Dou Hanqing: His Life and Academic Thoughts

Dou Hanqing is a noted acupuncturist lived in Jin and Yuan Dynasty. His famous writing works includes Biaoyoufu,Liuzhutongxuanzhiyaofu,Jiaojingbaxue and Zhenyanbuxieshoufa in the book Zhenjingzhinan.Many doctors have read,copied and explained these works.There are three parts in this article. The First part is about Dou`s history ,which is made up of a time-place-incident form and five places he lived .After that is the Second part which absorbed many people`s years of academic achievements , specifically and systematically analyzed Dou`s works in four books of Weishengbaojian,Jishengbacui,Zhenjingzhinan and Zhenjiumiyao written by other doctors.Then the last part analyzed the relationship between Dou`s works and the classic books Suwen,Nanjing,Tongren shuxue zhenjiu tujing,Ziwu -liuzhu zhenjing , and also made a thorough inquiry to Dou`s Zhenyanbuxieshoufa which is about the tonifying and purging needling skills. In the end it is the description about the contribution of Dou`s academic viewpoints to acupuncture systematic learing. It also evaluated his status and influence in the history of acupuncture. And two apprentices of Dou Hanqing have been found.From Zhenjing-zhinan and other books,we can infer that Dou`s father-in-law made him become a doctor. Later Dou`s acupuncture and ideology formerly originated from Songzihua`s Jiaojing baxue. Then Dou ran into Li Hao, followed him to learn needling skills. As a result, he mastered the secret methods about 43 points and wrote into Liuzhuzhiyaofu. Besides this , He Ruoyu`s Ziwu-liuzhu-zhenjing recorded in Biaoyoufu and the classical book Tongren-shuxue-zhenjiu-tujing apparently influenced Dou`s writings.Dou`s academic characteristics and achievements mainly includes: emphasizing needling therapy , explicating the tonifying and purging needling skills , standardized the finger skills of needles , developed the theory about needling sensation ; applied the eight points skillfully and enriched the eight-point theory , points match and prescription simple and accurate , using mostly special points ; put forward needling contraindications and the preventive measures.These would surely be helpful to modern acupuncture clinical pratice.