Fuxi Invented the Nine Acupuncture Needles
2 min readFuxi is another legendary ancestor of the Chinese people, said to be one of the originators of traditional Chinese medicine. Legend has it that Fuxi invented the nine types of needles used in Chinese acupunc- ture: chanzhen(ploughshare needle), yuanzhen(round needle), tizhen (arrowhead needle), fengzhen (sharp-edged needle), pizhen (sword needle), yuanlizhen (rounded sharp needle), haozhen (fine needle), changzhen (long needle) and dazhen (large needle).
For thousands of years, Fuxi has been honored as the originator of acupuncture. From the Stone Age well into the Bronze Age, stone tools played a paramount role in human society. Bianshi stones were one of humanity’s earliest surgical instruments.
Bianshi stones were slender im- plements with a sharp tip or blade, used primarily to lance abscesses and drain pus and blood. They may also have been used to therapeutically stimulate specific points on the body in an early version of acupuncture. As therapeutic methods developed, bianshi stones evolved into knives and needles.bian- shi stones continued to be used for several thousand years after the end of the Stone Age.
The evolution of surgical instruments was closely connected to social progress and increasing pro- ductive capability. Primitive bianshi stones were refined into stone blades and needles, which were replaced in turn by bamboo, wood, and bone, and finally by bronze, iron, silver, and gold. Changes in the materials and techniques used to make these instruments are reflected in their names.
The written characters for the earliest tools contain the component for stone, while the later ones contain the com- ponents for bamboo and finally metal.
