痏

wěi

Wei · the needle count

Also rendered: The needle count (this site; the chapter counts in these) · Needle sores (keeps the older sense, which the counting grew out of)

Core vocabulary

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: wěi
Simplified: 痏
Literal: 痏 wěi — the mark left by a needle, and by extension the needle itself counted. The chapter never says 刺 once or 刺 twice; it says 三痏, 二痏, as one says three cups or two doses. Wang Bing glosses the word as 刺瘡, the sore a needle leaves, and it is from that sore that the counting comes: so many needles, so many sores. Chapter 41 uses it ten times, more than any other chapter of the Suwen, and the last of them is the most striking — 以月生死爲痏數, take the waxing and waning of the moon for the number of insertions, as though the body had its own month in it.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：痏，疻痏也——**从疒有聲，毆傷之瘡**；**段玉裁以為「痏」之言有也，瘢痕之有跡者也**。「痏」讀 wěi，**本篇10見**，**為全篇計刺之專字**——**三痏5見、二痏4見**；**與「刺」（「刺」讀 cì）32見並行**：**刺言其舉，痏言其數**。「月」讀 yuè、「生」讀 shēng、「死」讀 sǐ，**三字各1見、2見、1見**，**「以月生死爲痏數」是《素問》言刺數之最奇者**；「發」讀 fā、「鍼」讀 zhēn、**「發鍼立已」之「鍼」（「鍼」讀 zhēn）不作「針」（「针」）**，**底本从金从咸**。

In brief

The unit in which chapter 41 counts needle insertions: one insertion, one wei. The word began as the sore a needle leaves, and the chapter’s prescriptions are written in it — two wei here, three wei there, and at the end a number taken from the moon.

Senses in the classical corpus

What the graph says 痏

疻痏也，毆傷之瘡；从疒有聲

刺陽明於䯒前三痏 — Suwen 41

How the chapter uses it 三痏、二痏

一刺為一痏，以痏計刺，不以刺計刺

刺少陰於内踝上二痏 — Suwen 41

What Wang Bing says 刺瘡

痏者刺瘡也，數瘡即數刺

刺之三痏 — Suwen 41

Where the count is fixed 爲三痏、爲二痏

每條之末必著其數，是本篇處方之定式

在外踝上絶骨之端，爲三痏 — Suwen 41

Where the count is not fixed 以月生死爲痏數

刺數不取於病而取於月，盈虧為度

以月生死爲痏數 — Suwen 41

What ends it 發鍼立已

鍼出而病已，不待再刺

發鍼立已 — Suwen 41

Occurrences in the classics

Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.

Display

2 passages

Suwen 41 Suwen 41 · 刺腰痛 Read in context →

陽明令人腰痛，不可以顧，顧如有見者，善悲，刺陽明於䯒前三痏，上下和之出血，秋無見血。阳明令人腰痛，不可以顾，顾如有见者，善悲，刺阳明于䯒前三痏，上下和之出血，秋无见血。

Yáng míng lìng rén yāo tòng, bù kě yǐ gù, gù rú yǒu jiàn zhě, shàn bēi, cì yáng míng yú héng qián sān wěi, shàng xià hé zhī chū xuè, qiū wú xiàn xuè.

Yang brightness gives pain in the lower back; one cannot look round, and looking round is like seeing something there, and the person is apt to grieve. Needle yang brightness three times in front of the shin bone, harmonising above and below, and let blood. In autumn, do not bring blood to view.

**「刺陽明於䯒前三痏，上下和之出血」是「痏」字首見之處**，**「三痏」二字定其刺數，與下文「二痏」相對**。「䯒」讀 héng、**本篇1見**；「上」讀 shàng、「下」讀 xià、**「上下和之」即上下調其氣**；「和」讀 hé**讀 hé**。**「秋無見血」之「見」讀 xiàn**——**春夏秋三時各有禁，是本篇刺法之時禁**。

素問·繆刺論 Suwen 63 · 繆刺論 Read in context →

以月死生爲數，月生一日一痏，二日二痏，十五日十五痏，十六日十四痏。以月死生为数，月生一日一痏，二日二痏，十五日十五痏，十六日十四痏。

Yǐ yuè sǐ shēng wéi shù, yuè shēng yī rì yī wěi, èr rì èr wěi, shí wǔ rì shí wǔ wěi, shí liù rì shí sì wěi.

The number is set by the dying and the living of the moon: as the moon grows, one puncture on the first day, two on the second, fifteen on the fifteenth, fourteen on the sixteenth.

「以月死生爲數，月生一日一痏，二日二痏，十五日十五痏，十六日十四痏」——**「痏」本篇26見，為全篇計刺之單位，一刺為一痏**：**本篇「各一痏」11見，又有各二痏、各三痏、刺之傍三痏**；**其數本於月之死生：月生一日一痏、二日二痏，至十五日而極，十六日以下則漸少**；**「用針者，隨氣盛衰，以爲痏數；針過其日數則脱氣，不及日數則氣不冩」——痏數不可過，過則脱氣**；**「痏」讀 wěi**

Compounds built on this term

三痏

sān wěi

three insertions

本篇陽明、厥陰、同陰、直陽、散脉用之

二痏

èr wěi

two insertions

本篇少陰、衡絡、昌陽、肉里用之

以月生死爲痏數

yǐ yuè shēng sǐ wéi wěi shù

take the moon's waxing and waning for the count

本篇最末一法

發鍼立已

fā zhēn lì yǐ

withdraw the needle and it ends at once

刺腰凥交者之效

How it has been translated

Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.

This site	the needle count	the word is translated by what it does in chapter 41; wei is given once, at the headword
Unschuld	wei	keeps the graph, glosses it as the wound left by needling
Wiseman	wei	the same; the count is left untranslated as a unit

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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