Microsystems: What a projection is

The whole body, in a small area

耳穴 Ěr Xué

A microsystem orders a region of the body as if the whole were projected onto it. It is a system of correspondences built for locating and remembering, not a description of what lies anatomically beneath.

Somatotopic projection

An order of correspondences over a region

The ear's “inverted fetus”

A mnemonic, not anatomy

The abdomen's sacred turtle

A proportional construction from the navel, not an internal map

What actually is underneath

Cartilage, vessels, nerves: that is the real anatomy

Common mistake: Confusing the mnemonic with the map. The inverted fetus helps you remember; points are studied by anatomy and by the specific standard in use.

There is no “the” map

In each region several different systems coexist, with nomenclature, theory and locations that differ substantially. Chinese hand acupuncture, Su Jok and the Korean systems are not the same map under other names.

Ear

Chinese nomenclature and European cartographies; schools are not identical

Scalp

Jiao, Zhu, Lin and standardized lines, among others

Hand

Chinese, Su Jok and Korean systems; even laterality changes

One and the same label

May follow different paths across schools

Common mistake: Mixing two standards in the same session because “they say much the same thing”. They do not, and the result belongs to neither.

Two manuals place the same scalp line along different paths. What do you conclude?

1. That one of them is misprinted
2. That they belong to different schools, and you must always state which you use
3. That the correct line is the one in the more recent manual
4. That you can use the midpoint between the two

What is really underneath the area of the auricle that a map calls “liver”?

1. Nerve fibers running to the liver
2. Cartilage, skin, vessels and nerve branches of the auricle itself
3. A reflex projection of the organ
4. Nothing relevant: the ear has no anatomy of its own

Each device with the region that uses it