TERMS AND TOOLS FOR GUA SHA

Course overview

Gua sha (Cao gio, coining, spooning, ¿scraping¿) has had a colorful introduction to the cosmopolitan medical West. Situated as abuse, then pseudo-abuse, the primary complication has been misdiagnosis by Western authorities and the social and ethical complications that followed. This lecture looks at the way in which language constitutes discourse and how terms used to describe Gua sha, Cao gio situated it in a negative register. Here we examine common terms used in the Chinese language database and the Western medical database and then consider the Classical and TCM context for Gua sha. An accurate medical definition of Gua sha is established as an instrument. Gua sha tools and lubricants are described in detail.