The functions of the needle and moxa, including the famous statement that what the needle cannot do, moxibustion is suited to.
Ling Shu (灵枢)Moxibustion
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.
In the principles of needling one must know where form and qi reside — left and right, above and below, yin and yang, exterior and interior — the amount of blood and qi, whether their movement is contrary or concordant, and where they enter and leave; then one may plan the attack on what is at fault.
What the needle cannot accomplish is what moxibustion suits.
ORIGINAL针所不为，灸之所宜。
zhēn suǒ bù wéi，jiǔ zhī suǒ yí。
Where upper qi is insufficient, push and lift it; where lower qi is insufficient, gather and follow it; where both yin and yang are empty, fire is the appropriate treatment.
ORIGINAL上气不足，推而扬之；下气不足，积而从之；阴阳皆虚，火自当之。
shàng qì bù zú，tuī ér yáng zhī；xià qì bù zú，jī ér cóng zhī；yīn yáng jiē xū，huǒ zì dāng zhī。
Where the channel has sunk, fire is appropriate; where the connecting vessels are knotted, hard and tight, fire treats it.
Guan Neng discusses the respective spheres of needling and moxibustion, and it contains the sentence that has been quoted ever since in any discussion of choosing between them: what the needle does not accomplish is what moxibustion is suited to.
The chapter also sets out the mental requirements of the practitioner, insisting on an unhurried and attentive state before the needle is taken up. Read together with the Zhang Jingyue commentary tradition, it is the classical basis for the view that moxibustion supplements needling rather than duplicating it.
ANNOTATION
Office and capacity (官能): 官 is to administer, 能 is ability — each serving according to capacity, appointing by fitness.
Untie the knot (解结): to release stagnation within the channels.
Four seas (四海): the sea of marrow, of blood, of qi, and of water and grain.
Channel sunken (经陷下): channel qi deficient and collapsed, the vessel sunk and not rising.
COMMENTARY
“What the needle does not accomplish, moxibustion suits” is a line quoted again and again in later works on moxa. The present fashion for valuing the needle and slighting moxa runs contrary to the classic intent. In patterns of yang deficiency, cold congelation or qi sinking, to know needling but never think of moxa is to abandon one’s strength for one’s weakness.