Treatment Cave

In the last Clinical Tip (September 2011) we discussed the role of the Triple Burner as the avenues of fluids, a view deriving primarily from the Nei Jing. In the previous Clinical Tip (August 2011), we discussed that of the Triple Burner as the agent of the Yuan Qi, a view deriving primarily from the Nan Jing. We shall now discuss the view of the Triple Burner in relation to the movement of Qi. 3) The Triple Burner governing movement of Qi Chapter 38 of the Nan Jing mentions the function of the Triple Burner in governing all Qi in the body. “ The Triple Burner stems from the Yuan Qi; it governs all Qi in the body, it has a “name but no form”, it belongs to Hand Shao Yang, it is an external Fu. ”1 This short passage summarizes most of the aspects of the Triple Burner: 1) It stems from the Yuan Qi (discussed in the August Clinical Tip). 2) It governs all Qi of the body (we shall see how below). 3) The Triple Burner has “a name but no form”, i.e. it is not an actual organ but a function....

Chapter 8 of the Ling Shu (entitled Ben Shen 本 神) is quoted very frequently, especially its famous opening sentence. I would like to comment briefly on that sentence and propose a different translation of it. The opening sentence of chapter 8 of the Ling Shu is: Fan ci zhi fa, xian bi ben yu shen 凡 刺 之 法 先 必 本 于 神 and the words mean literally “ every needling’s method first must be rooted in Shen ”. This sentence is usually translated as: “ All treatment must be based on the Spirit ”. The implication of this sentence is that all treatment must be based on the Spirit (of the patient), whatever interpretation we give to the word “Spirit”. I propose an alternative translation with two important differences. Firstly, the text uses the word ci which means “to needle”, not “to treat”. If the text had meant to use the term “to treat”, it would have used the word zhi 治which does occur a lot in both the Su Wen and the Ling Shu. Thus, the first difference is that the first half of the sentenc...