How to Find Ashi Points for Moxibustion
Moxibustion is one of the important means of treating disease in TCM; it can assist—or even serve as the main treatment for—many chronic diseases. For moxibustion to achieve ideal results, accurate point selection is essential. Besides the traditional meridian-based point selection approach, there is another approach for moxibustion: choosing Ashi points.
The so-called Ashi points are places where, when moxa is applied, the patient shows an obvious reaction (not necessarily a point marked in TCM). In the past, when moxibustion doctors selected points on a patient, they would apply the moxa stick all over; when moxibustion at a certain spot produced a strong reaction, the patient would cry out "Ah, here it is!" and so such points came to be called Ashi points. Ashi points do not ask about meridians; you do not need to learn acupuncture point knowledge—you simply apply heat on the patient, and wherever they are sensitive, that is the point. Contemporary moxibustion expert Professor Xie Xiliang proposed the concept of "heat-loving points" on the patient's body, which is similar to the concept of Ashi points.
In acupuncture there is a concept called "propagated sensation" or "obtaining qi" (deqi), referring to the clear reaction the patient has when the doctor performs acupuncture; when this occurs, the acupuncture is considered to have had an effect—"qi has been obtained" or "propagated sensation" has occurred. Finding Ashi points is finding places that can produce deqi and propagated-sensation reactions in the patient.
TCM acupuncture points may originally all have been Ashi points, continually explored and summarized by acupuncture and tuina doctors during clinical treatment. When we use moxibustion to treat illness or for health preservation, if we do not know how to select points, we may consider using the method of selecting Ashi points to find the corresponding points and moxa them; this can achieve the best therapeutic effect.
Ashi points are like the concept of distribution according to need: if moxibustion at a certain spot makes a patient feel comfortable all over, that is certainly a place the patient needs moxibustion. This method of finding points is both simple and easy to operate, while guaranteeing efficacy, and is highly recommended. Of course, the human body has too many parts everywhere to moxa in search of Ashi points; the experience summed up by our predecessors is still reliable. When a certain disease requires moxibustion along a particular meridian, finding Ashi points along that meridian is the fastest and most efficient approach.