[A study on the English translation of "acupuncture" in Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion]

The study traces the origin of "acupuncture" and its conceptual evolution. In the context of Western medicine, the term "acupuncture" has undergone a semantic drift process, evolving from its initial connotation as referring to traditional acupuncture techniques in China and Japan, to its generalization encompassing various surgical clinical procedures, and finally returning to its original meaning. This process represents both an innovative application by Western surgeons, based on their increasingly profound understanding of "acupuncture" over time, and an inevitable transformation for acupuncture and moxibustion to survive within the Western medical system in cross-cultural contexts, mainly due to cultural differences in cross-cultural communication of acupuncture and moxibustion. The terminological changes in "acupuncture" reflect a survival status of acupuncture of traditional Chinese medicine in different medical backgrounds. It suggests that the international communication of acupuncture and moxibustion in China should strengthen the translation of the concepts and terms of traditional acupuncture and moxibustion, and especially, pay more attention to the theoretical connotation behind the terms in translation.