Following the Opium War in 1840, China fell into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. The Revolution of 1911 ended the rule of the Qing Dynasty, but the broad masses of Chinese people were in deep distress until the founding of People's Republic of China, and acupuncture and moxibustion were also trampled upon. Introduction of Western medicine to China should have been a good turn, but the colonists used it as a medium for aggression. They claimed: "Western medicine is vanguard of Christianity and Christianity is the forerunner promoting the sale of goods." With such a purpose, they denounced and depreciated Chinese traditional medicine, and even defamed acupuncture and moxibustion as medical torture and called the acupuncture needle a deadly needle. From 1914, the reactionary government of China continuously yelled to ban traditional medicine and adopted a series of measure to restrict its development, resulting in a decline of Chinese traditional medicine including acupuncture and moxibustion.

Because of the great need of the Chinese people for medical care, acupuncture and moxibustion got its chance to spread among the folk people. Many acuouncturists made unrelenting efforts to protect and develop this great medical legacy by founding acupuncture associations, publishing books and journals on acupuncture, and launching correspondence courses to teach acupuncture. Among those acupuncturists, Cheng Dan'an made a particular contribution. At this period, in addition to inheriting the traditional acupuncture and moxibustion, they made efforts on explaining the theory of acupuncture and moxibustion with modern science and technology. In 1899, Liu Zhongheng wrote a book entitled Illustration of the Bronze Figure with Chinese and Western Medicine, paving the way for studying acupuncture through combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine in the history of acupuncture. In 1934 The Technique and Principles of Electro-acupuncture and the Study of Electro-acupuncture written by Tang Shicheng et al. started the use of electro-acupuncture in China.

At this period, acupuncture and moxibustion gained its new life in the revolutionary base area led by the Communist Party of China. In October of 1944, after Chairman Mao Zedong made a speech on the United Front of Cultural and educational workers in Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia border region, many medical doctors trained in Western medicine began to learn and to do research work on acupuncture and moxibustion, and to spread its use in the army of the base area. In April 1945, an acupuncture clinic was opened in the International Peace Hospital in the name of Dr. Norman Bethune in Yan'an. This was the first time that acupuncture and moxibustion entered into a comprehensive hospital. In 1947, the Health Department of Jinan Military Area Command compiled and published Practical Acupuncture and moxibstion. An acupuncture training course was sponsored by the health school affiliated to the Health Bureau of the People's Government in northern China in 1948. All these efforts like the seeds spread over the liberated area, and promoted the understanding of acupuncture and moxibustion for Western medical doctors.