In meridian theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the geometrical descriptions can be traced back to the remote ancient times in China, mainly in The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic (The Internal Classic in...In meridian theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the geometrical descriptions can be traced back to the remote ancient times in China, mainly in The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic (The Internal Classic in short). Euclid’s geometry, topology and other classic mathematics are all at their wit’s end to explain the high complexity and non clinear phenomenon of the meridian. In recent over 2000 years, the meridian phenomenon has been being the challenge to fundamental mathematics. Fractral geometry, founded by Mandelbrot (1975), is a branch of learning for investigating irregular geometrical curves. It has successfully solved some qualitative and quantitative problems about the topographical structure of molecular Brown’s movement curve and other irregular complicated curves and geometrical characters. The characteristics of geometrical topographical structure of meridian and its phenomenon belong to the research category of Fractal Geometry. The author of this paper believes that Fractal Geometry may provide a useful mathematical tool and a possible way for revealing the enigma of acup moxibustion meridian theory. The human body is of basic characters of Fractal Geometry in structure, while meridian is the expression form of Fractal structure of the human body. The basic Fractal geometrical characters of meridian are: self similarity, self affinity, symmetry, minute structure and self avoidance, which has been applied for thousands of years in clinic, such as “taking the acupoints on the right side of the body in cases of disorders appearing on the left side and vice versa". The basic characters of meridians are 1) symmetry of the 12 regular meridians on the bilateral sides of the body (symmetry); 2) similarity in characters and actions of acupoints of the same one meridian (self similarity); 3) taking acupoints on the lower part of the body when disorders occurring on the upper part of the body; and taking acupoints on the upper part of the body if disorders appearing on the lower part (self af展开更多
文摘In meridian theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the geometrical descriptions can be traced back to the remote ancient times in China, mainly in The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic (The Internal Classic in short). Euclid’s geometry, topology and other classic mathematics are all at their wit’s end to explain the high complexity and non clinear phenomenon of the meridian. In recent over 2000 years, the meridian phenomenon has been being the challenge to fundamental mathematics. Fractral geometry, founded by Mandelbrot (1975), is a branch of learning for investigating irregular geometrical curves. It has successfully solved some qualitative and quantitative problems about the topographical structure of molecular Brown’s movement curve and other irregular complicated curves and geometrical characters. The characteristics of geometrical topographical structure of meridian and its phenomenon belong to the research category of Fractal Geometry. The author of this paper believes that Fractal Geometry may provide a useful mathematical tool and a possible way for revealing the enigma of acup moxibustion meridian theory. The human body is of basic characters of Fractal Geometry in structure, while meridian is the expression form of Fractal structure of the human body. The basic Fractal geometrical characters of meridian are: self similarity, self affinity, symmetry, minute structure and self avoidance, which has been applied for thousands of years in clinic, such as “taking the acupoints on the right side of the body in cases of disorders appearing on the left side and vice versa". The basic characters of meridians are 1) symmetry of the 12 regular meridians on the bilateral sides of the body (symmetry); 2) similarity in characters and actions of acupoints of the same one meridian (self similarity); 3) taking acupoints on the lower part of the body when disorders occurring on the upper part of the body; and taking acupoints on the upper part of the body if disorders appearing on the lower part (self af
