User:Bilby/Bonghan system

The Bonghan system is a hypothetical set of structures analogous to the circulatory or lymphatic system that is described as a network of discrete microscopic threadlike structures approximately 30 micrometres in diameter that are believed to attach to organs throughout the body. The structures are named after North Korean anatomist Bonghan Kim, who claimed their discovery in 1963, and the system was said to provide a "sub-anatomical substratum" for the concept of qi, thus providing a possible physical explanation for the notion as employed in acupuncture.

Kim did not continue his research after 1967, as his work was suspended following the purging of his sponsor on the politburo, and his claims could not be replicated by most other researchers at the time – in particular, Lu, Needham and Lo, and, more recently Kwang-Sup, have identified Kellner's 1966 work in which he investigated Kim's studies, and where he was unable to find evidence to support the existence of the system as described. The only contemporary exception was Fujiwara's work, published in 1967, in which Fujiwara claimed to have been successful in replicating Kim's research.

Kim's work involved the injection of the radioactive isotope P-32 and tracing its progress. This part of his research was claimed to have been replicated by a Soviet researcher, Victor Adamenko, and in 1985 by the work of De Vernejoul, who injected radioactive isotopes at the meridians and noted that they traveled further than isotopes injected elsewhere. Attempts by Western researchers to view the Bonghan system using stains proved unsuccessful, though, arguably because the ducts were destroyed by the process.

In recent years, a research group based at the Seoul National University claimed to have been able to detect the Bonghan system through the use of new dyes, arguing that the inability of researchers to replicate Bonghan Kim's work was due to the "staining material and method, the key technique in BongHan theory" remaining undisclosed.