Lingshu · Heat Illness

The text

Withering of one side: one side of the body is of no use and aches; speech is unchanged, the will is not disordered. The illness is between the divided texture. Take it with the great needle; increase what is insufficient, diminish what has a remainder — then it may be restored. The illness of wilting-paralysis: the body has no pain; the four limbs will not gather; the mind is disordered, but not severely; the speech is faintly intelligible — it can be treated. If severe and one cannot speak, it cannot be treated. Illness that first arises in yang and later enters yin: first take the yang, later take the yin; take it floating. Heat illness of three days, the qi-opening quiet and the person's welcome restless: take the various yang, fifty-nine needles, to drain the heat and bring the sweat out; make the yin replete, to fill what is insufficient. When the body is very hot and both yin and yang are quiet, do not needle. Those that may be needled, take at once; if sweat does not come out, then drain. What is called do-not-needle: there are signs of death. Heat illness of seven or eight days, the vessel-opening moving, panting and short of breath: needle at once; sweat will come of itself; needle shallow between the thumb and the hand. Heat illness of seven or eight days, the pulse minute and small, the person passing blood, the mouth dry: death in a day and a half. If the pulse is intermittent: death in one day. Heat illness that has already obtained sweat, yet the pulse is still restless, panting, and heat returns: do not needle the skin; if the panting is severe, it is death. Heat illness of seven or eight days, the pulse not restless, or restless but not scattered and rapid: within the next three days there will be sweat; if for three days there is no sweat, death on the fourth day. If sweat has never come, do not needle the texture. Heat illness that first has pain in the skin, a blocked nose and a filled face: take the skin, with the first needle, fifty-nine; harsh rash of the nose: seek the skin in the lung; do not seek it in fire — fire is the heart. Heat illness that first has a rough body, leaning and hot, vexation and oppression, dry lips, mouth, and throat: take the skin, with the first needle, fifty-nine; swelling of the skin and a dry mouth, cold sweat coming out: seek the vessels in the heart; do not seek it in water — water is the kidney. Heat illness, the throat dry and much drinking, apt to startle, lying down and unable to rise: take the skin and flesh, with the sixth needle, fifty-nine; the canthus green: seek the flesh in the spleen; do not seek it in wood — wood is the liver. Heat illness, the face green, pain in the brain, hands and feet restless: take between the sinews, with the fourth needle, at the four reversals; the sinews limp, the eyes soaking: seek the sinews in the liver; do not seek it in metal — metal is the lung. Heat illness, startling many times, tugging and mania: take the vessels, with the fourth needle; swiftly drain what has a remainder; withdrawal, the hair falling: seek the blood in the heart; do not seek it in water — water is the kidney. Heat illness, the body heavy, pain in the bones, the ears deaf and fond of closing the eyes: take the bone, with the fourth needle, fifty-nine; needling bone-illness, no food, grinding the teeth, the ears green: seek the bone in the kidney; do not seek it in earth — earth is the spleen. Heat illness that does not know where it aches, the ears deaf, unable to gather oneself, the mouth dry, yang-heat severe, yin with some cold: the heat is in the marrow — death, and it cannot be treated. Heat illness, headache, the temples and the eyes bound, the vessels aching, apt to bleed at the nose — this is reversal heat illness; take it with the third needle; look at remainder and insufficiency. Cold and heat, hemorrhoids, heat illness, the body heavy, heat in the intestines: take it with the fourth needle, at their shu and between the fingers below; seek qi in the stomach collaterals, and obtain the qi. Heat illness flanking the navel with urgent pain, the chest and flanks full: take gushing-spring and yin-mound-spring; take with the fourth needle; needle inside the throat. Heat illness with sweat about to come out, and a pulse that follows and may sweat: take fish-border, great-abyss, great-capital, and great-white; drain, and the heat leaves; fill, and the sweat comes out. If the sweat is too much, take the transverse vessel above the inner ankle to stop it. Heat illness that has already obtained sweat, yet the pulse is still restless and abundant: this is the extreme of the yin vessel — death. If sweat has been obtained and the pulse is quiet: life. Heat illness whose pulse is still abundant and restless and cannot obtain sweat: this is the extreme of the yang vessel — death. If the pulse is abundant and restless, sweat is obtained, and it grows quiet: life. Heat illness that cannot be needled has nine: first, no sweat, the great cheekbones turning red, and hiccup — death. Second, diarrhea and the abdomen very full — death. Third, the eyes not clear, the heat not ending — death. Fourth, the old and the infant, heat and a full abdomen — death. Fifth, no sweat, vomiting and passing blood below — death. Sixth, the root of the tongue rotten, the heat not ending — death. Seventh, coughing and bleeding at the nose, no sweat, or sweat that does not reach the feet — death. Eighth, heat in the marrow — death. Ninth, heat and tetany — death: the waist bent, tugging, the teeth locked. All these nine cannot be needled. What are called the fifty-nine needles: on both hands, outer and inner sides, three each — twelve sites in all; between the five fingers, one each — eight sites in all; the feet likewise. On the head, one cun into the hair, three fen to the side, three each — six sites. Further, three cun into the hair, five at the sides — ten sites. Before and behind the ears and below the mouth, one each; one in the nape — six sites. One on the crown, one at the fontanel-meeting, one at the hairline. One at honest-spring, two at wind-pool, two at heavenly-pillar. Qi filling the chest, panting: take the tip of the big toe of foot taiyin, as far from the nail as a leek-leaf; if cold, leave it; if heat, be swift; stop when the qi descends. Heart shan, sudden pain: take foot taiyin and jueyin; needle all and remove their blood collaterals. Throat impediment, the tongue rolled, the mouth dry, the heart vexed, pain in the heart, pain on the inner edge of the arm, unable to reach the head: take below the nail of the next finger after the little finger of the hand, as far from the tip as a leek-leaf. Red pain in the eye, beginning from the inner canthus: take yin qiao. Wind tetany, the body bent backward: first take foot taiyang and the hollow of the knee and let blood from the blood collaterals; if there is cold within, take three-li. Dribbling blockage: take yin qiao and above the three hairs, and let blood from the blood collaterals. In men like gu, in women like blockage; the body, waist, and spine as if coming apart; no wish to eat or drink: first take gushing-spring and let blood be seen; look at what is abundant on the instep, and let blood be seen in all.

The line

Withering of one side: one side of the body is of no use and aches; speech is unchanged, the will is not disordered. The illness is between the divided texture. Take it with the great needle; increase what is insufficient, diminish what has a remainder — then it may be restored.

The note

In the heat-illness chapter there is withering of one side, there is sweat, there are signs of living and dying. Heat is a general name; underneath it, vacuity and repletion still come and go.