It is known to the Chinese since the 1st Millennium B.C

Acupuncture in China goes way back to the 1st millennium B.C. and there is also archeological evidence to prove that it can be dated to the Han Dynasty. There is also literature available of traditional Korean medicine that was known as chimsul and Japanese versions referred to as Kampo. Acupuncture does not really follow the trail of scientific biomedicine and is more of a paradigm whereby it treats the human body that involves many ‘systems of function’ that often is associated with physical organs, though some systems of function such as the triple heater (San Jiao) are not associated with a physical organ.

Disease is considered to being loss of homeostasis that exists in the various systems of function and in order to treat such diseases, an attempt is made to modify the activity using one or more systems of function through use of needles, pressure, heat on the body’s sensitive areas localized as acupuncture points and is referred to as treatment of patterns of disharmony.It is not necessary for the acupoints to be on the same area of the body as the targeted symptoms and many acupuncturists, especially those in Japan, are heavily dependent on palpation for tender points, which are known as ashi points. The basic theory to this form of treatment is that they work through stimulation of the meridian system and give relief through rebalancing the yin, yang and qi and this theory is based on a paradigm not science.