Suwen · Explaining the Needle

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: I wish to hear the explanation of the nine needles, and the way of vacuity and repletion. Qi Bo answered: To needle the vacuous so as to make it replete: heat under the needle. When qi is replete, then there is heat. To drain what is full: cold under the needle. When qi is vacuous, then there is cold. To take away what is rank and stale: let out the spoiled blood. When what is irregular prevails, to make it vacuous: take out the needle and do not press. Slow and then swift makes replete: take the needle out slowly and press swiftly. Swift and then slow makes vacuous: take the needle out swiftly and press slowly. To speak of replete and vacuous is the more and less of cold and warm qi. As if absent, as if present: the illness cannot yet be known. To examine the after and the before is to know what of the illness is first and what is last. In making vacuity and repletion, the artisan must not lose the method. As if gotten, as if lost: one has left the method. The essential of vacuity and repletion, the nine needles being the most subtle: each has that for which it is right. The times of filling and draining: they join with the opening and closing of qi. The names of the nine needles, each a different shape: the needle exhausts what ought to be filled or drained. To needle the replete, one must wait for its vacuity: leave the needle; when yin qi has risen in fullness, then take the needle away. To needle the vacuous, one must wait for its repletion: when yang qi has risen in fullness and there is heat under the needle, then take the needle away. When the channel qi has already arrived, guard it with care and do not lose it: do not change. Deep and shallow are in the will: one knows the inner and outer of the illness. Near and far as one: the signs of deep and shallow are equal. As if at the edge of a deep pool: one dares not fall. The hand as if holding a tiger: one wants it strong. The spirit does not glitter toward the many things: still the will, watch the person, do not look left and right. The intent has no crooked lowering: one wants it upright and true. One must set the spirit true: one wants to look into the person's eyes and hold the spirit, so that qi travels easily. What is called Three Li: three cun below the knee. What is called the instep point: lift the knee and the division is easy to see. The Great Vacuity: flex the foot; the shin has a hollow that stands alone. The Lower Ridge: it is what is sunken below. The Emperor said: I have heard that the nine needles answer, above, heaven and earth, the four seasons, yin and yang. I wish to hear their method, that it may be passed to later ages as the constant. Qi Bo said: One, heaven; two, earth; three, the person; four, the seasons; five, the tones; six, the pitches; seven, the stars; eight, the winds; nine, the wilds. The form of the body also answers them. Each needle has that for which it is right; thus they are called the nine needles. A person's skin answers heaven. A person's flesh answers earth. A person's vessels answer the person. A person's sinews answer the seasons. A person's voice answers the tones. A person's yin and yang, the joined qi, answer the pitches. A person's teeth, face, and eyes answer the stars. A person's incoming and outgoing qi answers the winds. A person's nine orifices and three hundred sixty-five networks answer the wilds. Thus the first needle is for the skin, the second for the flesh, the third for the vessels, the fourth for the sinews, the fifth for the bone, the sixth regulates yin and yang, the seventh adds to jing, the eighth takes away wind, the ninth opens the nine orifices and takes away the qi of the three hundred sixty-five joints. This is what is meant by each having that which it governs. A person's mind answers the eight winds. A person's qi answers heaven. A person's hair, teeth, ears, eyes, and five sounds answer the five tones and the six pitches. A person's yin and yang, vessels, blood and qi answer earth. A person's liver and eyes answer the nine. (*The sense of what follows does not belong here; the slips have likely been disordered.*) The nine orifices, three hundred sixty-five. The person, as one, is for watching movement and stillness. Heaven, as two, is for waiting on the five colors; the seven stars answer them, for waiting on whether the hair has luster. The five tones, as one, are for waiting on gong, shang, jiao, zhi, and yu. The six pitches, surplus and insufficiency, answer them. Earth as two: as one, for waiting on high and low and what has a surplus. The nine wilds: the transport points of one joint answer them, for waiting on the closed joints. The three — the person — change by one part. In the person one waits on the teeth: much draining, little blood. Ten parts: the change of jiao by five parts, for waiting on the slack and the urgent, six parts; insufficiency, three parts; cold in the joints; the ninth part. The four seasons: a person's cold, warm, dry, and damp. The four seasons, as one, answer them, for waiting on what is reversed. One: the four quarters, each making an explanation.

The line

Qi Bo answered: To needle the vacuous so as to make it replete: heat under the needle. When qi is replete, then there is heat.

The note

The explanation of the nine needles is cold and heat speaking under the hand. The way of vacuity and repletion is not in the mouth; it is that one point of temperature under the needle.