Forewords by Richard Blackwell, Angela Hicks and John Hicks Publishers: Singing Dragon, London, 2015 Paperback: 96 pages ISBN: 978-1-84819-266-9 RRP: £14.99
(Reviewed by Bartosz Chmielnicki, Vol.8 No.4)
The Chinese language differs from European languages in that it is written in, or depicted by, characters, which are not letters, but complex symbols. Many characters are based on pictograms, others are complex logograms created by different associations. Each acupuncture point has a specific name composed of two to three characters. Therefore Chinese names of acupuncture points act as multi-level symbols referring to the wide range of different aspects of Chinese culture. It is difficult to communicate this information by simply translating Chinese texts into Western languages, because the meaning of the symbols is often lost when put into words. It seems that it is a much better idea to use pictures instead of words in order to communicare the information in a similar way to the ancient Chinese use of symbols. This way of thinking is especially developed in different schools coming from the Five Element tradition. In 2003 Spirit Path Press published a set of 130 colourful Spirit of the Point cards created and designed by Kathryn R. Nemirovsky in co-operation with Lonny Jarrett. Twelve years later we have received The Acupuncture Points Functions Colouring Book prepared by Rainy Hutchinson and published by Singing Dragon.
Rainy Hutchinson is an acupuncturist, a graduate from the College of Integrated Chinese Medicine in Reading. She decided to prepare a colouring book about acupuncture points, showing both the names and main functions of some of them. She chose the form of a colouring book, which involves the reader in the process. Moreover, the author encourages the readers to add their own pictures of missing points when they think these points are important. Doing this the reader is not just a passive receiver of the knowledge anymore, but becomes an active co-creator of the book.
The book itself is very simple. The author consciously chose to describe only some of the points. Moreover she decided to limit the information to one important sentence about each point. These decisions result in clarity and simplicity, and definitely help in focusing on the presented knowledge. On the other hand simplifying always means loosing complexity and diversity of information. Therefore this book is designed for students beginning their adventure in acupuncture. For the experienced acupuncturist the level of information presented about the points might be too basic.
This project is very visual, therefore the pictures are the crucial part of the book. They are very uncomplicated, resemble the actual point names, and reflect sometimes the main function of the point and sometimes the point name itself. Most of them are easy to colour, however in the case of long yang channels, some pictures are small and colouring them might be challenging. The diagrams showing the trajectory of the channels are very similar to those in A Manual of Acupuncture by Peter Deadman, Mazin Al-Khafaji and Kevin Baker.
The book is published in a format close to A4 in horizontal layout. The text is arranged in three columns, on the left page, while the pictures are shown on the right page. This layout helps in connecting the pictures with the text, which is the main idea of this book. The book itself is thin, light and easy to carry.
To summarise, The Acupuncture Points Functions Colouring Book originates in the interesting idea of showing the acupuncture points names in the form of pictures. It is a very clear, simple, visual project presenting basic information about some of the most frequently used acupuncture points.
(Reviewed by Bartosz Chmielnicki, Vol.8 No.4)
Bartosz Chmielnicki is both a Western physician and a TCM practitioner. After graduating from the Silesian Medical University, Katowice, Poland (in 2002), he completed an acupuncture course for doctors (2004) and then studied TCM in Kraków (2005-9). In 2008 he founded Compleo, a TCM clinic and school in Katowice. He also teaches at schools in Germany, the Czech Republic and Israel and lectures at international conferences.
