Shuxue

as a core concept of acupuncture-moxibustion

is explained with different terms in each era. The term standardization of shuxue has drawn high attention from medical practitioners and from the government in ancient and modern times; and a lot of research has been done over a long period. On the basis of systematic review of the achievements and mistakes in the standardization of shuxue terminology

and the summar

y on the related principles in nearly two thousand years

the long-term exploration was carried out

in which the "trinity-holistic" research method was adopted

the entirety of clarifying concept

sorting out definition and approving terminology; the entirety of Chinese terminology and English terminology

and the entirety of standardization research

theoretical innovation and experimental research. With the above approaches hooked up with each other

the general law of standardization of TCM terms was explored

and the gains and losses of shuxue terminology in ancient and modern times were evaluated. It is discovered: during the formulation of the current national standards of acupuncture-moxibustion terms for the approval of the standard nomenclature of shuxue

the terminology standard scheme in

Tongren Shuxue Zhenjiu Tujing

(

Illustrated Classic of Acupoints on the Bronze Figure

) of the Song Dynasty has been selectively adopted; and in these national standards

the alternative name of shuxue

xuewei refers to a misreading of the same term in acupuncture-moxibustion literature during the Republican era of China. This erroneous term also covers up the mistake in English translation of zhenjiu xue (acupuncture point)

this English-translated term has caused an unbreakable obstacle to the anatomical study of shuxue structure by western scholars for a long time

resulting in a series of successive mistakes. Through a review of the typical cases of standardization researches of shuxue terminology during the past two thousand years

on the one hand

TCM researchers can truly feel the importance of concept and term research to upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground of acupuncture-moxibustion

and the complexity of the research itself; on the other hand

people can be distinctly aware of its dual influence on the theoretical innovation of acupuncture-moxibustion

meaning that in addition to serving as a guidepost for scientific research and a bridge for academic comm

unication

it may also become a roadblock and pitfall in advancement.