sān biàn
Also rendered: The three changes (literal, and it keeps 變) · The three targets (clear, and it loses the turning)
Reviewed · 2026-10-24
At a glance
Three ways in which needling changes what it acts on: 有刺營者，有刺衛者，有刺寒痺之留經者 — the camp is reached by letting blood, the guard by letting qi, and cold bi lodged in the channels by bringing heat within. The order is from the deepest and most substantial to the most superficial and most external, and each has its own instrument in practice: fire for the labourer, a medicated compress for the nobleman.
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 three changes of needling | the text's own phrase |
| Literal | three transformations | exact, and it sounds alchemical |
| Clinical | three depths of treatment | clear, and it flattens the scheme |
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