Ancient Bianstone Therapy is a kind of non-medical therapy in ancient China. It is one of five therapies' approaches in Traditional Chinese Medicine and includes two manipulations methods, i.e. stone needling and stone pressing.
Ancient Bianstone Therapy was firstly emerged in the Stone Age. Thousands of years ago, our progenitor starts to use stone-made tools to solve their daily problems. They found that scare stone could eliminate their diseases through manual manipulations. In archaeological excavation, many stone relics are unearthed in areas of Shangdong (Eastern Part of ancient China) in which stones were over 10 thousand years. These stones are in sickle shaped as shown below. It is the bianstone discovered in 1984. The frontal part is cone in shape which is used for the prick method. While the rear part's shape is round, it is made for scrapping and tapping. Now, we did try to copy the old ancient bianstone stickle. The feedback of using this tool is very amazingly positive. The design shows the ancient intelligence of our forefather in making tools to facilitate their activities of daily living.
The earliest ancient Bianstone Therapy was described in the silk book in Mawandui in Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.). The literature told us that Bianstone was used in a wide spectrum of areas from manual massage to surgery. It was considered that Bianstone is a knife-like medical instrument and was used primarily for discharge of pus or blood-letting in antiquity. The advance of ancient medical technology was suddenly lost since Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D.) for over 2000 years.
Why did the Bianstone disappear?
Is it due to the selection of acupuncture? It's a common misconception that acupuncture was originated from Bianstone. Some archaeologists thought the stone needle was replaced by steel one. However, it is well-documented that Bianstone and acupuncture was used as a complementary therapies at that period of time. This showed Bianstone had a unique therapeutic effect which could not be eliminated. The most suitable suggestion was from the scholar Fu Qian in East Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D.). He proposed the lost of valuable Bianstone was due to the lack of suitable rock materials for making therapeutic tools.
As a conclusion, there is a need to re-discover this precious stone therapy. Thanks to scientific research and petrophysical test of stones, a type of stone called Sibin pumice dating from the ancient times was found suitable for making Bianstone tools. The place of discovery correspond with where literatures described. Therefore, we have evidence to trust the re-discovery of Bianstone is a beginning for us to find back the ancient healing power.