Editing Acupuncture (section)

====Belief systems====
Several different and sometimes conflicting belief systems emerged regarding acupuncture. This may have been the result of competing schools of thought.<ref name=White-Ernst/> Some ancient texts referred to using acupuncture to cause bleeding, while others mixed the ideas of blood-letting and spiritual ch'i energy. Over time, the focus shifted from blood to the concept of puncturing specific points on the body, and eventually to balancing Yin and Yang energies as well.<ref name="Prioreschi2004"/> According to David Ramey, no single "method or theory" was ever predominantly adopted as the standard.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Ramey DW | title = Inaccurate acupuncture history | journal = Rheumatology | volume = 43 | issue = 12 | pages = 1593; author reply 1593–94 | date = December 2004 | pmid = 15564643 | doi = 10.1093/rheumatology/keh363 | doi-access = free }}</ref> At the time, scientific knowledge of medicine was not yet developed, especially because in China dissection of the deceased was forbidden, preventing the development of basic anatomical knowledge.<ref name=White-Ernst/>

It is not certain when specific acupuncture points were introduced, but the autobiography of [[Bian Que]] from around 400–500&nbsp;BC references inserting needles at designated areas.<ref name="abc"/> Bian Que believed there was a single acupuncture point at the top of one's skull that he called the point "of the hundred meetings."<ref name="abc"/>{{RP|83}} Texts dated to be from 156 to 186&nbsp;BC document early beliefs in channels of life force energy called meridians that would later be an element in early acupuncture beliefs.<ref name=Ramey/>

Ramey and Buell said the "practice and theoretical underpinnings" of modern acupuncture were introduced in ''The Yellow Emperor's Classic'' (Huangdi Neijing) around 100&nbsp;BC.<ref name=Prioreschi2004>{{cite book | last = Prioreschi | first = P | pages = [https://books.google.com/books?id=MJUMhEYGOKsC&pg=PA147 147–48] | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-1888456011 | publisher = Horatius Press | title = A history of Medicine, Volume 2 }}</ref><ref name=Ramey/> It introduced the concept of using acupuncture to manipulate the flow of life energy (''qi'') in a network of meridian (channels) in the body.<ref name=Ramey/><ref name="Epler">{{cite journal | vauthors = Epler DC | title = Bloodletting in early Chinese medicine and its relation to the origin of acupuncture | journal = Bulletin of the History of Medicine | volume = 54 | issue = 3 | pages = 337–67 | year = 1980 | pmid = 6998524 }}</ref> The network concept was made up of acu-tracts, such as a line down the arms, where it said acupoints were located. Some of the sites acupuncturists use needles at today still have the same names as those given to them by the ''Yellow Emperor's Classic''.<ref name="abc"/>{{RP|93}} Numerous additional documents were published over the centuries introducing new acupoints.<ref name="abc"/>{{RP|101}} By the 4th century AD, most of the acupuncture sites in use today had been named and identified.<ref name="abc"/>{{RP|101}}