Like Seeing Black Flowers: The Treatment of Eye Diseases in the Zhēn Jiǔ Féng Yuán

Eye diseases are becoming more widespread as the cohort born post-World War II enters their sixth and seventh decades of life. Age-related ophthalmic diseases are likely to become more common in acupuncture practices over the coming years. The English-language literature on Chinese medicine ophthalmology is relatively scarce, especially with regard to primary sources. Discussions of the aetiology and pathogenesis of eye diseases are historically common in books of traditional pharmacotherapy, but relatively rare in texts devoted to acumoxa therapy. To help offset this gap in the literature, this paper presents the discussions on eye diseases and treatment found in Zhēn Jiǔ Féng Yuán (Encountering the Origins of Acumoxa), a Qīng-era acumoxa manual, and offers an English-language rendering and brief commentary on the texts.