Acupuncture Points and Five Elements

The diagnosis of a particular problem does not tell the acupuncturist where to place the acupuncture needle. A set of therapeutic rules must be applied to solve that problem. To a large degree all medical systems are based on clinical experience and acupuncture is no exception to this; the rules that govern point selection are therefore based on a combination of philosophic concepts and empirical clinical experience.

There are special points that can be used to disperse the invasion of specific pathogens, such as cold or heat, and judging by some recent Chinese research work it would seem that the points used to disperse heat do lower fever. These pathogen-dispersing points are based largely on practical experience, and they form part of the basic grammar of acupuncture.
The other rules of point selection are many and varied; for example, points can be selected on the basis of the law of the five elements. This law assumes that each of the organs represents one of the five elements in traditional Chinese thought (earth, fire, water, metal and wood). They have a creating and destroying cycle.