Meridian Therapy, the system of traditional acupuncture utilized in Japan and based on the acupuncture classics (e.g., the Su Wen, Ling Shu, and Nan Jing) is a very sophisticated treatment modality that has much to offer and much to teach to Western students, practitioners, and their patients. The authors, a group of Japan's foremost teachers and clinicians, have compiled a work that provides a wide-ranging, accurate, and detailed foundation for students learning acupuncture or for clinicians who want to expand their knowledge base. This is a most welcome work that is an important and pivotal contribution to the U.S. acculturation of classical acupuncture.

Chapter 1 covers the principles, philosophy, and history of Meridian Therapy, and Chapter 2 offers an introduction to the basics -- including Yin and Yang, Five Phases, Ki, Blood, and Fluids, and deficiency and excess. Chapter 3 contains an overview of the meridians and points, then a channel-by-channel description of channel flow, connecting vessel, divergent channel, and channel sinews for each of the 12 main channels and an explanation and description of the flow of the 8 extraordinary vessels. Chapter 4 covers the viscera -- the hollow and solid organs -- describing the nature, areas of control, functional properties, seasonal relationship, and paired organ relationship. Chapter 5 delves into the etiology of disease factors, giving details of constitutional patterns, deficiency/excess patterns, heat/cold patterns, and their combinations, and articulating endogenous factors such as emotions, fatigue, and dietary consumption and also exogenous factors of season, temperature, and weather. Chapter 6 contains a discussion of symptoms and pathology that is methodically laid out according to yin/yang-five phase-deficiency/excess patterns and paired organ and extraordinary vessel relationships. Chapter 7 covers diagnosis, beginning with the three methods of looking, listening and smelling, and questioning, then proceeding to abdominal diagnosis and patterns, back examination, and meridian palpation. Chapter 8 is entirely given over to pulse palpation, one of the most important diagnostic tools in Meridian Therapy. There are pulse diagnosis techniques for the beginning student as well as the advanced practitioner, and detailed coverage of 30 different pulse patterns and 13 different deficiency patterns. Finally, in Chapter 9, treatment strategies and procedures, point selection for root treatment (including from Chapters 69, 75, and 68 of the Nan Jing), point selection for local treatment, and different types of treatment are presented.