Balance Method — System 1: Same-Name Channels
Star同名經 (Tóng Míng Jīng)
Dr. Richard Tan (1947–2016), Balance Method / Twelve and Twelve.
Treatment Principle
Identify the channel on which the complaint lies, then needle its same-name partner on the opposite limb, at the point that images the affected location.
Indications
Method
Pairings: Lung (Hand Taiyin) with Spleen (Foot Taiyin); Large Intestine (Hand Yangming) with Stomach (Foot Yangming); Heart (Hand Shaoyin) with Kidney (Foot Shaoyin); Small Intestine (Hand Taiyang) with Bladder (Foot Taiyang); Pericardium (Hand Jueyin) with Liver (Foot Jueyin); Triple Energiser (Hand Shaoyang) with Gallbladder (Foot Shaoyang). Needle on the side opposite the complaint, choosing the point whose position along the balancing channel corresponds proportionally to the position of the pain along the affected channel.
⚠ Cautions
The method is a way of choosing points, not a licence to skip diagnosis. Pain that does not follow a channel, or that is not mechanical in origin, needs assessment before any of this applies.
About
The first of the six correspondence systems that make up Dr. Tan's Balance Method. Each of the six pairs the twelve channels differently; System 1 uses the oldest and simplest relationship, the shared six-channel name.
Rationale
Two channels sharing a name — Hand Taiyin and Foot Taiyin — are treated in the classical literature as one continuous energetic layer divided between the arm and the leg. Tan's contribution was to make the practical consequence explicit and systematic: if the layer is disturbed at one end, it can be reached from the other. Needling the opposite limb means the painful area is left undisturbed and can be moved freely during treatment, which is central to how the method is applied.
Clinical Notes
The imaging step matters as much as the pairing. A complaint at the elbow on the Large Intestine channel is not treated at any Stomach point but at the Stomach point that stands in the same proportional position on the leg — which is why ST36 and its neighbours come up so often for elbow problems.
Ask the patient to move the affected part while the needles are retained. If the pairing and the imaging are right, the change is usually immediate; if nothing shifts, the channel identification is the first thing to re-examine.
Sources
- Tan, Richard Teh-Fu. Twelve and Twelve in Acupuncture. San Diego, 1991.
- Tan, Richard Teh-Fu. Acupuncture 1, 2, 3. San Diego, 2007.
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