Corpse inversion · shi jue

At a glance

Pinyin

shī jué

Simplified

尸厥

Literal

尸 shī — a corpse, the body laid out, the thing a living person is not; 厥 jué — inversion, the qi failing at its root so that what should rise falls and what should answer does not. The chapter uses the word once, at the end of its hardest case and at the end of the chapter: 邪客於手足少陰、太陰、足陽明之絡，此五絡皆會於耳中，上絡左角，五絡俱竭，令人身脉皆動，而形無知也，其狀若尸，或曰尸厥. Five network vessels, all of them meeting in the ear and rising to the left temple, all five exhausted together; the body's vessels are all moving and the form knows nothing. The word that follows is what makes it a diagnosis rather than a verdict: 或曰 — some call it. The chapter is careful. It does not say the man is dead; it says he looks like a corpse, and that there is a name for people who look like this. What follows is the longest prescription in the chapter, and the only one that goes beyond the needle: five punctures in sequence, and then, if that fails, a bamboo tube blown into both ears, an inch of hair shaved from the left temple and burned, and a cup of good wine — poured in, if he cannot drink it. 《史記·扁鵲倉公列傳》 tells of 扁鵲 bringing the crown prince of 虢 back from this state, and writes the word 尸蹶; the same writer's 倉公 has a minister with 齲齒, which is the other word this chapter leaves in one line.

Shuowen

**「尸」讀 shī，本篇2見；陳也，象臥人之形**；**「厥」讀 jué，本篇3見；逆也，氣反而上**；**「尸厥」本篇1見，在末章五絡俱竭一證中**；**本篇「厥」3見，其二在「厥陰」之内，一在「尸厥」之内，本篇不單用「厥」字**；**「五絡」wǔ luò——手足少陰、太陰、足陽明之絡，五絡皆會於耳中**；**「竭」讀 jié，盡也；「五絡俱竭」謂五絡之氣皆盡**；**「角」讀 jiǎo，頭角也；「上絡左角」謂上絡於左額角**；**「知」讀 zhī，「而形無知也」——脉動而形不知**；**「狀」讀 zhuàng；「或曰」之「或」讀 huò，疑而未定之辭**；**「鬄」讀 tì，剃也；本篇1見**；**「燔」讀 fán，燒也；「燔治」謂燒之以為藥，本篇1見**；**「竹」讀 zhú、「管」讀 guǎn、「杯」讀 bēi、「灌」讀 guàn**；**「脉」讀 mài，底本从「脉」，不从「脈」**