九針十二原/Jiu Zhen Shi Er Yuan

(The Nine Kinds of Needle and the Twelve Source Points)

黃帝問于岐伯日:余子萬民，養(yǎng)百姓，而收其租稅。余哀其不給，而屬有疾病。余欲勿使被毒藥，無用砭石，欲以微針通其經(jīng)脈，調(diào)其血?dú)?，營其逆順出入之會，令可傳于后世。必明為之法令，終而不滅，久而不絕，易用難忘;為之經(jīng)紀(jì)，異其章，別其表里;為之終紿，令各有形，先立針經(jīng)，愿聞其情。

Yellow Emperor said to Qibo:"I love all the people, and I want to maintain all the officials, so, I levy duties from them. I have compassion for the people when they can not die a natural death. What is more, they fall ill constantly. I want to treat them with a fine needle inserting into the skin instead of giving them any medicine or applying any stone needle for to dredge the channel, adjust the energy and blood, promote the circulation of the blood, causing the agreeable and adverse conditions of the channels and the coming and going of the energy and blood be complementary with each other. I hope to have a standing order of acupuncture so that it may be handed down to the later generations. Therefore it is necessary to draw up a statue for acupuncture, to facilitate its application and made it unlikely to be forgotten, so that the acupuncture method may not be obliterated and lost. In the statue, it should regulate the depth criterion of the forwardness and the backwardness of the fine needle, distinguish the acupoints of the solid organs and the hollow organs with analystic paragraphs and chapters and stipulate the length of the different kinds of needle. In a word, to comply a classic of acupuncture, and I hope to hear from you the substantial contents of it."

岐伯答曰:臣請推而次之，令有綱紀(jì)，始于一，終于九焉。請言其道。小針之要，易陳而難入，粗守形，上守神，神乎神，客在門，未睹其疾，惡知其原。刺之微在速遲，粗守關(guān)，上守機(jī)，機(jī)之動，不離其空，空中之機(jī)，清靜而微，其來不可逢，其往不可追，知機(jī)之道者，不可掛以發(fā)，不知機(jī)道，叩之不發(fā)，知其往來，要與之期，粗之暗乎，妙哉工獨(dú)有之。往者為逆，來者為順，明知逆順，正行無問，逆[逆而奪之:胡本，藏本，日抄本“逆”作“迎”]而奪之，惡得無虛，追而濟(jì)之，惡得無實(shí)，迎之隨之，以意和之，針道畢矣。

Qibo said:"I like to tell you the essentials commencing from the first kind of needle to the ninth kind of needle according to the order systematically. Concerning the essentials of acupuncture, it is easy to be talked about, but it is difficult to attain the standard of being exquisite. A physician adheres to the bodily position rigidly and prick the focus, but a superior physician treats according to the various expressions of the patient which shows the patient's state of mind. A physician of lower level is like the one who is standing outside of the door, he can not even perceive what the disease is, how could he know the source of the disease? The skill in pricking is in the application of the swift and slow pricking and pulling of the needle. A physician of lower level can only adhere to the acupoints on the joints of the limbs rigidly, but a superior physician can observe the flexible change of the channel's energy, and the flexible change can by no means divorce from the acupoint. The reasons contained in acupuncture are rather subtle. When the evil energy is overabundant, one must not make a head-on invigoration, when the evil energy is debilitative, one must not purge pursuantly. When one knows the principle of the functional activities of vital energy change, he will not make even a tiny mistake, when he knows not the principle, it is like the arrow fastened on the bow string which can not be shot out. Thus, one must handle the mechanism of the agreeable and adverse, coming and going, abundant and debilitative of the channels and the energies, then, can a curative effect be expected. A physician of lower level is ignorant about these things, and it is only a superior physician knows the subtle device. As to the agreeable and adverse condition: when the healthy energy is moving away, it is the adverse condition, when the healthy energy is retaliating, it is the agreeable condition, when one understands the principle of the agreeable and adverse conditions, he will be able to prick daringly and straightforwardly without consulting others. When the patient's healthy energy is already in debility, but, on the contrary, the purge therapy is applied, how can the patient separate himself from becoming even more asthenic? When the evil energy is already abundant, but, on the contrary, the invigorating therapy is applied, how can the patient be separated from becoming even more sthenic? One must purge when facing the evil energy, and invigorate when the healthy energy has moved away. If one can think over and analyse the patient's condition before applying invigorating or purging, the pricking will fit the principle of acupuncture.