A Lotus in the Sky: Acupuncture in America and the Calendar It Carried

This working paper opens a three-part history and reference work on East Asian medicine in the United States. Book One traces the medicine from the healers already present in America before 1826, through the first acupuncture trials on Philadelphia prisoners, the Chinese herbalists of the Gold Mountain era, exclusion, the 1900 San Francisco plague, and the Flexner Report, to the narrowing of the medicine in its American professional form. It is told from the patient's side of the needle and includes the American South and the Carolina Lowcountry, which most histories omit. Book Two will restore the classical calendar of the five movements and six qi (wu yun liu qi 五運六氣) as a year-by-year reference, with each disease entry cited to the Huangdi Neijing Suwen. Book Three will test that calendar against the historical record and against a reading for 2027 registered in advance. Version 1.0 contains the introduction, the plan of the complete work, and four chapters of Book One: The Carolina Acupuncturer; Philadelphia, 1826; The Gold Mountain Doctors; and Who Gets to Heal. Working paper. Not peer reviewed. Not medical advice. The author co-founded Infinu Research Institute, which will conduct the 2027 test, and may in future offer courses, an almanac, and consulting related to wu yun liu qi. No external funding. The author has also published as Simel E. J. Bey and Simel Bey; all names resolve to the ORCID iD attached to this record.