九针十二原/Jiu Zhen Shi Er Yuan

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

黄帝问于岐伯日:余子万民，养百姓，而收其租税。余哀其不给，而属有疾病。余欲勿使被毒药，无用砭石，欲以微针通其经脉，调其血气，营其逆顺出入之会，令可传于后世。必明为之法令，终而不灭，久而不绝，易用难忘;为之经纪，异其章，别其表里;为之终绐，令各有形，先立针经，愿闻其情。

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:臣请推而次之，令有纲纪，始于一，终于九焉。请言其道。小针之要，易陈而难入，粗守形，上守神，神乎神，客在门，未睹其疾，恶知其原。刺之微在速迟，粗守关，上守机，机之动，不离其空，空中之机，清静而微，其来不可逢，其往不可追，知机之道者，不可挂以发，不知机道，叩之不发，知其往来，要与之期，粗之暗乎，妙哉工独有之。往者为逆，来者为顺，明知逆顺，正行无问，逆[逆而夺之:胡本，藏本，日抄本“逆”作“迎”]而夺之，恶得无虚，追而济之，恶得无实，迎之随之，以意和之，针道毕矣。

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.