The literature of Japanese medical acupuncture introduced before 1949 has a definite impact on Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion in the period of Republic of China and the early period of the establishment of the People's Republic of China. In the present paper, the authors introduce its impact from: 1) Chinese medical works on acupuncture and moxibustion absorbed a lot of western medicine knowledge, and interpreted some underlying mechanisms chiefly according to the theory of nerve, blood and endocrine, including the meridian-collateral theory based on the structures of blood vessels, lymph vessels, nerves, etc.; 2) In some Chinese clinical books, some Japanese new techniques as "tube-needling" (sparrow-pecking needling, etc.) were introduced, the acupuncture treatment of disorders was discussed from the nomenclature of western medicine and some operative standards (dissection of acupuncture needles, etc.) in clinical practice were accepted; 3) Some western medicine courses, and subject settings were introduced in Chinese acupuncture education. In general, Japanese acupuncture literature introduced before 1949 promotes integration of traditional acupuncture theory and western medicine in the early period of new China, enriches practical techniques in clinical practice and accelerates the development of acupuncture education in some way.
Keywords: Acupuncture and moxibustion; Development of Chinese acupuncture-moxibustion; Japanese literature on acupuncture in Chinese.