In the <黃帝內經> God(黃帝) is cited as saying, "I shall establish the principle of acupuncture for my people to use, to let the meridians pass smoothly, and control the flow of Ki and Blood." Acupoints are points on the body where Ki and Blood accumulate. Needles are applied on those points to either build up or remove good and bad Ki. But albeit God-sent, the 365 places, where the acupoints are, are hard to memorize. Ever got perplexed at all those capital letters and numbers indicating a point on the body? Well, here's the bad news. I'm about to make you even more confused with the original Chinese names of those acupoints and the Chinese pronunciation and the Korean pronunciation and how come they are so called.

Scary? Not so! Some of them are fun! Do you know why LU10 is called Uh Jae(魚際yuji, 魚-“fish"; 際-"between")? Because the side of your hand between the root of the thumb and the wrist looks like a fish's protruding belly. Fun, no? Then how about this one? ST32 is named Bok To(伏兎futu) which means hiding rabbit. What is that poor rabbit hiding from? No idea, because that rabbit had no part in naming the acupoint. 伏兎 is a word used to mean the part of an axle that supports and links the frame on both sides of the axle. Hmm, in human body doesn't that remind you of the sides of your knees? 伏兎 is a little bit above the knees, though.

The shape of the fish resemble the thumb part of the palm, giving rise to the acupoint name 'Uh-je", Uh meaning fish.

Koreans used the Chinese characters to write our own language. We used them for thousands of years before King Sejong the Great invented Hangul, the Korean alphabet. But even after the invention of Hangul, usage of the Chinese characters is still widespread, consisting 70% of Korean vocabulary. Since we took them in a very long time ago, the pronunciation of each character was modified to fit the Korean tongue, and passed down to us like that. Some say that the pronunciation of Chinese characters that Koreans use is more like that of the Ming dynasty and even earlier times, than is the current Chinese pronunciation. Anyhow, the sounds are similar but not quite the same in Korea and China, thus the way to say an acupoint name varies too.

Below, the names starting in a capital letter are Korean, and the italic letters are the Chinese pronunciation.

Origins of Acupoint names

1. The flow of water and natural surrounding

池(Ji, chi: "pool") 溝(Gu, gou: "ditch") 瀆(Dok, du: "gutter") 淵(Yeon, yuan: "pond") 渠(Geo, qu: "drain") 谿(Gye, xi: "creek") 溜(Ryu, liu: "rapids") 泉(Cheon, quan: "spring") 海(Hae, hai: "sea") 山(San, shan: "mountain") 谷(Gok, gu: "valley") 丘(Gu, qiu: "hillock") 陵(Reung, ling: "hill") 崑崙(Gon Ryun, kunlun: name of mountain)

2. Structure and human relations

門(Mun, men: "door") 戶(Ho, hu: "A-frame door") 堂(Dang, tang: "house") 樞(Chu, shu: "hinge") 關(Gwan, guan: "bolt") 室(Sil, shi: "chamber") 窓(Chang, chuang: "window") 牖(Yu, you: "window") 庭(Jeong, ting: "garden") 宮(Gung, gong: "palace") 府(Bu, fu: "storehouse") 庫(Go, ku: "warehouse") 房(Bang, fang: "room") 舍(Sa, she: "residence") 垣(Won, yuan: "fence") 突(Dol, tu: "chimney") 倉(Chang, cang: "storage") 井(Jeong, jing: "well") 都(Do, du: "capital") 市(Si, shi: "market") 鄕(Hyang, xiang: "country") 里(Ri, li: "village") 道(Do, dao: "way") 衝(Chung, chong: "to collide with," "to shoot up," "to turn") 會(Hoi, hui: "to congregate," "to meet," "to unite") 合(Hap, he: "to combine," "to meet," "to gather") 交(Gyo, jiao: "to associate with") 迎(Yeong, ying: "to receive")

3. The force of heaven

風(Pung, feng: "wind") 雲(Un, yun: "cloud") 天(Cheon, tian: "heaven") 星(Seong, xing: "star") 日(Il, ri: "sun") 月(Wol, yue: "moon") 列缺(Yeol Gyeol, lieque: "the splitting and breaking [of heaven]," meaning "lightening") 豊隆(Pung Ryung, fenglong: "thunder") 璇璣(Seon Gi, xuanji: an observation apparatus of the sky) 太乙(Tae Eul, taiyi: the name of God of Heaven) 太白(Tae Baek, taibai: name of a planet, Venus) 陰(Eum, yin: the Yin principle in nature) 陽(Yang, yang: the Yang principle in nature) 外(Woi, wai: "out") 承(Seung, cheng: "to uphold") 臨(Im, lin: "to face down") 曲(Gok, gu: "to bend," "to do wrong") 俠(Hyeop, xia: "be valiant")

4. Place on body, place of the acupoint

頭維(Du Yu, touwei: ST8) 腰兪(Yo Su, yaoshu: GV2)

5. Property of O Haeng--the Five Elements(五行)

俠白(Hyeop Baek, xiabai: LU4--Metal) 少商(So Sang, shaoshang: LU11--Metal)

※The color assigned to Metal is white, and the sound of Metal is 商, a clear, strong sound.

6. Disease

血海(Hyeol Hae, xuehai: SP10--cures Blood-related diseases) 風府, 風市(Pung Bu, Pung Si, fengfu, fengshi: GV16, GB31--palsy) 水分(Su Bun, shuifen: CV9--diarrhea)

Names of plants, animals and everyday-goods are used in acupoint nomenclature also. A broken jar is 缺盆(Gyeol Bun, quepen: ST12). The nose of a calf is 犢鼻(Dok Bi, dubi: ST35) whileas the tail of a dove is 鳩尾(Gu Mi, jiuwei: CV15). BL2, the place where an eyebrow starts, like bamboos shooting up, is called Chan Juk(攢竹cuanzhu, 攢-“to collect"; 竹-"bamboo").

The capital letters of the acupoints stand for the meridians they belong to. The use of standard names were agreed by the many parties that attended the 1982 WHO convention in Manila. Over years they have simplified the terms, that look more like signs now. But those signs only tell you where. It does not whisper to you the secrets of the body told by God, like 百會(Baek Hoi, baihui: GV20). 百會 is where all(百: one hundred is considered a perfect number) the Ki meet(會) at the apex of the head. This acupoint is used to treat palsy, hypertension, diabetes, neurosis, hormonal disorder and many other diseases. Moxibustion on 百會 is said to generate growth hormone, promoting harmonious metabolism and lively circulation. Some argue that it restores brain cells. Now wouldn't you say that is God-given!