Both acupuncture and moxibustion were used extensively in the Chin-Yuan period. Various acupuncture points and their corresponding therapeutic virtues were validated throughout this period. Procedures in applying acupuncture and moxibustion to these points had been developed differently over the centuries. Four books of acupuncture and moxibustion (Zhenjiu Sishu), published by Dou Guifang in 1331, and important works on acupuncture written during the Song and Chin dynasties were compiled. For example, an acupuncture point known as jimvei mentioned in the Hnangdi Mingdang Jhijing, one of the four books, was used in the treatment of palpitations and epilepsy and has been used from that time until the present.
Zhu Zhenheng (1281-1358), known as Master Danxi from Zhejiang province, achieved renown for his medical research and theories into the generation of internal heat during physiological and pathological change in the body, expounded in his work Gezhi Yulun (Theories of In-depth Research). As with so much Chinese medical theory, his ideas centered on the balance between the yang elements and the yin. Yang energy, or minister-fire, vital for the body to function, exists mainly in the kidneys and liver from where it cooperates with heart-fire or master-fire to promote the stable function of the organs. Zhu Zhenheng believed that during periods of illness the body's yang elements increased at the expense of the yin, and as a result fire in the body increased as the disease developed. Treatment consisted of nourishing the yin, which had been consumed by minister-fire, and quenching the fire. Recommended were strict diet and regulated sexual activity, which were believed to preserve the yin. The theories surrounding minister-fire are still observed today.
The Mongols contributed to medical knowledge regarding acupuncture and moxibustion (the burning of herbs over certain points on the skin). Therapeutic methods like Mongolian moxibustion and bloodletting were very popular at the time. The Mongolian tradition of moxibustion was later integrated into the Tibetan medical system and became known as Horgi Metzai or Sogpo Metzai (Mongolian fire burning). Bonesetting, traumatic surgery, and the development of external medicine were fields in which the Mongols excelled due to the nature of their nomadic lifestyle, which involved often continuous military activity. Surgery and anatomy were also well known to the Chinese and Mongols for this same reason and also because of the Chinese habit of using the bodies of executed criminals for dissection and anatomical investigation.
World History
