Jiǔ gāohuāng shùxué fǎ 灸膏肓腧穴法
Method of Moxibustion at the Gāohuāng Acupoint by 莊綽 Zhuāng Chuò (撰)
About the work
A short Southern-Sòng monograph by the literatus-physician 莊綽 Zhuāng Chuò (hào Jìyù 季裕, fl. early-Southern-Sòng, also known as the author of the Jīlèi biān 雞肋編 miscellany) on the technique of locating and moxibusting the gāohuāng 膏肓 acupoint (the BL-43 point at the Sòng standardization, lying between the shoulder-blades on the Bladder meridian’s outer line). The work opens with citations of 孫思邈 Sūn Sīmiǎo’s Qiānjīn fāng: “the Gāohuāngshù acupoint has no disease it cannot treat — it principally cures wasting-and-weakness, deficiency-decline, nocturnal-emission, ascending-qi cough, derangement-and-forgetfulness.” The work then gives the precise localization technique: “Have the patient sit upright with the spine arched, the two arms stretched with the elbows resting on the knees so that the arms are straight, the thumbs level with the knee-tops, prop the elbows with an object so the arms do not move; from the scapula’s upper corner trace down the entire scapula to its lower end — there will be four ribs and three intercostal spaces; moxa the middle interspace.” Variants of the technique for patients too weak to sit upright follow. The work then quotes 王惟一 Wáng Wéiyī’s Míngtáng tóngrén jiǔ jīng (KR3ee056) on the same point and synthesizes the two traditions.
Abstract
The Jiǔ gāohuāng shùxué fǎ is the principal Southern-Sòng monograph on a single acupoint and is the standard source for the technique of gāohuāng moxibustion in all subsequent Chinese, Korean, and Japanese practice. Zhuāng Chuò compiled the work from Sūn Sīmiǎo, Wáng Wéiyī, and his own clinical practice; the precision of the bone-landmark localization made the work indispensable. The composition window 1128–1148 corresponds to Zhuāng’s known active period; the work circulated in Southern-Sòng print and is preserved in the Sìkù quánshū under Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi.
Translations and research
- 黄龍祥 Huáng Lóngxiáng, Zhōngguó zhēnjiǔ shǐ tújiàn (2003), Sòng acupuncture chapter.
- Catherine Despeux, “Gāohuāng”, in Encyclopedia of Taoism, Routledge, 2008.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi.
- Wikidata Q11107599
- 灸膏肓腧穴法 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB