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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 52 · Needling Prohibitions
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked: “I wish to hear the rules of prohibition.”
Qi Bo replied: “The zang organs have vital regions that must be examined. Liver arises on the left; Lung stores on the right; Heart has its region outside; Kidney governs within. Spleen is their messenger and Stomach their market. Above the diaphragm and huang region, father and mother are within. Beside the seven sections, the little Heart is within. Following brings good fortune; opposing brings harm.”
Needling into Heart brings death in one day, its movement appearing as belching. Into Liver, death in five days, with speech. Into Kidney, death in six days, with sneezing. Into Lung, death in three days, with cough. Into Spleen, death in ten days, with swallowing. Into Gallbladder, death in one and a half days, with vomiting.
Needling the instep and striking a great vessel causes unceasing blood loss and death. Needling the face and striking a flowing vessel may bring blindness. Needling the head at Naohu and entering the brain brings immediate death. Excessive needling into the vessel beneath the tongue causes unceasing blood loss and loss of voice.
Needling the spreading networks beneath the foot and striking a vessel without blood emerging produces swelling. Striking the great vessel in the knee hollow causes collapse and loss of color. Striking a vessel at the Qi Street without blood emerging produces swelling at the shupu groin region. Striking marrow between spinal sections produces a bent back.
Needling above the breast and striking the breast produces swelling and erosion at its root. Sinking inward at Quepen lets qi escape, producing panting, cough and counterflow. Sinking inward at the hand’s fish-belly region produces swelling.
Reading note: Naohu, Quepen, Qi Street and shupu retain the named historical sites without modern numbered-point substitutions.
Do not needle someone greatly drunk: it disorders qi. Do not needle someone in great anger: it reverses qi. Do not needle someone greatly exhausted, newly full from eating, greatly hungry, greatly thirsty or greatly startled.
Striking a great vessel in the inner thigh causes unceasing blood loss and death. Sinking inward at Kezhuren and striking a vessel produces internal leakage and deafness. Needling the kneecap and releasing fluid produces lameness. Much blood loss from the arm’s Taiyin vessel brings immediate death.
Needling Foot Shaoyin with repeated deficiency and blood loss makes speech difficult for the tongue. Needling deeply into a chest depression and striking Lung produces panting counterflow with raised breathing. Sinking inward at the elbow draws qi there and prevents bending and extension. Sinking inward three cun below the inner thigh causes involuntary urination. Sinking inward between the axilla and flank causes cough.
Needling the lower abdomen and striking Bladder releases urine and produces lower-abdominal fullness. Sinking inward into the calf produces swelling. Striking a vessel in the sunken bone above the eye socket produces leakage and blindness. Needling a joint and releasing its fluid prevents bending and extension.
Reading note: The supplied 鴎腸 is read as the calf region. The inner/outer sites and three-cun location are retained, without invented needling depths.
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