Zǐwǔ liúzhù shuōnán 子午流注說難
Explanation of the Difficulties of the Midnight-Noon Flowing-Injection by 閻明廣 Yán Míngguǎng (撰)
About the work
A short Jīn-dynasty exposition by 閻明廣 Yán Míngguǎng of the technical conundrums of his own zǐwǔ liúzhù chronoacupuncture system as set out in the Zǐwǔ liúzhù zhēn jīng (KR3ee045). The opening Huánzhōu tú shuōnán 環周圖說難 chapter explains the four-ring chronoacupuncture diagram: the first ring (the ten celestial-stems) assigns the Gallbladder, Liver, Small Intestine, Heart, Stomach, Spleen, Large Intestine, Lung, Bladder, Kidney to jiǎ-yǐ-bǐng-dīng-wù-jǐ-gēng-xīn-rén-guǐ, with the Sānjiāo as the “lone fǔ” (孤府) appended to the Bladder. The second and third rings subdivide each day into twelve hours and assign acupoints to each hour-stem combination. Yán explains the apparent anomalies: the Kidney on a guǐ-day should open at chǒu (1–3 am), but actually opens at hài (9–11 pm); this is because the Kidney is the “water that nourishes the root of life” (主水。為人身立命之根), and its hour shifts to align with the next-day jiǎ (gallbladder) so that the chain of generation does not break.
Abstract
The Zǐwǔ liúzhù shuōnán is a companion treatise to the Zhēn jīng (KR3ee045); it explains the technical apparent-irregularities of the chronoacupuncture system as cases of deeper system-coherence rather than computational error. The work establishes — for the first time in the Chinese acupuncture literature — the doctrine that the Kidney and Sānjiāo exchange hours to preserve the chain of mutual-generation (xiāngshēng) across day-boundaries; this doctrine is foundational to all subsequent liúzhù practice. The work was first printed alongside KR3ee045 in the Jīn period; both survive in the SKQS recension via the Pǔjì fāng (KR3ee013).
Translations and research
- 黄龍祥 Huáng Lóngxiáng (ed.), Zǐwǔ liúzhù zhēn jīng jiàozhù (1992) — includes the Shuōnán as appended chapter.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi.
- 子午流注說難 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB