[Concept elaboration of shuxue and approval of terminology: interaction with scientific exploration of acupuncture and moxibustion].

Shuxue, as a core concept of acupuncture-moxibustion, is explained with different terms in each era. The term standardization of shuxue has drawn high attention from medical practitioners and from the government in ancient and modern times; and a lot of research has been done over a long period. On the basis of systematic review of the achievements and mistakes in the standardization of shuxue terminology, and the summary on the related principles in nearly two thousand years, the long-term exploration was carried out, in which the "trinity-holistic" research method was adopted, the entirety of clarifying concept, sorting out definition and approving terminology; the entirety of Chinese terminology and English terminology, and the entirety of standardization research, theoretical innovation and experimental research. With the above approaches hooked up with each other, the general law of standardization of TCM terms was explored, and the gains and losses of shuxue terminology in ancient and modern times were evaluated. It is discovered: during the formulation of the current national standards of acupuncture-moxibustion terms for the approval of the standard nomenclature of shuxue, the terminology standard scheme in Tongren Shuxue Zhenjiu Tujing (Illustrated Classic of Acupoints on the Bronze Figure) of the Song Dynasty has been selectively adopted; and in these national standards, the alternative name of shuxue, xuewei refers to a misreading of the same term in acupuncture-moxibustion literature during the Republican era of China. This erroneous term also covers up the mistake in English translation of zhenjiu xue (acupuncture point), this English-translated term has caused an unbreakable obstacle to the anatomical study of shuxue structure by western scholars for a long time, resulting in a series of successive mistakes. Through a review of the typical cases of standardization researches of shuxue terminology during the past two thousand years, on the one hand, TCM researchers can truly feel the importance of concept and term research to upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground of acupuncture-moxibustion, and the complexity of the research itself; on the other hand, people can be distinctly aware of its dual influence on the theoretical innovation of acupuncture-moxibustion, meaning that in addition to serving as a guidepost for scientific research and a bridge for academic communication, it may also become a roadblock and pitfall in advancement.