Today is the beginning of the new Chinese lunar year. We are now ushering in a Geng Zi (庚子) year, which really more properly starts with the next Seasonal Node – Beginning of Spring (there is both a lunar and solar new year in the Chinese calendar). Geng is the seventh Heavenly Stem associated with Yang Metal, and Zi is the first of the Early Branches. The Zi branch is Yang Water associated with the Rat zodiac. Thus this coming year is the Yang Metal Rat year!
The lunar new year always starts on a new moon, so to start the new year off I thought I’d take a break from seasonal nodes and talk a little today about lunar cycles and acupuncture. This semester I’m also back to teaching a course on the philosophical and historical foundations of Chinese medicine, and at every class we’ve had so far I’ve told them it all comes back to Yin-Yang and Five Phases. Lunar acupuncture, like everything else we discuss, illustrates this principle.
Clearly ancient physicians thought that knowledge of the changes in the natural world were an essential foundation to practicing medicine. This is why in Su Wen Chapter 9 it says, “He who does not know what a year contributes [to human health], how the qi abound and weaken, and why repletion or vacuity arise, they cannot serve as a practitioner [of medicine]” (不知年之所加，氣之盛衰，虛實之所起，不可以為工矣). In this sentence the word year refers to the cyclical fluctuations of time based on movement of the heavenly bodies such as the sun, moon and stars. In our Seasonal Node posts we talk a lot about the longer term changes in time and weather, but we don’t talk as much about the shorter cycles such as the moon.
Su Wen Chapter 26 (Ba Zheng Shen Ming Lun) gives us a discussion of what is sometimes called Taiyin Needle Methods (太陰針法). Taiyin, Greatest Yin, means the moon. This chapter says, “at the time of the beginning crescent moon, blood and Qi originate as jing-essence, and the guard qi begins to move” (月始生，則血氣始精，衛氣始行). The commentary to this line by Yang Shang Shan says that at the new moon Qi and Blood are in the stage of being created again. This, like the Winter Solstice, is the birth of Yang. But since during the new moon the cycle is at its most Yin (where Yang is reborn), it is a time of cold and insufficiency.
The moon is a symbol of Yin, and in the body Yin can refer to the actual physical substance of our being. Thus, in the same chapter of the Su Wen it says, “when the disk of the moon is full, blood and Qi are replete; the muscles and the flesh are firm” (月郭滿，則血氣實，肌肉堅). Based on these quotes we find this treatment recommendation:
“As the moon starts to wax, do not drain. At full moon, do not supplement. When the disk of the moon is empty, do not treat.” 月生無寫，月滿無補，月郭空無治
During the Yin time, the new moon, it is therefore appropriate to supplement and not drain. Moxa at Zu San Li (ST-36) is appropriate as regular preventive treatment on the day of the new moon. In the clinic I am less likely to apply bloodletting therapy on a new moon, unless the patient is clearly replete and hot. On the other end of the spectrum during the full moon bloodletting is often more effective and also safer to apply in patients with mixed patterns where pure repletion may not be the presentation.
The wonderful thing here is that nothing in these recommendations should surprise us as long as we keep Yin and Yang in mind. So, today go do some moxa on Zu San Li, eat vegetarian (for the new year), and try to take it easy a bit. Happy New Year, and happy Spring. I’ll blog again shortly at the solar start of Spring that will be happening in less than two weeks. For those who want to learn more about Chinese medicine and acupuncture’s relationship to time and the seasons can see my online class on the topic (click here).