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Clinical Master Tung’s Acupuncture Course Outline

by Robert Chu, PhD, L.Ac., QME

Why Study Master Tung’s Acupuncture?

Strategies &Combinations

About Master Tung Ching-chang (Dong Jing-chang)

Born in 1916, passed away in 1975
Early in life joined the Kuomintang (Guomindang) army, fled to Taiwan in 1949 Criteria for a good acupuncturist

Seminar Outline

Day one:

Day Two:

An Interview with Robert Chu, PhD, LAc, QME about ITARA, by Jack Chang

Robert Chu, L.Ac., QME, PhD, has been practicing the Martial and Chinese healing arts since childhood and specializes in Master Tung Acupuncture and Optimal Acupuncture methods for treating pain, neuromusculoskeletal disorders, and internal medicine problems. He founded, in mid 2005, ITARA (International Tung’s Acupuncture Research Association), a non-political organization devoted to the preservation, standardization, education, and research of Tung’s Acupuncture, offering classes for the spread and advancement of Tung’s Acupuncture for clinical efficacy.  He has been teaching internationally throughout the United States, Europe and Canada at various Chinese Medicine symposiums, including CSOMA, AAOM, AOM Alliance, COMS, and other functions as an exciting and dynamic speaker.

In July of 2004, Dr. Chu was selected as the Acupuncturist to Olympic athletes at the Olympic Trials held in Sacramento, CA.

Jack Chang is a student in his second year at ACTCM (American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine) in San Francisco, CA. He is currently studying acupuncture and formulas. He has been studying martial arts since 1995. He is also a disciple of Robert Chu studying martial arts and acupuncture. He is certified in Tui Na Massage. He has been practicing bodywork and qi gong healing since 2002, specializing in upper back pain and repetitive work related injuries.

Jack Chang (JC): What does ITARA stand for?

Robert Chu (RC): ITARA is a new organization, it is an acronym that stands for International Tung’s Acupuncture Research Association. The acronym is a play on the bodhisattva, Tara, a being that will help others cross over to wisdom and compassion for all sentient beings.  I hope that every healthcare practitioner can find the Tara within them.

JC: What inspired you to create ITARA?

RC: I have a vision to share with all acupuncturists – to form a non-political atmosphere of sharing Master Tung’s Acupuncture. I don’t think people study Tung’s Acupuncture to become mini-clones of Master Tung, but rather, to become clinically effective and efficient. Right now in Taiwan and in the USA, people are branching off and saying they study this branch or that branch of the Tung’s Acupuncture, but this is wrong. They shouldn’t be trying to propagate a tradition, but rather strive for clinical efficacy and function. It doesn’t matter the lineage, they all have merit. And if some practice certain points and have clinical efficacy, that’s what is important. Master Tung’s Acupuncture is this great body of work and an example to people practicing acupuncture. Many of his disciples are criticizing each other and there is infighting about market share and money, all stating they have the real deal. Actually, I look at it like the old tale of the elephant and the five blind men – they all say an elephant is like a tree trunk, snake, vine, leaf, wall, but they can’t see the elephant!

JC: What are the goals of ITARA?

RC: The goals of ITARA are the preservation, standardization, education, and research of Tung’s Acupuncture, and offering practical based classes for the spread and advancement of Tung’s Acupuncture. We’re wanting to preserve all forms of Tung’s Acupuncture, and the interesting variations of it, that work clinically. We can also look to standardize the points – for example the point Da Bai, some say it is LI 3, others say it is ½ cun proximal to LI 3 – everyone argues the fact. If it has clinical merit, then I don’t really care, all I care about is if it works. Some in Tung’s Acupuncture say the channels are not important, all that is important is Tung’s points, but I don’t quite agree with that. Of course, the points have a function that is related to the channels in one way of another, or related via correspondence, tissue, imaging, nervous system, or holograph. One cannot say it only works because Tung and the Tung family found these points. Some say that Tung’s points should be practiced alone, without the 14 channels points, but we know historically, Master Tung used the regular channel points, then used his family points and finally used the family points in conjunction with the channel points.

JC: Can you tell me a little about some of the research projects that ITARA is working on?

RC: Well, we’re currently working on teaching and seminars throughout the U.S.A., Europe and Canada, creating courses for acupuncturists, doing research into how and why Master Tung’s Acupuncture works, and I am discussing projects to do research on Master Tung to prove the efficacy of the Master Tung points, as well as invite other Master Tung practitioners with unique clinical experience to share their experience with us. We don’t want to be pigeon holed into one lineage of Master Tung Acupuncture, but really want to understand the merits of all the methods Master Tung passed down. In addition, we have discovered new uses for acupuncture points in TCM as well as the Master Tung system, and flexible methods of applying these points.

For example, we discovered that there are five points on the big toe, just as there are the Wu Hu (Five Tiger) points on the hand. In naming the points, I simply called them “Zu Wu Hu” (Foot Five Tigers) to honor the tradition. Their point location corresponds to the points on the hands and are flexibly applied for finger, hand, toe, top of foot and plantar pain.. We keep discovering other applications and points by flexibly applying Master Tung’s Acupuncture principles and concepts, which I think is what every practitioner should do.

JC: Are there any oaths or medical ethics that ITARA members abide by?

RC: Yes, we want to stress that we’re clinicians first and not just theoreticians, so I advise my students to “Let function rule over form” and “Let application be your guide”. This is more important than blindly following any master, methodology, or rigid adherence to style. If we want to really understand something, it’s not important to follow as “Sifu says…”, but rather really understand the basic principles and concepts. In this way, we’re not caught up in the dogma of what we study. We don’t want to be another plain vanilla Master Tung’s points course – we want really be an organization that freely disseminates information to our people and apply it clinically. I also want to stress that we respect all teachings, and believe they have their validity.


JC: Who was Master Tung, and where did his acupuncture derive from?

RC: Master Tung Ching-chang was probably the greatest Acupuncturist in the last generation in Taiwan. So great was his fame, that he literally had over 100 patients per day, which he saw in his small clinic. His fame was due to his extreme efficacy with acupuncture needles, and he only used a few per treatment. The Tung family hailed from Pingdu, Shangdong province in China, and were allegedly a family that practiced acupuncture there for generations.

Master Tung arrived in Taiwan after the Communists took over in China in 1949 along with Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist party and began a successful practice in Taipei, Taiwan. He was an Acupuncturist in Taiwan for 26 years, and throughout that time, he allegedly treated over 400,000 patients, with about a fourth of them treated at no charge. For these humanitarian deeds, Master Tung was decorated with an award of “Representative of Fine People and Fine Deeds” in Taiwan.

As the personal acupuncturist to Taiwan President Chang Kai Shek, his reputation was so great that he was asked to visit Cambodia between 1971 and 1974 to treat Cambodian President Long Nuo, who suffered from hemiplegia due to a stroke.

Master Tung was also decorated by President Chang Kai Shek with a “Certificate of Honor” in the field of Chinese Medicine, which is an amazing accomplishment because initially the Nationalist Party was not responsive to Chinese Medicine, due to the fact that Sun Yat Sen was a Western trained physician.

JC: What’s special about Tung’s Acupuncture?

RC: Master Tung’s Acupuncture is truly a living treasure and storehouse of Chinese Medicine, untouched by modern TCM, and a glimpse into the family systems of Chinese Medicine as taught in previous generations. It is itself a conglomerate of classical acupuncture and pricking methods, flexibly applied, and proven clinically with practical, often with quick and dramatic results. Currently many practitioners of acupuncture may use a lot of needles and needle around the local area. Not so with Master Tung’s Acupuncture. For example, if a person has neck pain, a TCM trained acupuncturist would typically needle the neck area. But a Master Tung acupuncturist will apply a few needles to the wrist, ankle, knee, shoulder, hip, or thigh to treat the pain. The advantage is very clear, as you can get feedback immediately from your patient upon insertion. If one needled the neck, for neck pain, one would have to wait until they are removed to get feedback! For the acupuncturist, the flexibility of the method is extremely attractive.

JC: What can you treat with Master Tung’s Acupuncture?

RC: Master Tung’s acupuncture is painless, quick, efficient and requires only a few treatments if problems are acute. A full range of problems are treated, including allergies, anxiety, arthritis, asthma, back pain and sciatica, Bell’s Palsy, bronchitis, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, high blood pressure, colitis, common cold and flu, constipation, diarrhea, ear pain and ringing, eczema and other skin problems, edema, frozen shoulder, GERD, headaches, IBS, impotence, insomnia, laryngitis, menstrual problems, menopause, nausea and vomiting, numbness and neuropathy, pain of all types, PMS, prostate problems, rheumatism, stress, stroke, tennis elbow, TMJ, and Trigeminal Neuralgia with just a few needles. It is almost inconceivable as to the efficacy of this form of acupuncture. In my own daily practice, I am still amazed at the immediate results I see with this system of acupuncture.

JC: Who else practices Tung’s Acupuncture in the U.S.A.?

RC: Master Tung’s Acupuncture in the USA is practiced by Young Wei-chieh of Rowland Heights, CA, Esther Su of San Jose, CA, Jim Maher of Oklahoma City, OK, and myself. I had the fortune of learning from Esther Su, and did extensive research in this system of acupuncture and practice daily in Pasadena, CA. I also studied with Young Wei-chieh, but am not a disciple or indoor student of his. He was kind to answer what questions I had and I had worked on editing his manual in English, and when I worked as a seminar coordinator and translator for him, for a few seminars in Los Angeles.

JC: Are the set of points by Master Tung standardized internationally, and if not do you see it being standardized in the future?

RC: Most of the common points of Tung’s Acupuncture are fairly standardized, as we have the written works of Lai Jin Hung, Hu Bing-Quan, Li Guo Zhen and Young Wei-chieh. In English, we have works from Palden Carson, Miriam Lee, James Maher, and Young Wei-chieh, most recently. Points like Ling Gu, Si Ma, Tian Huang, Shen Guan are fairly standardized in location and function, but others like Zhong Bai may have different names, different locations, and even different function! What I would like to see is that practitioners of Tung’s Acupuncture all meet together and share clinical experiences and discuss civilly the differences and then standardize on the points. Of course, since we’re a young organization, something like this is a work in process.

JC: How often do you use Master Tung's points?

RC: I use the Master Tung points daily. Of course, if I don’t use the Tung set of points, I use the logic behind the Tung’s system to guide my practice in particular with the 12 main channels. For example, a great point to treat ShaoYang headache would be GB 43, as the foot images the head and the headache originates in the Gallbladder channel.

JC: What is Optimal Acupuncture and a little taste of an example of Optimal acupuncture?

RC: Optimal Acupuncture © is my own system, combining what I call 5 pillars of knowledge drawing from classical acupuncture, imaging, point properties, chronoacupuncture, and holographs. It is a way to optimize acupuncture taking into consideration time and space. I have clearly described to my students sources and inspirations range from Master Tung, Liu Bing Quan, Peng Jing Shan, Zhang Ying Qing, Huang Li Chun, Paul Nogier, Zhang Xin Shu, Fang Yun Peng, Jiao Shun Fa, Zhu Ming Qing, Chen Chao, Lu Jing Shan and others. As you know, I am also an avid student of the classics Su Wen, Ling Shu, Nan Jing, Jia Yi Jing, Da Cheng and Da Chuan which are the basis of many of my own insights of Chinese Medicine and the methods I practice in my clinic and share with my students.

An example of Optimal Acupuncture is let’s say today is Ji Si day – so the Spleen is most active today, we can use the Spleen channel to treat any problem, regardless of what channel the problem is with. For example, if a patient had lumbago, we choose the Spleen channel because of the day, then image it accordingly, selecting Spleen 9 as a primary point due to imaging. Additionally, we add Sp 3, the Shu Stream point and the Xi Cleft point, Sp 8, to treat the pain. Here we used a combination of holographic, imaging, chronoacupuncture, point property and Dao Ma Zhen concepts to offer a unique solution. I haven’t seen anyone else use my approach before, so therefore, I consider it unique.

JC: Will you be teaching a seminar in Optimal Acupuncture in the near future?

RC: I’ve been mainly teaching Optimal Acupuncture with my Traumatology class, and the last time in California was last year. I’ll try to arrange a date for this autumn to teach it again.

JC: What are some current projects that you are working on?

RC: Well, kicking off ITARA is a big project in itself. I would like to invite speakers from other Tung lineages to come forth and do lectures, especially on the clinical use of Tung’s points, especially for specific diseases. I don’t believe anyone has a monopoly on the knowledge, or is the sole authority on Tung’s Acupuncture – Master Tung did not designate a robe and bowl heir. I want to stay away from practitioners who boast about how great their skill is or promote their ego, as being advanced in Chinese Medicine does not mean one is cultured or spiritually enlightened. I only want to invite go speakers who want to share and avoid the big egos and politics of some of the Tung practitioners.

I’m busy doing seminars on the basic and advanced classes monthly and will be doing a seminar series in Finland at the end of this October 2006 and lecturing in Toronto the 3rd week of October. Come January 2007, I will offer a new class in Vancouver, BC, and an advanced course on the Dao Ma Technique of Master Tung and applications in Ob/Gyn perhaps in San Jose area. After that, a few seminars will be done in the latter part of the year. I put most of these events on my website at www.chusaulei.com.

JC: Do you provide any mentor programs for interested acupuncturists?

RC: I do provide mentorship and coaching for both new and experienced acupuncturists. Mostly it is by Socratic method in which we discuss important cases and review points, herbal formulas and clinical practices. I usually speak to my students weekly and we work on the various problems they might be experiencing, and I also pay a lot of attention to working on how they do business.

JC: Thank you.

RC: I appreciate your time in interviewing me. Thank you!

Robert Chu may be reached online at chusauli@gmail.com, by phone at (626) 487-1815, and his website is http://acuchu.com.

© Copyright Robert Chu, L.Ac., QME, PhD February 2010 – No photocopying or duplication without prior consent of the author in writing. All proceeds of these lecture notes go to the Medicine Dharma Wholistic Ministry, a 501 c 3, non-profit organization devoted to treating the needy with acupuncture, herbs and counseling.

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