The pathways and disorders of the twelve muscle regions, and the principles for treating them.
Ling Shu (灵枢)Meridians and Points
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
The English is translated from the Chinese vernacular. The original text and its pinyin sit beneath each sentence in smaller type; hide them whenever you prefer to read the translation alone.
The sinew of foot taiyang begins at the little toe, ascends to knot at the outer ankle and runs obliquely up to knot at the knee; its lower part follows the outer side of the foot, knots at the heel, ascends along the Achilles tendon and knots at the popliteal fossa …
When the yang side is taut the body arches backward; when the yin side is taut it bends forward and cannot straighten.
ORIGINAL阳急则反折，阴急则俯不伸。
yáng jí zé fǎn zhé，yīn jí zé fǔ bù shēn。
Treat with the heated needle, swift in and swift out, taking the patient’s response as the measure of how often and the painful place as the point. This is called the second-month spring impediment.
ORIGINAL燔针劫刺，以知为数，以痛为输，名曰仲春痹也。
fán zhēn jié cì，yǐ zhī wéi shù，yǐ tòng wéi shù，míng yuē zhòng chūn bì yě。
—— 《灵枢·经筋》
Jing Jin describes a system parallel to the meridians but concerned with sinew, fascia and movement rather than with organs. The twelve muscle regions follow the limbs and converge on the face, neck and trunk; their disorders are chiefly pain, stiffness, contracture and deviation.
The treatment principle given here is unusually concrete: use a heated needle for rapid thrusting, take the number of repetitions from the response, and treat the painful place as the point. This last instruction, taking pain as the point, is the classical warrant for what are now called ashi points and for much of modern trigger-point practice.
ANNOTATION
Evil runs upward (邪上): 邪 is read as 斜, running obliquely upward.
Scorched needle (燔针): a needle heated red — the fire needle.
Plundering needling (劫刺): swift in, swift out, taking its name from plundering the pathogen.
Take knowing as the count (以知为数): let the patient’s perception of response set the number of sessions.
COMMENTARY
The value of the sinew chapter is that it gives theoretical standing to the great mass of soft-tissue pain. Patients with neck, shoulder, low back and leg pain are numerous today; selecting points by channel alone is often slow, whereas the sinew method of “take the painful place as the point,” applying fire needle, restoring needling or scattered needling at the knots, often releases at once. This chapter must be read.