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This article first appeared in the Winter, 2005 issue of the Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Alliance’s newsletter

Heaven’s Numbers on Earth: Ancient Astronomy and Chinese Medicine

Part Two

By Matthew D. Bauer,L.Ac.

In this second of two articles, Matthew Bauer draws from his just released book: "The Healing Power of Acupressure and Acupuncture: A complete Guide to Timeless Traditions and Modern Practice." Matthew will be expanding on this topic at our Rhode Island conference next May during his talk: "Do You Believe in the Yellow Emperor? Exploring the Roots of Chinese Medicine." Matthew can be reached at www.MatthewDBauer.com.

In my last article, I stressed the important role ancient numbering systems played in the development of Chinese medicine concepts such as wu-hsing (the Five Elements). In this article, I want to peel back another layer and briefly explore how the quest to understand the cycle of the heavenly spheres forever changed the life and thought of our ancestors and how the fingerprints of this quest are detectable today in the theories of Chinese medicine.

It is widely accepted that Chinese medicine has long been based on a "holistic" worldview; stressing the oneness of nature including humankind’s place within it. My Taoist training forced me to deeply ponder the ramifications of such a worldview at its primary level and lead me to the conclusion that the concept of "oneness" was all that was known to our very ancient ancestors. Eventually however, this concept faded, becoming the exception rather than the rule for later generations. In later generations the concept of oneness was replaced by a worldview in which people experienced themselves as individuals, separate from the world around them. Both Taoist and Buddhist philosophers are essentially referring to this when they speak of the "illusion" of the "self" or the manner in which one’s ego blinds one to the reality of oneness.

What does the oneness worldview of holistic interconnectedness vs. the self-centered worldview of individualism have to do with ancient astronomy, numbering systems, and finally, Chinese medicine? I can only briefly touch on such a broad subject in an article like this but I will try to highlight some main points.

If our ancient ancestors truly experienced themselves as an integral part of their environment and believed all life to be one, they would have had no need for numbers. Numbers are a fabrication of human imagination that allows us to quantify phenomenon into individual packets, essentially segregating or separating them from the whole in a formal manner. This is true whether using numbers to separate time into individual hours/days/years, the location of individual objects within the so-called four directions of space, or the mass of individual objects. The use of numbers implies a leaning to, if not full acceptance of, the individual worldview. One can even go so far as to say that the use of numbers was both a sign of favoring the individual world-view over the holistic perspective and a wedge that drove the two farther apart. The more our ancestors came to rely on numbers and numbering systems to help them slice-up and categorize the interconnected world around them, the less they saw the world around them as interconnected.

For tens of thousands of years, Homo sapiens sapiens – people just like you and me with completely modern brains – roamed the earth, making remarkably efficient stone tools and creating breathtaking works of art. They did not however, use calendars to count time, compass points to measure space, or accounting systems for commerce. Fast forward to around 5,000 years ago, and the use of these formal, numeric measuring systems are the critical factors in the explosion of the first modern civilizations such as the Sumerian, Egyptian, and eventually, the Chinese. How did this happen? There is no reason to believe the ability to create these numeric based measuring systems had anything to do with the debut of the modern human brain. People with such brains had already been around for many thousands of years. Rather, it seems most likely the ability to invent these numbering systems were the result of new discoveries just as the great advances in modern science can be traced back to key discoveries such as Newton’s apple. I believe the discovery of the orbits of the five planets was the ancient equivalent to Newton’s discover of gravity – the culmination of a series of discoveries that took place over many generations, finally reaching a critical mass with one last discovery that would profoundly change human life thereafter.

Authorities tell us that the first use of numbers as a means to measure nature most likely arose from our ancestors desire to follow the cycle of the moon, the word "moon" itself being derived from a word that means "to measure". As the moon was the only source of light during the long, dark nights, it was followed closely and seen to change in size virtually every night. This made following its cycle a natural for our ancient ancestors, leading to the invention of counting. It also provided the first formal system with which to measure time.

The practice of measuring time took a giant leap forward when another repeating cycle was discovered: the cycle of the rising sun. The dawn sun’s position on the eastern horizon shifts ever-so-slightly every morning. In the summer it reaches a spot as far north on the eastern horizon as it can ever reach and then appears to rise in that same spot for 2-3 days. This happens at the time of year we call the Summer Solstice; the world "solstice" meaning "sun stands still." The sun then begins to inch southward until it reaches a spot as far south as it will ever reach – a spot signifying the Winter Solstice. As with the cycle of the moon, this solar cycle continually repeats itself and was used by the ancients to greatly expand their system for measuring time as now the cycle of the moon could be contrasted with the cycle of the sun allowing greater specificity in measuring time.

It may well be that the practice of contrasting the cycle of the moon with that of the sun heavily influenced the concept of yin/yang. If you think about it, yin/yang is a system of measuring by contrasting opposites. In Chinese medicine, we measure our patients by contrasting hot to cold, excess to deficient, internal to external, etc. This basic system of contrasting opposites was taken to more complex levels with such systems as the Six Divisions, the Eight Principals, or the 10 Stems and 12 Branches. When considered at their basic core, all these systems rely on measuring things within the context of contrasting opposites.

In addition to the cycles of the moon and sun, the ancients discovered that the stars too, followed a repeating pattern. The stars came to be known as "fixed stars" once it was realized they held their positions as they circled in their yearly cycle. The idea of constellations (groups of stars) was developed to help follow this pattern. Now, repeating cycles for all the lights in the sky - the sun, moon, and stars – had been discovered. All the lights that is, except for five. For reasons unknown to our ancestors, five stars appeared to wander around, following no discernable pattern. These five were the five planets – the word "planet" meaning "wanderer." The planets must have seemed very special indeed as the movements of all other celestial bodies had finally been discovered.

Eventually, of course, our ancestors figured out the orbits of these five also. Like the last pieces of humankind’s most complex puzzle (up to that point in time), the orbits of these five were found to also follow repeating, predictable patterns. Now there were seven cycles that could be contrasted against each other and the number seven, as well as the number five, would be seen as mystic in many cultures.

The quest to discover the order of the heavenly spheres pushed the envelope of human thinking, inspiring the invention of numbers, mathematics, and formal systems of measurement. Virtually all the numeric-based systems employed in Chinese medicine can be traced back to this quest and the systems of measurement it inspired. I believe even the organization of the jing-luo (meridian) system can be directly traced to methods developed to help chart and follow the movements of the seven heavenly spheres. I will provide more information on this topic at my talk at the AOM Alliance conference or you can read more on this in my book.