Channel tunnels · jing sui

At a glance

Pinyin

jīng suì

Simplified

经隧

Literal

經 jīng — the warp, the thread that runs lengthwise and that everything else is measured against; in the body, the channel. 隧 suì — a hidden way, a passage cut through, the road a thing travels without being seen. 王冰 glosses it in one word: 隧，潛道也, a submerged course. Put the two together and the word is not the channel and not the network vessel but the course the channel runs in — the duct rather than the vessel, the road rather than the traffic. That distinction is what this chapter is built on. It says first what the tunnels are for: 五藏之道，皆出於經隧，以行血氣, the ways of the five viscera all come out by the channel tunnels and it is through them that blood and qi travel. It says next what follows if they are not kept: 血氣不和，百病乃變化而生，是故守經隧焉 — guard the tunnels. And when it comes to say what the needle is to do about qi, the tunnels are the thing it writes the instruction on: 氣有餘則冩其經隧，無傷其經，無出其血，無泄其氣。不足則𥙷其經隧，無出其氣. The method closes on them too: 刺此者，取之經隧，取血於營，取氣於衛. Five occurrences, and the chapter has no word it trusts more.

Shuowen

**「經」讀 jīng，本篇25見；織之縱絲也，引申為常道**；**「隧」讀 suì，本篇5見，皆在「經隧」之内，本篇「經隧」5見**；**王冰注「隧，潛道也」——潛行之道路，謂脉所由行之處，非脉之本身**；**「道」讀 dào，本篇5見，「五藏之道，皆出於經隧」是其本義**；**「血」讀 xuè、「氣」讀 qì；「血氣」本篇13見**；**「守」讀 shǒu，「是故守經隧焉」——守者，護而持之**；**「冩」讀 xiè，本篇15見，「寫」之俗省，即瀉法之瀉**；**「𥙷」讀 bǔ，本篇8見，「補」之俗省**；**「營」讀 yíng、「衛」讀 wèi，「取血於營，取氣於衛」——營衛對舉，本篇「營」1見、「衛氣」3見**；**「藏」讀 zàng（五藏之藏），本篇「藏」18見，無一讀 cáng**；**「出」讀 chū、「入」讀 rù、「傷」讀 shāng、「泄」讀 xiè**