官能/Guan Neng

(Each According to His Ability)

黄帝问于岐伯日:余闻九针于夫子，众多矣不可胜数，余推而论之，以为一纪。余司诵之，子听其理，非则语余，请其正道，令可久传，后世无患，得其人乃传，非其人勿言。岐伯稽首再拜日:请听圣王之道。

Yellow Emperor asked Qibo and said:"I have heard a lot of your expositions about the nine kinds of needles in acupuncture of which the times are uncountable, and I have deliberated and studied it for twelve years. Now, let me relate the content over to you, and I hope you can point out the errors in it, so that it may be handed down to the later generations for a long time without doing any harm; I can impart it to the one who has aspiration for acupuncture and keep silent to the one who has no aspiration for it." Qibo bowed time and again and said:"I hope to hear the acupuncture principle from you, the sagacious king."

黄帝日:用鍼之理，必知形气之所在，左右上下，阴阳表里，血气多少，行之逆顺，出入之合，谋伐有过。知解结，知补虚泻实，上下气门[气门:《太素》卷十九《知官能》作“之气”]，明通于四海，审其所在，寒热淋露，以[以:《太素》卷十九《知官能》《图经》卷三并作“荥”]输异处，审于调气，明于经隧，左右肢络，尽知其会。寒与热争，能合而调之，虚与实邻，知决而通之，左右不调，把而行之，明于逆顺，乃知可治，阴阳不奇，故知起时，审于本末，察其寒热，得[得:《图经》卷三引作“知”]邪所在，万刺不殆，知官九针，刺道毕矣。

Yellow Emperor said: "In applying the principle of acupuncture, one must know the fleshy or emaciate condition of the patien's body and the asthenic or sthenic condition of his energy, the different positions of the internal organs, the relation of the superficies and the interior of Yin and Yang, the plenty or little amount of the blood and energy, the agreeable or adverse flowing direction of the channel energy in the whole body, the convergence of the energies, the locations where it enters into the superficies from the interior and from interior into the superficies, it is only in this way, can the evil energy and blood be eliminated by treating. Besides, one must know the places where the Yin and Yang accumulate, know how to invigorate and purge the asthenic and sthenic energy of the hand and foot channels, comprehend explicitly the functions of the sea of energy, sea of marrow and the sea of water and cereals and know the places of asthenia and sthenia. If the cold and heat are protracted, it is due to the positions of the Xing point and the Shu point are different. so, it should adjust the channel energy carefully and make clear the positions of the channels, collaterals and the collateral-branches scattering on the left and right. If the cold and heat are combating, it must

treat according to its synthetic condition; to the disease of which the asthenia and the sthenia are similar, it should make a firm decision of what is right and what is wrong: when the disease is not coordinating in the left side and the right side, it should scrape the acupoint with finger to scatter the energy before pricking. One must understand the agreeable or adverse condition of the disease before treating, and it is only not emphasizing on the Yin nor Yang can one know the relation between the cause of disease and the season. When one observes the change of cold and heat to know the location where the evil energy resides in advance, no accident will occur even in the ten thousand times of pricking. When one knows the principles of the nine kinds of needles and applies accordingly, the principle of acupuncture is supposed to be exhaustive.