This is the primary acupuncture point textbook used in English-speaking colleges and universities throughout the world. The second edition (the terracotta edition) uses colour within the book to more clearly illustrate points, Chinese characters, point names and internal organs. The text is unchanged.

The Manual of Acupuncture is chiefly an atlas and desk reference of acupuncture points and channels, not a classroom textbook or a clinic handbook or a self-study guide per se, though it does list some illustrative combinations with each point. Other books are available that fill the role of textbook better than this one does. 
The Manual of Acupuncture is not encyclopedic when compared with the larger Chinese-language works of acupuncture, but it does draw on them in a concise and informative way that conveys the character, historic application and contemporary application of each point, using carefully selected information from a wide range of primary sources.

The illustrations (one for each point) are of excellent quality, some of the best ever in a book of this sort. Pair the illustrations with the detailed treatment of point location and application, great typography, durable construction, and well-chosen excerpts from primary sources ranging from ancient to modern, and you have an acupuncture reference you can use to deepen your knowledge for years to come.

Among the book's features:

• Chapter length descriptions of the channels and collaterals,
• point categories and locations, and point selection and needling methods;
• Illustrations and text descriptions of all primary, extraordinary, divergent, luo-connecting and sinew channels;
• Individual and regional illustrations of the locations for every one of the 14 channel and extra channel points, identified by English, Chinese and pinyin names;
• The most accurate anatomical point locations to be published in a Western language textbook, together with practical advice on locating the points;
• Identification of point actions, as an aid to their understanding and memorization;
• Extensive lists of point indications drawn from classical and modern texts, grouped for ease of reference;
• In-depth commentaries explain the principal historical and modern applications of each point; Presentation of classical prescriptions demonstrate how the points have been combined through 20 centuries of practice;
• Extensive indexes, including one dedicated to point indications.