The truth about “Tung’s Acupuncture”

1. About the Tung’s original name and the textbook:

Acupuncturists who are unable to read Chinese may easily be fooled by variations in the English translation of the original name of Tung(董). This Chinese surname can be translated into Tung, or Tong or even Dong as well.

Since 1992, when Miriam Lee, a Chinese acupuncturist in California published her first book called “Master Tong’s acupuncture” the perspective of “Tungs Orthodox Acupuncture” has been altered. Most of the contents of her book was based on my work, “Tung’s Acupuncture”(董氏針灸) which was first published in Taiwan in 1973 and sold more than 600 copies in those days.

It would appear that in order to make Dr. Miriam Lee look more legitimate in the field of Tung’s acupuncture, in the Editor’s preface, Mr. Bob Flaws of Blue Poppy Press, wrote that my book was the work of Miriam Lee and myself (Palden Carson). This is not true. “Tung’s acupuncture” was translated and edited by me alone when I was a medical student at the National Taiwan University. At the time I wrote the book and during my training in 1973, I did not know anyone by the name of Miriam Lee, let alone one who was a student of my Master. In fact, I am not alone in this conviction, as other senior disciples of Master Tung do not recall anyone of that name or a name like it being a student of Master Tung at that time.

The only person who did give me some assistance with difficult medical terminology at the time of my writing the book was Dr. Marian Zazula, a Canadian physician who was also a disciple of Master Tung. You can well imagine my surprise when I became aware of Ms. Miriam Lee’s book and the false assertion by Bob Flaws in the editor’s preface that Miriam Lee was also an author of my 1973 book. This is patently untrue! I am appalled to think that American acupuncturists are being misled by this claim. I also am very worried that those using this book could possibly harm their patients and sometimes not getting the expected good results as Lee’s “Master Tong’s Acupuncture” provides errors in “Tung’s” points and has many incorrect concepts with respect to the unique Tung’s Orthodox Acupuncture.

Professionals who want to know about the bona fide Master Tung’s teachings should refer to the revised 1988-second edition of “Tung’s Orthodox Acupuncture.” The errors in the first edition (1973) have all been corrected. To honour their original oath to Master Tung most of his existing disciples joined with the World Tung’s Acupuncture Association (W.T.A.A.) to promote the correct practice of Tung’s Orthodox Acupuncture.

2. Who is Master Tung?

Our late Grand Master Tung(董景昌大師) was the only heir of the Tung’s Orthodox Acupuncture(董氏正經奇穴學), a unique classic acupuncture developed within his family for generations. Their lineage can be traced back 1800 years to the Tri-Kingdom period(三國時代).

Master Tung managed to joint President Chang’s(蔣總統) K.M.T. National Army(國軍) to Free China (The republic of China) in Taiwan, when his hometown in mainland China was occupied by the Chinese Red Army of the so called People’s Republic of China in 1949. Master Tung gained a remarkable reputation by providing free acupuncture services to his military colleagues. Because of this, when he left the army, he was asked by his previous patients and colleagues to open his own Tung’s Acupuncture practice in Taipei City.

Later he started to take on apprentices and disciples in order to pass on his knowledge of this extra-effective art of Eastern Medicine. Due to his strong religious beliefs and compassion towards all of his patients he never discriminated against anyone. He took on patients and students of all nationalities from outside his native Shandong Chinese(山東省人) including Taiwan Chinese, Vietnamese and Canadian medical doctors.

3. Who can teach Tung’s or Tong’s or Dong’s Acupuncture?

Carved on the epitaph of Master Tung’s gravestone are the names of 73 of his disciples. This is based on one of the ancient Chinese traditions to demonstrate to the public that all of these disciples are genuine heirs or heiresses of Master Tung, or Master Tong. Only a few exceptional persons names such as that of Dr. Marian Zazula of Canada do not appear on the gravestone, because he was not present in Taiwan at the time Master Tung passed away whereas his other disciples were present.

Another rule according to such tradition is that every disciple receives a certificate issued by the Master himself as proof that the student has completed and passed their training with Master Tung. Without such certificates issued in both English and Chinese, no person can claim that they are entitled to practice Tung’s Acupuncture.

At the present time there appear to be many self appointed Master Tung’s students. Some of these persons are actually publishing books and teaching courses on Tung’s Acupuncture to acupuncture practitioners. Given that what they are teaching is not authentic Tung’s Orthodox acupuncture the quality of the teaching and technique are not correct.

In order to understand Tung’s Orthodox Acupuncture. Two elements are required: the proper attitude and correct observation. Both guessing jobs and self invented theories added to our original Master Tung’s teachings are utterly the wrong approach and should be abandoned.

What we as the original disciples of Master Tung (or Master Tong/Dong) have always believed is that if you dare to teach, you must possess genuine first hand information and be honest and forthright about it. The World Tung’s Acupuncture Association conducts all of its training courses according to Master Tung’s own teaching and does not add any new hypothesis or theories to those teachings. To do so would be to mislead the students.

4. How to learn Tung’s Acupuncture in the West?

The difficulty about learning Tung’s Acupuncture nowadays is that students do not know who is teaching the proper way to practice Tung’s Acupuncture. Most western acupuncture practitioners in North America do not realize that they could easily be mislead into believing that what they are being taught was the genuine Master Tung’s teachings.

To avoid falling into this trap here are simple guidelines to bear in mind:

a) Always choose as your teacher a firsthand information source. Take courses only from a Master Tung’s disciple and never from a third party. Ensure that your teacher has a genuine original Master Tung’s certificate and that they knew the Master personally.

b) Remember that true meaning can be lost in translation. The original knowledge and Master Tung’s teaching was based on Mandarin Chinese, not on English. Unfortunately, there have been so many books over the years even in Chinese in Taiwan but most of these are just copycats written by a variety of new authors, some even using pseudonyms who have added a lot of their own unfounded ideas and theories.

Strictly speaking there have only been two textbooks that were officially recognised by Master Tung. A Chinese version by Master Tung (also know as Dr. Ching-Chang Tung) and his disciple Dr. Yuan(袁國本師兄), and the English version which was translated by myself Palden Carson (also known as Dechen Palden) in 1973.

Due to Master Tung’s strong anti-communist attitude, he opposed following Communist China’s Ping-Ying system(羅馬拼音) under any circumstances. Therefore, the Chinese names of all Tung’s points are translated in accordance with the early popular version of the Mathews Chinese English Dictionary. This same rule was also followed in 1988 when publishing the second edition of the original textbook published in 1973.

If Miriam Lee is a true student of our Master Tung, out of respect for her Master she would never have disrespected the Master’s wishes by allowing her editor Mr. Bob Flaws to use the Ping-Ying system in her book “Master Tong’s Acupuncture”. Furthermore, they should never have translated Master Tung’s name to “Tong Jing-Chang” like a Communist Chinese name as it is totally disrespectful to the Master and his memory and heritage. It should have been translated to Dr. Ching-Chang Tung to convey respect.

5. Be a good acupuncturist, not just a famous one!

Master Tung was a dedicated healer. His whole life was devoted to providing medical services and ensuring that his students were qualified and dedicated practitioners of Tung’s Acupuncture. Beside lay students, Master Tung also selected a few medical doctors to be his heirs.

Although, his life was relatively short (only 60 years), he provided a good example for others to follow. Medicine is a life long study and so should acupuncture be as a career.

Tung’s Orthodox Acupuncture(T.O.A.), which is different from those who deliberately translated it into Tong’s acupuncture, is such an effective healing art that it should be respected for what it is: a unique style of traditional Eastern Medicine.

Tung’s Orthododox Acupuncture is a more advanced school of traditional acupuncture which is well suited to and appreciated by experienced acupuncture practitioners all over the world.

Naturally, a correct Tung’s acupuncture text book is essential for any beginner. However, just as essential is the correct personality. To be a competent Tung’s acupuncture practitioner it is imperative that the individual be compassionate.
We as a group of Master Tung’s disciples, sincerely hope that there will be more dedicated students who would like to learn the practice of Master Tung so that they will be able to continue his legacy to help those who are sick to reach a speedy recovery and improve their total health.

© 2004 The World Tung's Acupuncture Association. All rights reserved.