with every patient.
What is inside
- 1Disease and pattern: the axis of the system
- 2The two principles that shock beginners
- 3Thinking in correspondences
- 4Branch and root: what to treat first
- 5The four mental operations of a Chinese medicine clinician
One of the 26 lessons in
Acupuntura IFoundations
“Learn the language before the vocabulary.”
The groundwork: how Chinese medicine thinks, Yin-Yang, the Five Phases, the vital substances, the organs, the channel system, diagnosis, and safe needling practice. By the end you will be able to read a case history in the language of Chinese medicine and locate points with anatomical precision.
By the end of the course, you will know how to
- Explain Yin-Yang and Wu Xing without falling back on empty metaphors.
- Distinguish Qi, Blood, Essence (Jing), Shen, and Body Fluids, along with their basic pathologies.
- Describe the functions of the twelve organs according to TCM.
- Locate any point using proportional cun and bony landmarks.
- Build a diagnosis using the Eight Principles.
- Handle the needle safely and recognize De Qi.
What you will study
Module 1 · 4 lessons
Starting point
What acupuncture really is, how Chinese medicine reasons and which tools you have in your hands.
- What acupuncture is (and what it isn't)
- How Chinese medicine thinksYou are here
- History and classical texts
- Your toolkit: Atlas, 3D Map, and Ryodoraku
Module 2 · 2 lessons
Yin and Yang
The most powerful and most misused analytical tool in all of Chinese medicine.
- Yin-Yang: the four laws
- Yin-Yang applied to the body and the clinic
Module 3 · 2 lessons
The Five Phases
Wu Xing: correspondences, cycles and the treatment rules that follow from them.
- Wu Xing: the five families
- Sheng, Ke, Cheng, and Wu: the four cycles
Module 4 · 3 lessons
The vital substances
Qi, Blood, Essence, Mind and Body Fluids: the material the body works with.
- Qi: types and functions
- Blood, Essence, Shen, and Fluids
- How they support one another
Module 5 · 4 lessons
The organs (Zang-Fu)
The twelve organs aren't viscera: they're functional systems. Here you learn each one.
- Heart and Lung
- Spleen, Liver, and Kidney
- The six Fu organs
- Zang-Fu relationships and the curious organs
Module 6 · 3 lessons
The channel system
The network everything flows through: architecture, timing and measurement.
- Architecture of the Jing Luo
- Circulation and the organ clock
- The cun and locating points
Module 7 · 4 lessons
Causes and diagnosis
Where illness comes from and how to read it in the patient.
- Causes of disease
- The Eight Principles
- Observation and tongue diagnosis
- Pulse, inquiry, and palpation
Module 8 · 4 lessons
The needle in hand
Safe practice: technique, risks and the sister techniques.
- Needling technique and De Qi
- Safety, accidents, and contraindications
- Moxibustion, cupping, and bloodletting
- Final exam · Acupuncture I
Requirements
None. You start from zero.
How it works
Acupuncture Pathway
Save with a bundle
Acupuncture Pathway I-III
All three acupuncture courses, saving you €80, plus three years of Atlas Pro.
You save $80 compared with buying the courses separately
3 years of Atlas Pro included
Valued at $237 free
Already have Atlas Pro? Nothing is overwritten: 3 years is added on top of whatever you have left.
Complete Training
All five courses, saving you €180, plus five years of Atlas Pro and the game included.
You save $180 compared with buying the courses separately
5 years of Atlas Pro included
Valued at $395 free
Already have Atlas Pro? Nothing is overwritten: 5 years is added on top of whatever you have left.
Read “How Chinese medicine thinks” today
This lesson and the rest of the course: 26 lessons, 7 hours, quizzes and exercises. You pay once and it is yours for life, with one year of Atlas Pro as a gift (if you already have it, it adds to the time you have left).
Acupuntura I
One-time payment