Chinese "Osteopathy"?

[KPM]

In numerous places I have seen it written that certain individuals learned "osteopathy" as part of their martial arts training in years gone by not only in China, but in Japan as well. The term "Osteopathy" is one coined by Andrew Taylor Still in the mid 1800's and refers specifically to the profession he founded. Basically, a western "Osteopath" is someone who has graduated from an accredited school that teaches joint manipulation alongside what is essentially a standard medical curriculum. So the term "osteopathy" applied to anyone that has not graduated from an accredited "osteopathic" school is really incorrect. But that is beside the point. What I would really like to hear about is what this Chinese/Japanese "osteopathy" that some of our martial forebears learned really was. What did it consist of? Was it the same as the "Tui Na" or "An Mo" that many learned as the "massage/manipulation" aspect of traditional chinese medicine? Did it have anything to do with the "Dit Da" medicine that many martial arts instructors learned in order to treat training injuries? Any input is appreciated. Rene....are you out there? :-) I know I have seen this term used in your writings on more than one occasion. Thanks guys!

Keith

[aelward]

Osteopathy from a Chinese point of view is quite wide. It includes the ideas you mentioned: Tui-na, An-Mo, and Die Da. It also includes Jie-Gu (bone setting), several other modalities of soft tissue manipulation, herbal plasters & linaments, and chiropractic-like treatments.

Japanese "Judo-Medicine" is pretty similar, and is actually covered by health insurance in Japan (whereas acupuncture is not!).

Regardless, all these mediums of treatment rely on the same philosophical and theoretical foundations as Chinese medicine that acupuncture and herbal therapy.

[reneritchie]

Keith, what John said. You could call a Dit Da Yee Sang an "osteopath", a "bone setter", and "herbalist", a "blood coagulator" or any of a number of not-quite-well-rounded-or-fitted-things in English. Basically, they take pulses (differentiating 20 or so different ones??), check tongues, eyes, color, etc. manipulate bones/joints, provide theraputic massage, mix Chinese medicine (herbs, insects, exotic animal parts) into poultices, tonics, pills, etc. to treat abrasions and contusions. Some may do accupuncture, accupresser, moxibustion, blood letting, etc. as well.

In small villages it wasn't atypical for the local martial arts sifu to also be the local bone doctor. Flip sides of the same coin (and revolving door business, I imagine, especially if the students liked to bang

[KPM]

Thanks for the info guys! Its basically what I had assumed, but just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. But really, the western term "osteopath" probably shouldn't be used in this context. It means something very specific in the west. And its direct translation is not even appropriate. In greek, "osteo" is bone and "path" is disease. So the term refers to "diseased bone." In greek the term "chiropractic" means "chiro"...hand and "practic"....practiced/performed. So the term translates as "performed by hand".....probably more in line with what we are talking about, but still not appropriate because it refers to something very specific in the west. Anyway, just "style points." Thanks for the responses.

Keith