yīn chǐ
Also rendered: The yin cubit (literal, and it names a region rather than a point) · The cubit vessel (plain, and it drops the yin)
Reviewed · 2026-10-24
At a glance
The moving vessel of the yin at the cubit — that is, the pulse of the hand taiyin at the forearm — said here to lie at Wuli, and called 五腧之禁, the place where the five transporting points must not be needled. The sentence is short and its reference is not settled: Zhang Jiebin takes 陰尺 as Chize, the sea point of the lung, and 五里 as the point of that name on the large intestine channel; Ma Shi takes the whole phrase as the moving vessel at Wuli of the hand yangming. Both agree on the practical point, which is that a deep-lying vessel there is not to be pierced carelessly.
Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.
Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.
| This site | the yin cubit | it keeps the chapter's own two words |
| Literal | the yin foot-rule | exact to 尺, and wrong in anatomy |
| Clinical | the radial pulse at the cubit | clear, and it decides a dispute the chapter leaves open |
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