Lingshu · Official Functions

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked Qi Bo: I have heard the nine needles from you; they are many, more than can be counted. I have pushed them and discussed them, and taken them as one cycle. I will recite them; you listen to the principle. If it is not so, tell me. I ask for the correct Dao, that it may be transmitted long to later ages without harm. Obtain the right person, then transmit; if it is not the right person, do not speak. Qi Bo bowed his head and bowed again, and said: Please let me hear the Dao of the sage king. The Yellow Emperor said: The principle of using the needle: you must know where form and qi are, left and right, above and below, yin and yang, surface and interior, the more and less of blood and qi, the against and with of their travel, the meetings of going out and in. Plan to strike what has gone too far. Know how to untie a knot; know how to supplement vacancy and drain repletion; know the qi-gates above and below; be clear through to the four seas; examine where they are. Cold and heat, dripping exposure, are transported to different places. Be exact in attuning qi; be clear about the channel tunnels; the networks of the left and right limbs — know all their meetings. When cold and heat contend, be able to join them and attune them. When vacancy and repletion neighbor each other, know how to decide and open them. When left and right are not attuned, take hold and set them going. Be clear about against and with, and then you know what can be treated. When yin and yang are not odd, you know the time of rising. When harm is at root or tip, observe the cold and heat; obtain where the pathogen is — ten thousand insertions and no danger. Know how to set the nine needles in office, and the Dao of needling is complete. Be clear about the five transports and where the slow and the swift are. Bending and stretching, going out and in, all have their order. Speak of yin and yang; they join the five phases. The five zang and six fu also have what they store. The four seasons and the eight winds all have yin and yang; each obtains its place, joining the Bright Hall; each occupies its color-region. The five zang and six fu: observe where they hurt; left and right, above and below, know their cold and warmth, and in which channel they are. Examine the cold and warmth, the slipperiness and astringency, of the skin, and know what is bitter. The diaphragm has above and below; know where the qi is. First obtain the road; space it thinly and sparsely; go a little deeper and stay; thus you can enter slowly. Great heat above: push it downward. What comes from below upward: draw it and send it away. Look at what hurt first, and always take that first. Great cold without: stay and supplement it. What has entered the center: drain it from the meeting. What the needle will not do is what moxa is fitted for. When qi above is insufficient, push it and lift it. When qi below is insufficient, gather it and follow it. When both yin and yang are vacant, fire itself should answer it. Reversal and cold that is severe, the bone-ridges sunken, cold passing the knee: the lower mound, Three Li. Where the yin networks pass, obtain it, stay and stop. When cold has entered the center, push it and set it going. When a channel is sunken, fire then answers it. When a knotted network is hard and tight, fire is what treats it. If you do not know what is bitter, below the two qiao — yin for a man, yang for a woman — the good worker forbids it. The discourse on the needle is complete. The method of using the needle must have its law. Above, look at the lights of heaven; below, attend to the eight corrects, so as to keep off strange pathogen and watch over the people. Be exact about vacancy and repletion; do not offend their pathogen. This is meeting the dew of heaven, meeting the vacancy of the year; if you rescue and cannot overcome, you instead receive the harm. Therefore it is said: you must know the taboos of heaven, and only then speak the meaning of the needle. Take law from the past; test it in the coming present; look into the dim and remote; pass through to the boundless. What the coarse hand does not see, the good worker treasures. No one knows its form — as if the spirit were faintly there. When pathogenic qi strikes a person, there is shivering and the form is moved. When true pathogen strikes a person it is slight: first seen in the color, not known in the body, as if there, as if not, as if gone, as if remaining, with form and without form — no one knows the condition. Therefore the superior worker takes the qi and so rescues the sprout. The inferior worker guards what is already completed, and thereby ruins the form. Therefore when the worker uses the needle, he knows where the qi is and guards its door; is clear about attuning qi, where to supplement and drain, the meaning of slow and swift, the place to take. To drain you must use the round: press and turn it, and the qi then travels; go in swiftly and come out slowly, and pathogenic qi then goes out; stretch and meet it, shake the hole large, and qi goes out swiftly. To supplement you must use the square: draw the skin outward so that it faces the gate; with the left, draw the pivot; with the right, push the skin; turn slightly and push slowly; you must be upright and correct, calm and quiet, the heart firm and without slackening. Wish to stay a little; when qi goes down, come out swiftly; push the skin and cover the outer gate; true qi then remains. The essential of using the needle: do not forget the spirit. Lei Gong asked the Yellow Emperor: The discourse on the needle says, obtain the right person, then transmit; if it is not the right person, do not speak. How does one know who may be transmitted to? The Yellow Emperor said: Each obtains the right person. Entrust them with what they can do, and so they can make the matter clear. Lei Gong said: I wish to hear how official functions are. The Yellow Emperor said: Those of clear eyes may be set to look at color. Those of keen ears may be set to listen to tones. Those swift of speech may be set to transmit discourse. Those whose speech is slow and who are quiet, whose hands are skillful and whose heart examines with care, may be set to move needle and moxa, to put blood and qi in order and attune the various against and with, to observe yin and yang and take the various methods together. Those of easy joints and soft sinews, whose heart is mild and attuned, may be set to guide and pull and travel qi. Those of sharp poison in speech, who make light of people, may be set to spit on swellings and curse illness. Those of harsh nails and a harsh hand, who in doing things are apt to injure, may be set to press accumulations and suppress impediment. Each obtains what they can do; then the method can be practiced, and their name will show. Without the right person, the work is not completed, and the teacher has no name. Therefore it is said: obtain the right person, then speak; if it is not the right person, do not transmit. This is what is meant. One with a harsh hand may be tested by pressing a turtle: set the turtle under a vessel and press upon it; in fifty days it is dead. One with a gentle hand: it lives again as before.

The line

I have pushed them and discussed them, and taken them as one cycle. I will recite them; you listen to the principle. If it is not so, tell me. I ask for the correct Dao, that it may be transmitted long to later ages without harm. Obtain the right person, then transmit; if it is not the right person, do not speak.

The note

Those of clear eyes may be set to look at color; those of skillful hands may be set to move the needle. Official functions: let a person do what that person can do. Without the right person, the work is not completed.