Classical Chinese Medicine was taught very differently than today, and in a very similar vein to classical Martial Arts: The student chose a teacher, and if he was accepted by the teacher had a very long apprenticeship, to prove (literally through sweat, blood and tears) that he (this was a very male-orientated domain) was worthy to receive instruction. This however is not a very useful business model, and is very manpower intensive, inapplicable to a university based system where the priority is to train a lot of people to a safe standard within a certain budget, and: As previously described, this can limit the knowledge base to those only personally experienced by the clinician When dealing with the classical oriental traditions, be it Chinese Medicine or Martial Arts, that context is everything; In China and East Asia (where the culture of ancestor respect and worship was prevalent) to write down procedures that contradicted those that were written down by their predecessors, bordered on sacrilege, and to openly criticise the written word, frowned upon . However in reality, the teacher / disciple relationship provided a clinical filter, the teacher would often say that 'this technique or point would be "more appropriate" than that point'. In martial arts, this filtering was more blunt - those who applied techniques that were less effective, had a very short lifespan and could not pass them onto the next generation!!! Those that wrote the medical texts came from a select group - termed the 'gentlemen physicians'. To be able to write these texts and to support oneself meant you had to come from a certain income stream, and their patients had certain requirements. I remember my teacher in China, Professor Wang Ju Yi who was both steeped in Classical Chinese Medicine but was equipped with a very enquiring (one would say 'Western oriented') mindset and who was willing to question (in a very respectful way) the classics discussed the history of channel palpation. In his opinion the physical palpation of the channels was commonplace in the time when the original classics were written. Although the classics were written between 1,500 to 2,500 years ago, no extant copies remain - the physical copies that are available today are usually Song or Qing dynasty copies and commentaries, which date from only about 1,000 years ago. However during the feudal period, the physical touching of patients (especially those from a higher social class) was frowned upon and emphasis placed on symptom taking, together with pulse and tongue diagnosis. He was of no doubt that the palpation was carried on by the lower class doctors who treated the general population - however they rarely wrote the books!!! On the plus side, the specialisations of pulse, tongue and symptom taking was raised to an entirely new dimension. For further insights into Channel Palpation click onto short 20 minute video below. Alternatively please go to the Applied Channel Theory website, by clicking here , where you will find numerous articles, podcasts and further resources.