Cheng Dan'an
1899 – 1957 · China · Traditional Chinese Medicine
Rescued acupuncture from abolition and rebuilt it on anatomical terms with filiform needles.
Core concepts
- Acupuncture re-founded on anatomical description
- Replacement of coarse needles with fine filiform steel needles and sterilisation
- Formal schooling and textbooks in place of apprenticeship alone
Key writings and teachings
- Zhongguo Zhenjiu Zhiliaoxue (Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion Therapeutics, 1931)
- Founding of the China Acupuncture Research Society and its training school
Influence on modern practice
Cheng's reforms saved acupuncture from Republican-era abolition proposals and produced the needle design, hygiene practice and anatomical teaching used in clinics worldwide today. Every modern acupuncture curriculum descends in part from his textbooks.
Key citations
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Expand this profileEvidence and applications
Compare all leaders →How this work reaches present-day research, clinical protocols and everyday use — with each claim labelled by the strength of the evidence behind it.
Contribution traced forward
Acupuncture rebuilt on anatomical description with sterile filiform needles.
What modern research says
- EstablishedCheck the literature — PubMed ↗
Acupuncture shows benefit over sham for chronic musculoskeletal pain in individual-patient-data meta-analysis, though the sham difference is modest.
- ContestedCheck the literature — PubMed ↗
Mechanistic explanations of point specificity remain unresolved.
Clinical protocols
- Single-use sterile filiform needle standards, now global practice
- Anatomically referenced point location in the WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations
Real-world uses
- Acupuncture coverage in national insurance schemes including Medicare Australia and German statutory funds
- Needle manufacturing and safety regulation worldwide
Talks and interviews
Continuity of ideas
Who shaped Cheng Dan'an, and who they shaped
Inherited from1
- Shen Kuo
1031 – 1095 · Astronomy, Engineering
Shen Kuo's insistence on empirical verification is the Chinese precedent for modernised clinical method.
Passed the work to2
- Yoshio Manaka
1911 – 1989 · Traditional Chinese Medicine, Medicine
Needle technique modernised on neuroanatomy shapes Manaka's Japanese research.
- Zhu Lian
1909 – 1978 · Traditional Chinese Medicine, Public Health
Cheng's anatomical modernisation of acupuncture underlies Zhu Lian's state clinical manual.
Sources and references
Numbered markers in the text above point to the entries below. Each links to a primary document, archival collection or scholarly reference where the claim about Cheng Dan'an can be checked.
- 1.Primary texts and first editions by or about Cheng Dan'an
Internet Archive · Primary source
- 2.Catalogued holdings and archival finding aids for Cheng Dan'an
WorldCat (OCLC) · Archive
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