Needling must follow the beginning and end of yin and yang; the introduction of directional tonification and reduction.
Ling Shu (灵枢)General Principles of Needling
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 whole way of needling is contained in end and beginning. Understand end and beginning, take the five viscera as the guiding thread, and yin and yang are settled.
The yin channels govern the viscera, the yang channels govern the bowels. Yang receives qi at the four extremities, yin receives qi in the five viscera.
The method of harmonising qi requires a thorough knowledge of yin and yang.
ORIGINAL和气之方，必通阴阳。
hé qì zhī fāng，bì tōng yīn yáng。
Reverently following the way of heaven, let me speak of end and beginning.
ORIGINAL谨奉天道，请言终始。
jǐn fèng tiān dào，qǐng yán zhōng shǐ。
In end and beginning, the channels are the guiding thread.
ORIGINAL终始者，经脉为纪。
zhōng shǐ zhě，jīng mài wéi jì。
By examining the pulse at the inch mouth and at the carotid, one knows whether yin and yang are in excess or deficit, balanced or unbalanced; and there the way of heaven is complete.
Zhong Shi sets needling within the cycle of yin and yang, arguing that the practitioner must know where a disorder begins and where it ends before choosing a technique. It contains the compact formula from which the whole family of directional methods derives: to reduce, meet the qi as it comes; to tonify, follow it as it goes.
The chapter also introduces the comparison of the carotid and radial pulses, a diagnostic method that survived into later practice as the ren ying and cun kou comparison. Its description of the six channels and their respective treatments is one of the earliest attempts to match technique to channel.
ANNOTATION
End and beginning (终始): the law by which channel qi and blood begin and end their course, and also the sense of “from first to last.”
Pulse mouth (脉口): the inch mouth, where the radial artery beats at the wrist.
Human welcome (人迎): the carotid pulsation beside the larynx.
COMMENTARY
Comparing the carotid and the radial pulse is rarely used clinically now, but the underlying idea — determining tonification and reduction from the pulse — retains its value. The four characters “qi may be brought into harmony” state the ultimate aim of acupuncture: not tonification or reduction as such, but the restoration of the harmony of yin and yang.