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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 63 · Miu Needling
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked: “I have heard of miu needling but have not grasped its meaning. What is miu needling?”
Qi Bo replied: “Harmful influence lodging in bodily form first settles in skin and hair. Remaining without leaving, it enters fine branch vessels; remaining there, it enters networks; remaining there, it enters channels. Internally it connects with the five zang organs and disperses through intestines and Stomach. Yin and yang are both affected and the five organs injured. This is the successive inward course from skin and hair to the five zang organs. In such cases, treat the channels.”
Harmful influence may instead enter the fine networks from skin and hair and remain, blocked and unable to enter the channels. It flows and overflows into great networks, producing extraordinary illness.
In great networks it pours from left to right and right to left, above and below, interfering with channels and spreading to the four extremities. Its qi has no fixed place and does not enter channel transport sites. This is the condition named for miu needling.
The Emperor asked: “I wish to hear how miu needling treats the right for the left and the left for the right. How is it distinguished from ju needling?”
Qi Bo said: “When harmful influence lodges in channels, abundance on the left makes the right ill, and abundance on the right makes the left ill. There can also be shifting: left pain has not ended, yet the right pulse is already ill. Such cases require ju needling, striking the channel itself, not the network vessel.
In network illness, the pain and channel vessel occupy discordant places. Thus it is called miu needling.”
The Emperor asked: “I wish to hear how miu needling is performed and where treatment is taken.”
Qi Bo said: “Harmful influence in Foot Shaoyin’s network brings sudden Heart pain, abrupt distention and spreading fullness in chest and flanks. If no accumulation is present, needle before the ran bone and release blood. It ends in about a meal’s duration. If not, treat the right for the left and left for the right. For newly arisen illness, treatment ends it in five days.”
Harmful influence in Hand Shaoyang’s network brings painful throat obstruction, curled tongue, dry mouth, vexation at Heart, pain at the arm’s outer border and inability to reach the head with the hand. Make one puncture each above the nail of the finger next to the middle finger, a chive leaf’s breadth from its end.
In the robust it ends immediately; in the old after a short interval. Treat right for left and left for right. Newly arisen illness ends in several days.
Harmful influence in Foot Jueyin’s network brings sudden hernia and violent pain. Make one puncture each where the great toenail meets flesh. In men it ends immediately; in women after a short interval. Treat right for left and left for right.
Harmful influence in Foot Taiyang’s network brings head, nape and shoulder pain. Make one puncture each where the little toenail meets flesh; it ends immediately. If not, make three punctures below the outer ankle. Treat right for left and left for right; it ends in about a meal’s duration.
Harmful influence in Hand Yangming’s network brings fullness of qi, panting within the chest, spreading lateral fullness and heat in the chest. Make one puncture each above the nail of the finger next to the thumb, a chive leaf’s breadth from its end. Treat right for left and left for right; it ends in about a meal’s duration.
Harmful influence between forearm and palm prevents bending. Needle behind its joint prominence. First press with a finger; needle where pain answers. Set the count by the moon’s waxing and waning: one puncture on its first growing day, two on the second, fifteen on the fifteenth, fourteen on the sixteenth.
Reading note: The joint prominence remains the supplied 踝 within an arm–palm account, without relocating it to the foot.
Harmful influence in the Foot Yang Qiao vessel brings eye pain beginning at the inner corner. Make two punctures each about half a cun below the outer ankle, treating right for left and left for right. It ends in about the time needed to walk ten li.
Reading note: The half-cun distance and ten-li walking duration retain the historical measures; no modern distance or number of minutes is substituted.
After a fall, bad blood may remain inside, filling and distending the abdomen and blocking front and rear passages. First give a freeing medicinal to drink. Above, this injures the Jueyin vessel; below, Shaoyin’s network.
Needle below the inner ankle and release blood from the vessel before the ran bone. Needle the beating vessel on the instep. If not ended, make one puncture each above the three-hair region. Blood appearing ends it immediately. Treat right for left and left for right. Frequent grief, startlement and unhappiness are needled by the preceding method.
Harmful influence in Hand Yangming’s network makes hearing fail at times. Make one puncture each above the nail of the finger next to the thumb, a chive leaf’s breadth from its end: hearing returns immediately. If not, needle where the middle fingernail meets flesh: hearing returns immediately.
If hearing does not return at intervals, it must not be needled. Wind arising within the ear is likewise treated with these needling counts. Treat right for left and left for right.
Reading note: The supplied 不時聞 restriction retains its temporal wording without being replaced by a particular modern cause of deafness.
For obstruction moving back and forth without a fixed place, needle the painful intervals between flesh divisions. Set the count by the moon’s waxing and waning, following qi’s flourishing or decline. Exceeding the day count depletes qi; falling short fails to drain qi.
Treat right for left and left for right. Stop when illness ends; otherwise repeat by the method. One puncture on the first growing day, two on the second, gradually increasing to fifteen on the fifteenth; fourteen on the sixteenth, then gradually fewer.
Harmful influence in Foot Yangming’s network brings nasal obstruction or discharge, nosebleed and cold upper teeth. Make one puncture each where the nail of the toe next to the middle toe meets flesh. Treat right for left and left for right.
Harmful influence in Foot Shaoyang’s network brings flank pain preventing breath, cough and sweat. Make one puncture each where the nail of the toe next to the little toe meets flesh. The inability to breathe ends immediately and sweat stops at once.
For cough, warm clothing, food and drink bring recovery in one day. Treat right for left and left for right: the illness ends immediately. If not, repeat according to the method.
Harmful influence in Foot Shaoyin’s network brings throat pain preventing food intake, frequent anger without cause and qi rushing upward to the ben region. Make three punctures each at the vessel in the sole’s center, six in all; it ends immediately. Treat right for left and left for right.
Swelling within the throat that prevents swallowing saliva and sometimes prevents spitting is treated before the ran bone. Release blood and it ends immediately. Treat right for left and left for right.
Reading note: Ben retains the supplied 賁 region without imposing a precise modern anatomical boundary.
Harmful influence in Foot Taiyin’s network brings waist pain drawing into the lower abdomen and soft flanks, preventing backward leaning and easy breath. Needle at the junction of waist and buttocks above the paired shen flesh regions: these are waist transport sites. Use the moon’s waxing and waning to set the puncture count. Apply the needle and it ends immediately. Treat right for left and left for right.
Reading note: 控眇 and the paired shen regions follow the contextual flank and waist–buttock readings used in the preceding waist-pain chapters.
Harmful influence in Foot Taiyang’s network brings contraction and tightness of the back, drawing painfully into the flanks. Begin at the nape and count the spinal sections. Press firmly beside the spine; where pain answers the hand, make three punctures beside it. The illness ends immediately.
Harmful influence in Foot Shaoyang’s network remains painfully within the hip pivot and prevents raising the thigh. Needle the pivot with a fine needle. In cold, retain it for a long time. Set the count by the moon’s waxing and waning; the illness ends immediately.
When treating the channels, if their course is not ill, use miu needling.
For deafness, needle Hand Yangming. If it does not end, needle its communicating vessel emerging before the ear.
For a decayed tooth, needle Hand Yangming. If it does not end, needle the vessel entering the tooth; it ends immediately.
Harmful influence lodging between the five zang organs produces drawing pain along vessels, coming and stopping at times. Observe the illness and use miu needling above the nails of hands and feet. Inspect its vessels and release blood. Needle once on alternate days. If one treatment does not end it, five do.
Discordant transmission draws into the upper teeth, making teeth and lips cold and painful. Inspect blood-filled vessels on the back of the hand and release them. Make one puncture above the middle toenail in Foot Yangming, and one each above the nail of the finger next to the thumb. It ends immediately. Treat right for left and left for right.
Harmful influence lodges in the networks of Hand and Foot Shaoyin and Taiyin, and Foot Yangming. These five networks meet within the ear and network above to the left forehead corner. When all five are exhausted, body and vessels move but the person has no awareness. The appearance is like a corpse; some call it corpse-like counterflow.
First needle the inner side above the great toenail, a chive leaf’s breadth from its end; then the sole; then above the middle toenail, one puncture each. Next needle the inner side of the thumb, a chive leaf’s breadth from its end; then the Hand Heart Master and Shaoyin at the pointed bone ends, one puncture each. It ends immediately.
If not, blow into both ears through a bamboo tube. Shave a square cun of hair at the left forehead corner, burn and prepare it, and give it in one cup of fine liquor. If drinking is impossible, pour it in. It ends immediately.
Reading note: The source’s five-network count, procedural order, square-cun area and one-cup preparation are retained as its historical account, without adding a modern resuscitation method.
In every needling procedure, first inspect the channel vessels, palpate and follow them, determine deficiency and repletion and regulate accordingly. If still unregulated, needle the channel. If pain is present but the channel is not ill, use miu needling. Then inspect the skin regions and treat every blood-filled network. These are the rules of miu needling.
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