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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 32 · Needling for Heat Illness
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In Liver heat illness, urine first becomes yellow, followed by abdominal pain, much lying down and bodily heat. When heat contends, there is wild speech and startlement, painful fullness in the flanks, restless hands and feet and inability to lie peacefully. It worsens on geng and xin days; great sweating occurs on jia and yi days. If qi rises contrary, death comes on geng or xin. Needle Foot Jueyin and Shaoyang. With counterflow the headache is rounded and tense, as the vessel draws upward and rushes into the head.
In Heart heat illness, unhappiness comes first; only after several days does heat appear. When heat contends, sudden Heart pain occurs, with vexation, oppression, frequent vomiting, headache, red face and no sweat. It worsens on ren and gui days; great sweating occurs on bing and ding days. If qi rises contrary, death comes on ren or gui. Needle Hand Shaoyin and Taiyang.
In Spleen heat illness, heaviness of the head and cheek pain come first, with vexation at Heart, blue-green complexion, a wish to vomit and bodily heat. When heat contends, the waist is painful and cannot bend or straighten, the abdomen is full with diarrhea, and both sides of the lower jaw hurt. It worsens on jia and yi days; great sweating occurs on wu and ji days. If qi rises contrary, death comes on jia or yi. Needle Foot Taiyin and Yangming.
In Lung heat illness, shivering cold counterflow comes first, with raised body hair, aversion to wind and cold, a yellow tongue surface and bodily heat. When heat contends, there is panting and cough; pain travels through chest, breast and back; a deep breath cannot be taken; headache is unbearable; sweating brings cold. It worsens on bing and ding days; great sweating occurs on geng and xin days. If qi rises contrary, death comes on bing or ding. Needle Hand Taiyin and Yangming, releasing blood the size of a large bean, and the illness ends immediately.
In Kidney heat illness, waist pain and aching shins come first, with distressing thirst, frequent drinking and bodily heat. When heat contends, the nape is painful and stiff, the shins cold and aching, the soles hot and speech undesired. With counterflow the nape pain is rounded and tense, with a trembling, unsteady feeling. It worsens on wu and ji days; great sweating occurs on ren and gui days. If qi rises contrary, death comes on wu or ji. Needle Foot Shaoyin and Taiyang. In all these sweating cases, sweat appears when the day of the influence overcome by the organ arrives.
Reading note: The supplied 鴬 in the leg symptoms is read as 䯒, shin, attested in the annotated classical text. The final phase-day wording is retained alongside the preceding individual stem-day assignments.
In Liver heat illness, the left cheek reddens first; in Heart heat illness, the forehead; in Spleen heat illness, the nose; in Lung heat illness, the right cheek; in Kidney heat illness, the chin. Even before illness manifests, needle when this redness is seen: this is called treating illness before it arises.
Heat illness beginning in its proper region ends when its appointed period comes. If needling runs contrary to this, it ends after three circuits. Repeated contrariness means death. Those due to sweat do so greatly on the day of the influence overcome by the organ.
In treating heat illness, give cold water to drink before needling. The person must be lightly clothed to remain cool and stay in a cool place. Stop when the body becomes cold.
When heat illness first brings chest and flank pain and restless hands and feet, needle Foot Shaoyang and supplement Foot Taiyin. For severe illness use the fifty-nine needlings. When it begins with hand and arm pain, needle Hand Yangming and Taiyin; stop when sweat appears. When it begins in the head, needle Taiyang at the nape; stop when sweat appears. When it begins in feet and shins, needle Foot Yangming; stop when sweat appears.
When heat illness first brings a heavy body, bone pain, deafness and a preference for closing the eyes, needle Foot Shaoyin; for severe illness use the fifty-nine needlings. When dizziness and clouded awareness precede heat with fullness of chest and flanks, needle Foot Shaoyin and Shaoyang.
Taiyang’s vessel manifests color at the cheekbone in heat illness. If the manifestation has not crossed into another region, sweating is about to occur; await its time and the illness ends. If the Jueyin pulse competes in appearing, death comes within three days. The heat illness connects inward with Kidney: the supplied text calls this Shaoyang’s pulse color.
Shaoyang’s vessel manifests color before the cheek in heat illness. If the manifestation has not crossed into another region, sweating is about to occur; await its time and the illness ends. If the Shaoyin pulse competes in appearing, death comes within three days.
Reading note: The supplied transition between Taiyang, Kidney and Shaoyang is retained; it is not rewritten into a uniform correspondence scheme.
The qi sites for heat illness: the space below the third vertebra governs heat within the chest; below the fourth, heat in the diaphragm; below the fifth, Liver heat; below the sixth, Spleen heat; below the seventh, Kidney heat. Their nutritive connection is at the sacrum. At the nape, the depression among the upper three vertebrae is the center.
Below the cheek, extending contrary toward the cheekbone, corresponds to great masses; below the jaw joint, abdominal fullness; behind the cheekbone, flank pain; the upper cheek, the region above the diaphragm.
Reading note: The supplied 焔 in 榮在焔也 is read through the annotated 骶, sacrum. These historical vertebral and facial correspondences are retained without substituting modern numbered points.
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