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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 36 · Needling for Intermittent Fever
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Foot Taiyang intermittent fever causes waist pain and a heavy head. Cold rises from the back; cold precedes scorching, oppressive heat. Sweat appears when heat ends. The illness is difficult to end. Needle the hollow behind the knee to release blood.
Foot Shaoyang intermittent fever causes bodily lassitude. Neither cold nor heat is extreme. The person dislikes seeing people and feels alarm at Heart on seeing them. Heat is relatively abundant and sweating profuse. Needle Foot Shaoyang.
Reading note: The irregular supplied 解聡 retains the lassitude reading used in the earlier pulse chapters.
Foot Yangming intermittent fever first causes shivering cold, severe and prolonged before heat appears. When heat leaves, sweat appears. The person enjoys sunlight, moonlight and the warmth of fire and then feels relieved. Needle Foot Yangming on the instep.
Foot Taiyin intermittent fever causes unhappiness, frequent deep sighing and lack of appetite, with much cold, heat and sweat. When an attack arrives, vomiting is frequent; after vomiting it declines. Treat it then.
Foot Shaoyin intermittent fever causes severe vomiting, much cold and heat, with more heat than cold. The person wishes to close doors and windows and remain inside. The illness is difficult to end.
Foot Jueyin intermittent fever causes waist pain, lower-abdominal fullness and difficult urination resembling retention, yet not actual retention, with frequent attempts to pass urine. The person feels fear, insufficient qi and oppression within the abdomen. Needle Foot Jueyin.
Lung intermittent fever makes Heart feel cold, followed by severe cold and heat. During the heat interval the person is easily startled, as though seeing something. Needle Hand Taiyin and Yangming. Heart intermittent fever brings severe vexation at Heart and a wish for clear water, yet much cold and little heat. Needle Hand Shaoyin.
Liver intermittent fever makes the color blue-green, with deep sighs and an appearance as though dying. Needle Foot Jueyin until blood appears. Spleen intermittent fever brings cold and abdominal pain; during heat the intestines rumble, followed by sweat. Needle Foot Taiyin.
Kidney intermittent fever brings shivering, waist and spine pain that makes the person writhe, difficult bowel movements, wavering vision and cold hands and feet. Needle Foot Taiyang and Shaoyin. Stomach intermittent fever, as an attack approaches, brings frequent hunger but inability to eat. Eating produces distending fullness and an enlarged abdomen. Needle Foot Yangming and release blood from Foot Taiyin’s transverse vessel.
When an intermittent-fever attack has made the body hot, needle the beating vessel on the instep, open its site and release blood: cold follows immediately. As the attack is about to bring cold, needle Hand Yangming and Taiyin and Foot Yangming and Taiyin.
With an intermittent-fever pulse full, large and urgent, needle the back transport sites, using a middle-sized needle beside the wuqu transport sites, one each, releasing blood according to fatness or thinness. With a small, replete and urgent pulse, apply moxa to Shaoyin at the shin and needle the well points at the digits.
With a full, large and urgent pulse, needle the back transport sites, using the wuqu transport sites and back transport sites once each, adjusting the procedure to reach the blood. With a relaxed, large and deficient pulse, medicinals are appropriate and needles inappropriate.
Treat intermittent fever about the time needed to eat a meal before an attack; beyond that, the proper time is lost. When the pulse cannot be found, needle between the ten digits to release blood. Once blood is removed, the illness must end. First inspect the body for red marks like small beans and treat all of them.
Reading note: Wuqu preserves the source’s five-lateral transport-site designation, 伍胠/五胠. The two full/large/urgent pulse passages are both retained, not deduplicated. No fixed number of modern minutes is assigned to a meal’s duration.
The twelve intermittent fevers attack at different times. Examine the form of illness to know which vessel is ill. Needle about one meal’s duration before an attack. One needling makes it decline; two bring a perceptible response; three end it.
If it does not end, needle the two vessels beneath the tongue to release blood. If still not ended, needle the abundant channel in the knee hollow to release blood, then needle beside the spine below the nape: it must end. The two vessels beneath the tongue are called Lianquan.
In needling intermittent fever, first ask where the illness begins and needle that region first. If headache and heaviness come first, first needle the crown, both sides of the forehead and between the brows to release blood. If nape and back pain come first, needle those sites first. If waist and spine pain come first, first release blood at the knee hollow.
If hand and arm pain come first, first needle Hand Shaoyin and Yangming and between the ten fingers. If aching feet and shins come first, first needle Foot Yangming and between the ten toes to release blood.
Wind intermittent fever brings sweat and aversion to wind during an attack. Needle the blood-filled back transport sites of the three yang channels. Severe aching of the shins that cannot bear pressure is called fu sui illness. Use a chisel needle at Juegu to release blood: it ends immediately. For slight bodily pain, needle Zhiyin. Do not release blood at the yin well points; needle once on alternate days.
For intermittent fever without thirst and with alternate-day attacks, needle Foot Taiyang. With thirst and alternate-day attacks, needle Foot Shaoyang. For warm intermittent fever without sweat, use the fifty-nine needlings.
Reading note: The supplied 鴬 in the shin symptoms follows the same 䯒 reading as earlier. Fu sui retains the historical 胕髓 illness name; Juegu and Zhiyin remain the source’s named sites without modern point numbers.
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