The two qiao vessels · liang qiao

At a glance

Pinyin

liǎng qiāo

Simplified

两跷

Literal

兩 liǎng — two, a pair; 蹻 qiāo — the qiao vessels, the pair that rises from the heel, named from 蹻, to lift the foot, because that is what they govern. The chapter uses the word once, and the case it answers is the hardest one in its whole account of method: 病不知所痛，兩蹻爲上 — when the disease is there and the pain will not say where, the two qiao are the first thing to take. Everything else in this last run of instructions is guided by what the patient can point at or by what the pulse shows; this one has neither. 王冰 identifies them plainly: 兩蹻，謂陰陽蹻脉 — the yin and the yang qiao vessel, the pair. The site reads 蹻 as qiāo from chapter 41 onward, and chapter 59 and 60 count them among the points: 陰陽蹻各一. What the chapter is offering is not a point for a pain but a place to begin when there is nothing to follow.

Shuowen

**「兩」讀 liǎng，本篇1見；二也，从一从冂从从**；**「蹻」讀 qiāo，本篇1見；从足喬聲，舉足也，陰陽蹻脉之名由此**；**「兩蹻」本篇1見；王冰注「兩蹻，謂陰陽蹻脉」**；**「病」讀 bìng、「知」讀 zhī、「痛」讀 tòng**；**「爲上」wéi shàng——上者，先也、最善也；王冰「兩蹻為上」謂取此為先**；**「上」本篇13見，此讀 shàng；「血并於上」之上亦讀 shàng（在上、上部）**；**「脉」讀 mài，本篇从「脉」，不从「脈」**；**「陰陽」yīn yáng，本篇4見**；**「繆」讀 miù、「刺」讀 cì、「巨」讀 jù——同章三刺法之名**