Journal of Chinese Medicine • Number 111 • June 2016


Huang Di Nei Jing Ling Shu: The Ancient Classic on Needle Therapy


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of the body. The text makes no mention of who decided upon these recommendations or when they were made. The authors describe how something should be done but generally offer little hint of the thinking behind the therapy that has yielded the given instructions. A brief example from chapter 26 of the Ling shu illustrates this kind of information:


“Nosebleed. [To treat such a condition,] one chooses the hand major yang [conduit for piercing the needle]. If it does not end, one pierces below the wrist bones. If it does not end, one pierces the hollow of the knee and lets blood there.”


Other instructions for therapy issue from a more detailed theoretical discourse, as an example from chapter 28 of the Ling shu shows:


Huang Di: “When a person is mournful and weeps, which qi cause that?"


Qi Bo: “The heart is the ruler among the five long-term depots and six short-term repositories. The eyes are the location where the stem vessels come together. They are the path the liquids take when they ascend. Mouth and nose are the gateways of the qi. The fact is: When someone is mournful and grievous, then his heart will be excited. When the heart is excited, then all the five long-term depots and six short-term repositories will sway. This swaying affects the stem vessels. When the stem vessels are affected, the pathways of the liquids will open. When the pathways of the liquids are open, tears will leave there. When the weeping does not end, then the liquids eventually will be exhausted. When the liquids are exhausted, the essence will no longer be moistened. When the essence is no longer moistened, then the eyes can no longer see. Hence that is called ‘deprivation of the essence.’ One supplements at the tian zhu [openings] on the conduits on both sides of the nape.”


Explanations of what functions the individual conduits serve in the organism, which flows of blood and qi are normal and which are not, are found in a different part of the Ling shu. Not infrequently, Huang Di listens to the remarks of his instructor to then respond with essentially the same words – I have heard what you say, but I still do not know why that is so! – This is then often followed by a more detailed explanation. Studying these remarks helps the reader to better understand the theory behind the instructions for treatment.


Acupuncture and bloodletting are clearly the primary therapeutic recommendations in the Ling shu. The work is therefore considered the fundamental text on ancient Chinese acupuncture. It discusses the entire possible therapeutic


spectrum of healing in terms of recommendations. Except for a handful of concrete recipes for preparing a medicine or compress, the text keeps to simply naming possible alternatives, of which the most detailed attention is devoted to cauterization. Massage and acupressure, medicines and compresses are referred to only a few times as sensible additions in cases when needling and bloodletting are too risky or ineffective. Chapter 19 discusses a veritable drainage to treat “water-illness” using a bamboo tube. In chapter 24 the reader learns how to fix a tapeworm in place in the intestine and then to kill it with a long needle. Apparently the authors of the Ling shu could assume that these kinds of procedures were familiar to readers. In chapter 26 three possible therapies for hiccups are listed which likewise require no theoretical background, being presented instead as the results of experience:


“Hiccup. One pierces a blade of grass into the [patient’s] nose so that he sneezes. Once he sneezes the [hiccup] will end. Or he holds his breath and quickly moves his face upward. [The hiccup] will end immediately. Or one severely scares the [patient]. That, too, may end [the hiccup].”


Basically, the Ling shu is characterized by therapeutic optimism. Illnesses, as chapter one says, are like thorns, dirt stains, knots or closed places. The patient can thereby be cured just as thorns are pulled out, stains are washed away, knots untied and locks opened. Anyone who claims that a patient is incurable, no matter how long the illness has already lasted, is simply incompetent. And yet there are limits. They are set not only by the


recognition in the Ling shu that this or that illness is incurable. The limits of treatment are also explained using explicit references to the rich experience of past military strategies. An acute illness is like an army in the field approaching with banners flying and drums beating. Attacking here is inadvisable. In chapter 55, Bo Gao established the parallels to the treatment of sickness:


Bo Gao: “In [the text] Rules of the Military it says: Do not confront those qi that come with a peng-peng [drum roll]. Do not attack battle troops approaching with loud drum rolls. In [the text] Rules of Piercing it says: Do not pierce a baking heat. Do not pierce a dripping sweat.”


As one realizes from reading the Ling shu, a competent practitioner’s knowledge has to be comprehensive.


10. About The Translation This English edition of the Ling shu includes the original Chinese text, a complete English translation and annotations from selected Chinese commentaries that help to better understand the content and identify variations in the text as


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