The Three-Principle Approach to Tung Acupuncture
Start with one. Think with three.
A structured method for understanding and practicing Tung acupuncture through three complementary clinical principles.
Tung acupuncture comes from a single historical lineage, but its transmission has never been uniform.
Different teachers and practitioners have emphasized different ways of understanding and practicing the tradition.
You may already know one of these approaches. Perhaps you know all three.
And yet, when a patient is in front of you, one question remains:
Where do I start?
The problem is not that Tung acupuncture lacks knowledge, clinical experience or transmission.
The challenge is that its different approaches have rarely been brought together within a clearly defined clinical reasoning framework.
The SMI Method starts from a simple proposition:
These approaches do not have to compete. They can become different entry points into the same clinical reasoning process.
The SMI Method brings together three complementary clinical principles already present in Tung acupuncture.
What is the root?
Explore the Shénjīng relationships involved in the case.
In Tung acupuncture, points are associated with specific anatomical areas as well as relationships with organs and functional frameworks. Shénjīng reasoning provides a way to identify the root of a clinical problem and select points accordingly.
It can also be explored through diagnostic approaches transmitted within the tradition, including palmar diagnosis, when relevant.
What pathway or correspondence is involved?
Explore the relationships of the regular meridians and their clinical correspondences.
Meridian reasoning provides another way into a case: through channel pathways, relationships between meridians, correspondences between the limbs and relationships used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
It is one dimension of Tung acupuncture practice — not a requirement to force every Tung point into a conventional meridian framework.
What does this point treat?
Return to what the point is actually documented to treat.
The indications reported by Master Tung and transmitted through his students provide one of the most direct links to the clinical practice preserved within the tradition.
Indication is not a theory added afterwards.
It is part of the clinical history of the point.
The question is not which principle should replace the others. The question is:
What does each perspective contribute to this case?
You can begin wherever your clinical question leads you.
Investigate the Shénjīng dimension.
Explore a Meridian relationship.
Start with an Indication.
Then bring them together.
One principle may be enough. Two may strengthen the reasoning. Three may reveal a convergence that is difficult to see from a single perspective.
The SMI Method does not impose a fixed sequence of reasoning.
It gives you a structured way to move from one clinical entry point to another within the same case.
The three principles do not have to be used in the same way every time.
When a single clinical entry point provides enough information.
The root identified through Shénjīng reasoning is considered together with a documented clinical indication.
A meridian relationship is considered together with the documented indication of the point.
All three dimensions are brought together to develop a more complete clinical strategy.
The method is not a protocol. It is a way of reasoning.
It does not ask you to abandon what you have learned.
It does not replace the different transmissions of Tung acupuncture.
It does not create a new family of points.
It does not impose a single interpretation of Tung acupuncture.
It gives you a way to connect what you already know.
Shénjīng remains Shénjīng.
Meridian relationships remain Meridian relationships.
Master Tung’s indications remain Master Tung’s indications.
What changes is the way you move between them.
Instead of accumulating separate methods, you can make them speak to one another.
Which school should I follow?
What does each perspective reveal about this case?
A clinical method does not stop when the needle is inserted. The treatment itself becomes part of the reasoning.
A clear response provides information. A partial response provides information. A lack of response provides information as well.
The goal is not simply to replace one point with another when a treatment does not work. It is to ask:
What did we miss?
Which assumption should we reconsider?
Which principle might give us another way into the case?
The treatment table becomes part of the research process.
The SMI Method provides the reasoning. Tung Encyclopedia provides the tool.
Tung Encyclopedia brings together points, Shénjīng, meridians, indications and their documented sources in a structured environment for research and clinical practice.
Search from one principle.
Explore another.
Cross the three.
Return to the sources.
A patient has shoulder pain.
The first step is simple: identify the movement that reproduces the pain.
This becomes the reference symptom — the point of reference used to evaluate the treatment.
Now consider the same case through the three principles.
Diagnosis helps identify the root. We look for a point whose Shénjīng relationship corresponds to that root.
The painful region is considered through its meridian relationships. Correspondences between the upper and lower limbs provide another route for point selection.
We return to the documented clinical use of the point. A point already documented for shoulder disorders provides a direct entry through Indication.
Three lines of reasoning can lead to the same treatment strategy.
Not because one has been forced to confirm the others. But because the three principles independently contribute information about the same clinical situation.
One point. Three reasons.
Then comes the most important part.
If the reference symptom changes, the reasoning gains support.
If the response is partial, reassess.
If nothing changes, return to the case and reconsider the reasoning.
The method is tested at the treatment table.
Understanding the principles is only the beginning.
Training develops the method through clinical reasoning, observation, treatment and repeated practice.
From the foundational curriculum to the Annual Program — SMI Method, the goal is not simply to learn more points. It is to develop a clearer and more consistent way of reasoning with Tung acupuncture.
Before you commit, let us look at where you are: a private consultation with Nicolas Berger to assess what you need — and whether the training is right for you.
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The SMI Method is grounded in ongoing historical and documentary research.
Explore original publications, historical documents, the history of transmission and research that helps deepen our understanding of Tung acupuncture today.
The SMI Method did not emerge from a theoretical model. It grew out of a long process of study, transmission and research.
Nicolas Berger was among the first Western practitioners to study directly with Dr Hu Wen-chih 胡文智. He trained directly under Dr Hu and continued this work until becoming his disciple, entering a direct second-generation transmission of the lineage of Master Tung Ching-chang 董景昌.
This transmission forms the starting point of his work: understanding Tung acupuncture from within a lineage, through direct contact with its teaching, practice and development.
He also studied with other direct disciples of Master Tung Ching-chang 董景昌, and worked extensively with their teachings and publications through interviews, books and comparative study of the historical sources of the tradition.
More than ten years of study and field research in Taiwan further developed this experience of direct transmission.
This work is also grounded in historical and documentary research: comparing original editions, studying textual changes, examining historical documents and analyzing how Tung acupuncture has actually been transmitted and practiced.
Lineage provides access to transmission.
Research allows us to examine it without dogma and preserve its plurality.
Before defining a method, we first need to understand what the tradition actually transmitted.
The original publications of Master Tung Ching-chang 董景昌.
The different editions and their changes over time.
The teachings and writings of his direct disciples.
Historical documents and clinical testimonies.
The knowledge preserved across generations of transmission.
The sources do not always say exactly the same thing.
A point may appear differently from one edition to another. An indication may appear in one transmission and not in another. A relationship with the regular meridians may be emphasized in one source and questioned in another.
These differences are not problems to hide.
They are part of the history we need to understand.
The SMI Method does not seek to erase these differences or declare one transmission the only legitimate interpretation. It asks another question:
What can the sources actually establish — and how can we understand different practices without forcing them into agreement?
This work includes the study and comparison of Master Tung’s original publications, including the 1968, 1972 and 1973 editions, historical documents such as his presentation at the 1962 World Congress of Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Taipei, as well as the teachings and literature of his direct disciples.
It also draws on more than ten years of study and field research in Taiwan.
You do not need to know everything before you begin.
Start with the question in front of you. Explore one principle. Then discover what the other two can contribute.
The SMI Method
The Three-Principle Approach to Tung Acupuncture