22-7 How I see the future of five element acupuncture in China

One of the things I had to learn as I started teaching in China was that I had to be quick at adapting to the different conditions under which acupuncture was taught and practised in our two countries.  I made the mistake of not acquainting myself more closely with this, both before I travelled, which I could have done through my association with Mei Long, the Chinese-trained acupuncturist in the Netherlands, or soon after I arrived in China.  Perhaps beginner's luck favoured me, and perhaps, too, I would have been daunted by discovering what was often a wide gap between what I had experienced in the UK and what my Chinese students had to deal with.

I realise now, after my 10 years of experience there, that it is absolutely inevitable that, as with the development of all disciplines through the passage of time, the teachings will change as they pass through different hands.  But this will be particularly so as they pass from country to country, as five element acupuncture is doing now.  I think I see my task as ensuring that the fundamental essence of what I was taught by JR Worsley, and what I have wished to pass on through my 40 years of practice and teaching, should stay true to what I have always recognized is a profound truth about the human condition.  This was formulated more than two thousand years ago by the ancient Chinese, set out in their traditional texts, such as the Suwen, and now practised under the name of five element acupuncture.  This is now a long, unbroken tradition which continues to offer profound healing, and is particularly relevant for a 21st century which manifests deep levels of distress and conflict.

 

It therefore heartens me to discover the large numbers of Chinese acupuncturists now studying five element acupuncture.  The five element bud which I brought with me for the first time in 2011, and which started to open up with just 10 or so students, is now, 10 years on, a flourishing branch on the great tree of acupuncture.  In the last two years about 800 students a year have attending preliminary five element courses organized in 23 cities in China and Singapore, with an estimated 400 - 500 practitioners practising five element acupuncture throughout China.  I was recently told that there were now over 5000 five element students on the Tong You San He five element database.  This is heartening recompense for my 10 years' work.

 

With China's re-emergence as a dominant world power, it is also appropriate that this profound healing discipline should gain fresh impetus in the country of its origin just as its practice sadly started to fade in the West.  I like to describe my visits to China as representing hands stretched from West to East across the world.  It is lovely for me to feel that the future of five element is now safely back in the hands which first released it to the world those thousands of years ago.