by Heiner Fruehauf

Japanese Kanpo (“Chinese modalities”) medicine has in many ways distinguished itself as an independent school of Oriental medical practice. Although Kanpo practitioners generally derive their inspiration from the Chinese classics, they have developed their own set of diagnostic procedures, therapeutic methods, and medical theories, certain aspects of which vary quite drastically from standard approaches adopted by their colleagues in modern China. To dismiss the Japanese system as an unorthodox branch of Chinese medicine, however, would belittle the age-old Japanese practice of “creative imitation” as baseless esotericism, and miss important aspects of classical Chinese theory that have been preserved and illuminated by the Japanese approach. Abdominal diagnosis, for instance, was first mentioned in the 2nd century clinical classic Shanghan zabing lun (On Disorders Caused by Cold and Miscellaneous Diseases), but is now virtually forgotten in China. Kanpo medicine, on the other hand, has developed abdominal examination into a diagnostic modality in its own right. The Kanpo concept of “blood path disorder” (Chinese: xuedao zheng) is another example that fits this particular context. The purpose of this investigation is to illuminate the clinically extremely significant concepts of “blood” and “blood path disorders” by exploring their Chinese origins.

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