Suwen · The Prohibitions of Needling

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: I wish to hear the count of the prohibitions. Qi Bo answered: The zang have vital places; one cannot but examine them. The liver is born on the left; the lung is stored on the right. The heart deploys at the surface; the kidney governs the interior. The spleen is their envoy; the stomach is their marketplace. Above the diaphragm and the gao, there are father and mother in the center. Beside the seventh vertebra, there is the little heart in the center. Follow these and there is blessing; go against them and there is fault. Needle and hit the heart: death in one day. Its movement is a belch. Needle and hit the liver: death in five days. Its movement is speech. Needle and hit the kidney: death in six days. Its movement is a sneeze. Needle and hit the lung: death in three days. Its movement is a cough. Needle and hit the spleen: death in ten days. Its movement is a swallow. Needle and hit the gallbladder: death in a day and a half. Its movement is vomiting. Needle the top of the instep and hit the great vessel: blood comes out and does not stop — death. Needle the face and hit the flowing vessel: if one is unlucky, blindness. Needle the head and hit the Brain Door; enter the brain — death at once. Needle below the tongue and hit the vessel too far: blood comes out and does not stop — loss of voice. Needle the spreading network under the foot and hit the vessel: if blood does not come out, there is swelling. Needle the great vessel in the hollow: it makes a person fall and lose color. Needle the Street of Qi and hit the vessel: if blood does not come out, there is swelling and a falling in the groin. Needle between the vertebrae and hit the marrow: it becomes a hunch. Needle above the breast and hit the breast: swelling, and the root eats inward. Needle the Empty Basin and sink inward: qi drains, and it makes a person pant, cough, and reverse. Needle the fish-belly of the hand and sink inward: it becomes swelling. Do not needle one who is greatly drunk. It makes the person's qi disordered. Do not needle one in great anger. It makes the person's qi reverse. Do not needle one worn by great labor. Do not needle one newly full. Do not needle one in great hunger. Do not needle one in great thirst. Do not needle one greatly startled. Needle the great vessel of the inner thigh: blood comes out and does not stop — death. Needle the Guest-Host and sink inward, hitting the vessel: it becomes an inner leak, and deafness. Needle the kneecap and fluid comes out: it becomes lameness. Needle the Taiyin vessel of the arm: if much blood comes out, death at once. Needle the Shaoyin vessel of the foot: doubled vacuity and letting blood — the tongue is hard to speak with. Needle the chest and sink inward, hitting the lung: panting, reversal, breathing with the face up. Needle the inner crook of the elbow and sink inward: qi returns there, and one cannot bend or extend. Needle three cun below the inner thigh and sink inward: it makes a person lose urine. Needle the space of the flanks below the armpit and sink inward: it makes a person cough. Needle the lesser abdomen, hit the bladder, and urine comes out: it makes the lesser abdomen full. Needle the calf and sink inward: it becomes swelling. Needle above the orbit, sink into the bone, and hit the vessel: it becomes a leak, and blindness. Needle a joint and fluid comes out: one cannot bend or extend.

The line

Qi Bo answered: The zang have vital places; one cannot but examine them. The liver is born on the left; the lung is stored on the right. The heart deploys at the surface; the kidney governs the interior. The spleen is their envoy; the stomach is their marketplace.

The note

The zang have vital places. Prohibition is not superstition; it is admitting that some sites are hinges of life. To know the prohibitions is to know needling.