"Is the Cun Measurement System Still Accurate?"

In your Chinese medicine training, you learn to locate acupuncture points using the traditional cun measurement system, where you use finger widths to measure distances from bony structures (landmarks). But does this 2000-year-old system actually still work for contemporary Western bodies? Australian research with 50 volunteers shows that body proportions no longer match: fingers and legs are proportionally larger than the traditional system predicts, meaning that measuring with your fingers may not lead you to the correct acupuncture point. The researchers therefore recommend using the proportional method more often, where you divide the actual distance between two fixed bony points into equal parts instead of relying on finger widths. As a student, it's important to learn both methods well and remain critical in your thinking about how you combine traditional wisdom with modern insights for the best treatment outcomes.