The Characteristics of the 3C Technique

Dr. Zhu Weimin

After the 2025 conference in Sweden (photo on the right), and based on clinical feedback from the past two months, it became apparent that some people had not fully mastered this technique. At that time, the schedule was tight: it was impossible to clearly explain every point, there was no practical session, and we treated a few patients somewhat hastily, without detailed explanations.

It is important for everyone to understand that this technique is based on three essential principles:

1. The Principle of the Same Trajectory

This principle has occasionally been applied in other acupuncture techniques, for example:

• Dong (Tung) acupuncture point San Guan for treating heel pain

• The elbow point in Wang’s method for treating knee problems

However, no one had truly understood its importance. Before the 3C method, no one had proposed the “principle of the same trajectory,” nor recognized it as a major principle in the treatment of pain.

It is possible to treat using different trajectories, and sometimes the result is acceptable, but never optimal.

2. The Principle of Crossing

This principle comes from the ancients and is already widely used in other acupuncture techniques.
However, when it is applied without the principle of the same trajectory, its effectiveness is greatly reduced.

Although crossing exists, practitioners often remain confined within the meridian system, which also reduces effectiveness—such as in Tan’s instant acupuncture technique.

The 3C technique emphasizes that one should not separate:

• “treating the upper part for the lower part, the lower part for the upper part”

• “treating the left side for the right side, the right side for the left side”

Only when the line connecting the painful area to its corresponding point passes through the central point, with all three points aligned vertically or horizontally, do these two principles automatically merge into a single principle.

It is only when the principle of the same trajectory, the principle of crossing, and the third principle are combined that one obtains the optimal therapeutic effect.

3. Body Correspondence

This is a method that completely sets aside traditional meridians and acupuncture points.
It includes two components:

• Abandoning meridians and fixed points

• Using body correspondence

These two aspects constitute a major contribution of the 3C technique to modern acupuncture.

Without meridians, the method becomes simple, direct, and fast, saving practitioners a great deal of time while making clinical operations extremely precise.

Without fixed points, there are in fact an infinite number of points, which greatly increases flexibility in practice.

This is why the 3C technique makes pain reduction particularly precise and effective. This is the most important aspect.
It aligns with Sun Zi’s The Art of War:
“Troops have no constant formation; water has no fixed shape. He who adapts to the opponent’s changes is the one who wins — this is mastery.”

Thanks to this technique, one can truly track and pursue the pain.

Improvement in Clinical Satisfaction

According to collected information:

Before learning the 3C technique, acupuncturists’ satisfaction in pain treatment generally ranged from 20% to 50%.

After learning the 3C technique, their satisfaction rate exceeds 90%.

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