Suwen · Long Needling, Joint by Joint

The text

The needling specialist does not first examine. He listens to what the person says. If it is in the head, and the head hurts in haste, lodge the needle there; needle as far as the bone and the illness is done. Above, do not wound bone, flesh, or skin. The skin is the road. Yin needling: enter at one, and four at the sides. It treats cold and heat. When it is deep and concentrated, needle the great zang. When it presses on a zang, needle the back — the back transport points. Needling that presses on a zang is where the zang meet. When cold and heat in the abdomen have left, stop. Together with the essentials of needling: withdraw the needle and let a little blood, shallowly. In treating rotting swelling, needle above the rot. Look at the size of the abscess, the deep and the shallow, and needle. For the large, let much blood; for the small, go deep. The needle must be entered true; take this as the rule, and stop. When the illness is an accumulation in the lesser abdomen, needle from the fatty layer of the skin downward, as far as the lesser abdomen, and stop. Needle the spaces of the fourth vertebra, flanking the spine on both sides. Needle the two iliac hollows and the spaces of the last ribs and the flanks. Guide the hot qi in the abdomen downward, and it is done. When the illness is in the lesser abdomen, the abdomen hurts, and stool and urine will not come, the illness is named mounting. It is gotten from cold. Needle between the lesser abdomen and the two thighs. Needle the spaces of the lumbar bones with care. Needle and do it much; when all is hot, the illness is done. When the illness is in the sinews — the sinews in spasm, the joints hurting, unable to walk — it is named sinew impediment. Needle on the sinew as the rule; needle in the spaces where the flesh divides; one must not hit the bone. When the illness stirs, the sinew is hot; when the illness is done, stop. When the illness is in the flesh and skin, and the flesh and skin all hurt, it is named flesh impediment, wounded by cold and damp. Needle the great divisions and the small divisions; put in many needles and go deep; take heat as the rule. Do not wound sinew or bone. If sinew or bone is wounded, an abscess arises as if it had changed. When all the divisions are hot, the illness is done; stop. When the illness is in the bone — the bone heavy, unable to lift, the marrow sore and aching, cold qi arriving — it is named bone impediment. If it is deep, needle, taking care not to wound vessel or flesh as the rule. Its road is the great divisions and the small divisions. When the bone is hot, the illness is done; stop. When the illness is in all the yang vessels, now cold, now hot, and all the divisions now cold, now hot, it is named mania. Needle to make the vessels vacuous. Watch until the divisions are all hot; when the illness is done, stop. When the illness first arises once a year and is not treated, then once a month and is not treated, then four or five times a month, it is named withdrawal illness. Needle all the divisions and all the vessels. Where there is no cold, regulate it with the needle. When the illness is done, stop. When the illness is wind, now cold, now hot, heat and sweat coming out several times in a day: first needle all the divisions, the interstices, and the network vessels. Sweat comes out, now cold, now hot. Needle once in three days; in a hundred days it is finished. When the illness is great wind — the bone joints heavy, beard and brows falling — it is named great wind. Needle the flesh as the rule; sweat comes out for a hundred days. Needle the bones and marrow; sweat comes out for a hundred days. In all, two hundred days. When beard and brows are born, stop the needle.

The line

The needling specialist does not first examine. He listens to what the person says. If it is in the head, and the head hurts in haste, lodge the needle there; needle as far as the bone and the illness is done. Above, do not wound bone, flesh, or skin. The skin is the road.

The note

First listen to what the person says. Long needling, joint by joint, is walking to the seat of illness one section at a time. To listen without first diagnosing is sometimes nearer than concluding first.