On 10 September 2026, Nicolas Berger, founder of the Tung Lineage Institute, presented the SMI Method — Dǒng shì sān fǎ zhēn jiǔ 董氏三法針灸 (Tung acupuncture of the three principles) — at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, at the invitation of Dr Wu Hsien-chang 吳炫璋 (Wú Xuànzhāng), director of the department of Chinese medicine at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital. The lecture was given in Chinese, to Taiwanese physicians and interns. It is the first time a French teacher has been invited to set out a method for organising Tung acupuncture in Taiwan, where the lineage was born.
The title of the talk sums up the approach: Cóng lì shǐ wén xiàn dào lín chuáng shí jiàn 從歷史文獻到臨床實踐 (from the historical sources to clinical practice).
Why start from the texts
The lecture opened on a simple question: how is Tung acupuncture to be defined? Between a master's oral teaching, the concepts of classical Chinese medicine and each practitioner's own clinical experience, the line between the objective and the subjective blurs quickly. The method adopted is to go back to the documents.
Nicolas Berger therefore retraced the chronology of the publications: the work self-published by Tung Ching-chang 董景昌 (Dǒng Jǐngchāng) in Taipei in 1968, the appendix that appeared in 1972 in Shí yòng zhōng guó zhēn jiǔ jīng xué xué 實用中國針灸經穴學, the 1973 edition from Xīn yà 新亞出版社, and Paldan's English edition the same year. That chronology is not a scholarly detail: it is what makes it possible to tell what comes from Master Tung from what was added afterwards. The books of the first generation — Hu Ping-chuan 胡丙權 (Hú Bǐngquán, 1988) and Hu Wen-chih 胡文智 (Hú Wénzhì) — complete the documentary base.
The course followed four steps: define, gather, use, practise.
Three schools, one method
The central point of the presentation fits in a single diagram. After Master Tung, his first-generation disciples — Wang Chuan-min 王全民 (Wáng Quánmín), Hu Wen-chih 胡文智, Yuan Kuo-pen 袁國本 (Yuán Guóběn), Young Wei-chieh 楊維傑 (Yáng Wéijié) — each developed their own reading. Three main schools came out of it:
- Qí xué pài 奇穴派 — the school of the Tung family's extraordinary points and their indications;
- Shí sì jīng luò pài 十四經絡派 — the school of the fourteen channels;
- Shén jīng pài 神經派 — the school of the Shén jīng 神經, particular to Master Tung's own practice.
The SMI Method does not choose between them. It organises them into three axes, which give it its Chinese name, Sān fǎ 三法 (the three principles):
- Shén jīng 神經 — the origin of Master Tung's practice, with a hierarchy of its own: Zǒng shén jīng 總神經, Zhǔ shén jīng 主神經, Zhī shén jīng 支神經, Fēn zhī shén jīng 分支神經, Fù shén jīng 副神經…;
- Shí sì jīng luò 十四經絡 (the fourteen channels) — a synthesis of channel practices, structured around seven kinds of relation between channels: Tóng jīng 同經 (same channel), Tóng míng jīng 同名經 (hand-and-foot homonymous channels), Biǎo lǐ 表裡 (biao-li pairs), Zàng fǔ bié tōng 臟腑別通, Zǐ wǔ duì chōng 子午對衝 (midday-midnight opposition), Shí chén xiāng lín 時辰相鄰 (adjacent hours)…;
- Zhǔ zhì 主治 (the indications) — how to integrate Master Tung's indications, the holographies (Quán xī 全息) and traditional Chinese medicine.
A point without reasoning is a recipe. The SMI Method is the reasoning that lets a practitioner choose the point.
From diagnosis to practice
The second part was given over to use. Four diagnostic entries were presented: diagnosis by the Shén jīng 神經, palmar diagnosis (Zhǎng zhěn 掌診), the pulse (Mài xiàng 脈象) and syndrome differentiation (Biàn zhèng 辯證). The demonstration was made on the participants.
Concrete examples of clinical use were given by showing the needling of the points that gather the most Zǒng shén jīng 總神經: zone 8 (8-8) of the thighs.
The lecture closed on rules of practice drawn from the day's teaching, so as to give the physicians a simple method for practising the SMI Method that same afternoon.
What comes next
Thanks were exchanged between Dr Wu Hsien-chang 吳炫璋 and Nicolas Berger, and with the team of physicians and the interns. The moment belongs to a relationship that is being built: Nicolas holds a degree in physiotherapy from Tzu Chi University (2024), and further talks as well as a closer collaboration are under consideration.
The resources presented to the participants are open to everyone:
- Tung Encyclopedia, the web application of the method (FR, EN, ZH);
- Understanding the SMI Method;
- The Tung Academy 2026–2027 course, built on the SMI Method;
- Book a 20-minute call for any question about the training.
