A meaning of Meridians and acupoints names.

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During studying of Meridians and their acupoints I see that mechanical cramming of acupoints names is not only difficult, but not provide with freely possession by the material.
For example, each Back-Shu point of the Bladder Meridian have in the name ending “shu”, but there are another points of this Meridian too (all on the back) with the same ending. Is it means that they have similar action?
Or 4 points of the Bladder Meridian on the sacrum with ending “liao”. It looks like a group, but what means “liao”?
Each two meridians (hand – foot yang or hand – foot yin) have the same name (Tai, Ming, Shao, Jue). It is very interesting to know a meaning of these names.
There are some points on different Meridians which have the same name: Yinjiao (DU 2 and Yinjiao (RN 7); Futu (ST 32) and Futu (LI 1; Juliao (ST3) and Juliao (GB 29) etc. Is it nonrandom coincidence?
I’m more then 20 years interested in Chinese Culture and Classical Chinese Philosophy, because Traditional Chinese Medicine represents very harmonious and beautiful system, based on these culture and philosophy. I’m very regret about language barrier and sorry that I didn’t studied Chinese language. I tried to find in literature a meaning of meridians and acupoints names to understand more profoundly their indications, but I’m not sure, that I have correct information.
Can you give me advice where can I find some information about this?

tutor

Dear Sophia,
Hereinbelow is my answer.
1). In the bladder meridian, the sound "Shu" means "acupoint", so there is a special acupoint for each of the Zang-Fu organs, apart from them, some other acupoints are also named as Shu, however they are not considered as the specific points, but just some ordinarty points. Anyway, "Shu" here does mean acupoint. The other acupoints named by the sound "Shu" don't have the same actions or functions as the specific Back-Shu points, they are only the ordinary points, the same as the other ordinary points.
The ones with the ending "liao" are a special group, referring to the sacral foramen, so here "liao" means "depression, or hole". "Liao" may appear in other places as well, e.g. Quanliao (SI 1, meaning "a depression below the zygoma.
In Chinese, many words would have the same sound, why different sounds would mean the same word, so is a difficult language.
Therefore, among acupunture points, some would have the same spelling, but in Chinese characters, they are totally different, as you mentioned the examples. Sometimes it would be specified as Neck Futu (i.e. LI 1 and Leg Futu (for sure that's ST 32). Each of them have their own meaning.
I don't think it's realistic for Medboo to provide the students the translation of the meanings of all the acupoints, in fact, there are different opinions in understanding their meanings, so the standardization might be necessarily established by the authorities concerned of our government. But no such conduct is taking place at the moment. So, I don't think I can tell the meaning of all the acupoints, and neither I recommend you to remember the names of the acupoints, but mostly the numbers of them instead.
The same for the nomenclature of the meridians, thre are quite different understanding for the words "Tai" "Shao" "Jue" "Ming". The first one basically means "Great", the second "Less", the third is more complicated, "the ending but transforming", while the last one is quite clear, "bright".
Majority of western people who are involved with traditional Chinese medicine are mainly taking it as a healing method or approach, but not as a phenominon of culture.
For quite sure, if you want to be a good or a brilliant physician of traditional Chinese medicine, you'd better understand Chinese language, even the ancient Chinese language. That's the basis for the Chinese students who learn traditonal Chinese medicine.
I don't know where you can find the good information in this field, but quite sure no any website sponsored by anybody inside China would provide such information.
So, if you are interested in this field and want to be VERY good, you'd better come to study in China. In fact, one of the Medboo students is now studying in one of the medical school in Beijing and he is studying Chinese language as the first step.

tutor

Thank you very much for your answer.
I’m really considering your offer to come to study in China. It is very tempting offer!
I want to know traditional Chinese medicine profoundly not only to my own work, as well as to pass this knowledge down to the people in my region.
My husband is a painter and he is also very much interested in studying of Chinese culture and art. I think in the near future we’ll come together.

tutor

Dear Sophia,
It's good to know you will come to China later, so you may have a good chance to know more about China and our culture.
There is also something unique of the Chinese painting and fine arts, so you husband won't be disappointed.

tutor

Dear Sophie,
I too have been trying to learn the Chinese language prior to my travels to study TCM there. I have found a couple of interactive CD-ROM that have been helpful in my vocabulary and pronunciation of the language.
The first CD-ROM is one that I found on the internet.
It is called Learn Chinese Now (for both Windows and Mac). It is produced by Transparent Language and also came with a Bonus CD that included a 100 language word processor and an interactive grammer tutorial (ISBN 1-930550-63-4) www.transparent.com.
The second CD is one that I found in a "Best Buy" electronics & software store. It is called Instant Immersion Mandarian Chinese [the Euro method](Windows & Mac), and is produced by Topics entertainment (Countertop software in Renton, WA, USA) www.topics-ent.com.
As Dr. King stated earlier, the laguage is not easy to learn, but it will be most valuable in our studies if we can become somewhat successful with it.

Hope that this information proves helpful,
Prof. Price

_________________
"When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself"
Shunryu Suzuki

tutor

Dear Professor Price,
I appreciate deeply for you advice. I’ll use this information in the immediate future.

Kind regards,
Sophia