Zhang Jin

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Zhang Jin, Male, Han, from China Association of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (Ⅸ-5). The tradition is documented in China Association of Acupuncture and Moxibustion. Within the regional tradition and school record of Acupuncture and Moxibustion in China Association of Acupuncture and Moxibustion: Acupuncture and moxibustion are composed of 'needling' (zhen) and 'moxibustion' (jiu) and are one of the important components of traditional Chinese medicine. Their content includes acupuncture theory, acupoints, acupuncture technique, and related instruments. In the process of their formation, application, and development they bear distinctive cultural and regional characteristics of the Chinese nation, and they are a precious heritage produced on the basis of Chinese culture and scientific tradition. In the Northern Song dynasty, the medical official Wang Weiyi verified the indications of the acupoints and standardized their locations, wrote the Illustrated Manual of Acupuncture Points on the Bronze Figure (Tongren Shuxue Zhenjiu Tujing) and had it promulgated nationwide, and cast bronze figures — lifelike in form and ingeniously constructed — as teaching tools, giving great impetus to and promoting the development of acupuncture scholarship. From the Ming and Qing dynasties onward, acupuncture theory carried the past forward and opened up the future; techniques and instruments were continually improved, schools contended, famous masters emerged in succession, and excellent works appeared without end, and acupuncture therapy achieved still greater development. Because acupuncture therapy has unique advantages, a broad range of indications, rapid and marked efficacy, simple and easy operation, economical medical cost, and very few side effects, as early as the Tang dynasty Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion had already spread to Japan, Korea, India, the Arab regions, and other countries and regions, where it took root and flourished, giving rise to some acupuncture medicines with foreign characteristics.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He was a research fellow and chief physician. He graduated from China Medical University in 1951 and later entered the national training class for acupuncture teachers at higher medical colleges. In 1956 he took part in preparing the establishment of the Heilongjiang Provincial Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He made a systematic study of acupuncture manipulation, including needle insertion, reinforcing and reducing needling, deqi, needling sensation, propagated sensation along the meridian and meridian theory. He proposed a scheme for dividing acupuncture into academic subdisciplines and for the comprehensive industrial development of northern medicinal materials. He published several monographs, including Zhenjiu Dacheng (The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion). He organised the national continuing-education base for acupuncture and meridians and the national postgraduate class in acupuncture, lectured in many countries, and has more than a hundred disciples in China and abroad. Within the documented technical tradition of Acupuncture and Moxibustion in China Association of Acupuncture and Moxibustion: Acupuncture and moxibustion are a unique medical method created by the ancient working people of China, with a long history. For thousands of years, people have used metal needles or moxa cones and moxa rolls to insert needles and apply moxibustion at specific points of the human body to treat disease and relieve pain, and from this created the distinctive theory of the channels, collaterals, and acupoints of the human body, becoming a singular flower of Chinese medicine and enjoying high prestige in the world. As early as the Neolithic Age, people used 'stone needles' (bian shi) to prick parts of the body to treat disease. The Classic of Mountains and Seas says: 'There is a stone like jade that can be used as a needle' — the earliest record of stone needles. Moxibustion therapy arose after the discovery and application of fire. The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon of the Qin and Han period says: 'When cold is stored, it produces diseases of fullness; the appropriate treatment is moxibustion', referring to the art of moxibustion; it describes in detail the forms of the nine needles and records extensively the theory and technique of acupuncture and moxibustion. By the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, acupuncture therapy was already quite mature; many physicians skilled in acupuncture appeared, among whom Bian Que, recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian, was one of the representative figures. Bian Que is honored as the 'ancestor of Chinese medicine'; his miraculous needling that revived the dead and his moving deeds of healing the living have been praised by later generations for ages. To this day, memorials such as the Que King Temple and Que King Shrine, as well as various folk traditional sacrificial activities commemorating Bian Que, are still preserved in Neiqiu, Hebei, and other places. The Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Vessels of the Foot and Forearm and the Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Vessels, excavated from the Han dynasty tomb at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan, and the Book of Vessels (Mai Shu), excavated from the Han dynasty tomb at Zhangjiashan in Jiangling, Hubei, all record the courses of the channels and their principal diseases. From the Western Han dynasty tomb at Shuangbaoshan in Mianyang, Sichuan, a small black-lacquered wooden human figure was excavated; its front and back surfaces are marked with crisscrossing channel pathways, and it is the earliest physical model of the human channels discovered in China to date. By the Sui and Tang dynasties, acupuncture and moxibustion had developed into a specialized discipline: works on them multiplied in number, their content was rich and varied, acupuncture was formally included in the national medical education curriculum, and the Imperial Medical Office established official titles such as Erudite of Acupuncture, Assistant Instructor of Acupuncture, Acupuncture Master, Acupuncture Artisan, and Student of Acupuncture. In long-term medical practice, acupuncture and moxibustion formed the channel theory composed of the fourteen channels, the eight extraordinary channels, the fifteen divergent collaterals, the twelve channel divergences, the twelve sinew channels, the twelve skin regions, and the grandchild and floating collaterals, together with the knowledge of the 361 acupoints, the extraordinary points, and the principal diseases of the acupoints; they discovered the laws of the specific connections between specific parts of the human body, created the doctrine of the channels and collaterals, and thereby produced a complete system of methods for treating disease. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The three-passage method": He Puren formulated the idea that most illness is stagnation of qi and that treatment should pass it in three ways, and his three methods became an important doctrine after 1950. "The subtle-passage method": One of the three methods: superficial needling with a fine needle and light twisting, sparing the upright qi in mild patterns. "The forceful-passage method": For stubborn obstruction and severe patterns, coarser needles and stronger stimulation are used to break through blockage, calling for careful recovery afterwards. "Needling for breast hyperplasia": Guo Chengjie pioneered needling treatment and research on breast hyperplasia and worked on the substance of the meridians and on how needling adjusts immunity.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Zhang Jin was born in September 1931 in Heishan County, Liaoning Province, and died in April 2021; he was of Han ethnicity. He is a representative bearer of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He wrote more than eighty papers and received nine awards for scientific research achievements at provincial or ministerial level and above. He was recognised by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine as an instructor in the national programme for inheriting the academic experience of veteran Chinese medicine experts, and was named a young and middle-aged expert with outstanding contributions.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Zhang Jin · National Representative Bearer Archive