Source원문
內經曰, 腎主骨. 又曰, 腎之合骨也.
Translation영역
The Neijing says: the kidney governs the bones. It also says: what the kidney joins with is the bones.
Naegyeong 內經
Formulas · Text · Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑
Bone
Gol
한글 골 · Pinyin Gu
The bone belongs to the kidney and is the marrow's house — the spine's twenty-one vertebrae, the cheekbone that shows a body's frame, and the cold that reaches the bone but cannot make it shiver
骨
A short chapter, and almost all of it is definition. The bone belongs to the kidney and is the house the marrow lives in, so that when the marrow is short the bones cannot hold a person up — the Suwen's sign is a man who cannot stand long and sways when he walks. The spine is counted: twenty-one vertebrae from the lumbar bone down to the coccyx, three cheok in all, and the cheekbone is given as the measure of the whole skeleton, large or small as the frame is. Then bone cold, in which a man cannot be warmed by fire or clothing and yet does not shiver; bone heat, read at the front teeth; bone wilting, where a long walk in great heat leaves the thigh unable to carry the body; and bone pain, which the Jikji calls the pain that has gone past saving. It closes on Bian Que's ladder of depth — the skin reachable by fomentation, the vessels by needles, the gut by wine — and the line that the marrow is where even the god of fate can do nothing.
22.1 The Bone Belongs to the Kidney 骨屬腎
Source원문
少陰者, 冬脈也, 伏行而濡骨髓者也. 《內經》
Translation영역
The lesser yin is the winter vessel; it runs hidden and moistens the bones and marrow.
Clinical note임상 주석
伏行 — running hidden, deep under the flesh. The kidney channel is the deepest of the twelve, and the Suwen makes that depth the reason it reaches the bone at all.
Naegyeong 內經
22.2 The Bone Is the House of the Marrow 骨爲髓府
Source원문
內經曰, 骨者髓之府, 不能久立, 行則振掉, 骨將憊矣.
Translation영역
The Neijing says: the bones are the house of the marrow. Where one cannot stand long and sways in walking, the bones are about to give out.
Clinical note임상 주석
行則振掉 — swaying on the move. The Suwen's sign of failing bone, and it is the gait of the old: unsteady standing, a stagger in the step. The Body chapter's 1.7 gave the same picture among the signs of the years.
Naegyeong 內經
Source원문
髓者, 骨之充也. 《內經》
Translation영역
The marrow is what fills the bone.
Naegyeong 內經
Source원문
骨爲髓之藏. 髓者, 飮食五味之實秀也. 髓虛則骨虛, 勢所必至矣. 《直指》
Translation영역
The bone is the marrow's storehouse. The marrow is the ripe flower of the five flavours of food and drink; where the marrow is vacuous the bone is vacuous — it cannot be otherwise.
Jikji 直指
22.3 The Spine Has a Count 脊骨有數
Source원문
靈樞曰, 膂骨以下至尾骶, 二十一顀, 長三尺.
Translation영역
The Lingshu says: from the lumbar bone down to the coccyx there are twenty-one vertebrae, three cheok in length.
Clinical note임상 주석
Twenty-one from the lumbar bone down — the Lingshu counts the seven cervical separately, so this is twelve thoracic, five lumbar and the sacrum and coccyx taken as four. The count is how every back point in the acupuncture chapters is located.
Yeongchu 靈樞
Source원문
脊節謂之顀, 脊窮謂之骶. 《內經》
Translation영역
A joint of the spine is called a vertebra; the spine's end is called the coccyx.
Naegyeong 內經
Source원문
脊骨乃一身之大骨也. 《內經》
Translation영역
The spine is the great bone of the whole body.
Naegyeong 內經
22.4 The Cheekbone Is the Root of the Bone 顴爲骨本
Source원문
靈樞曰, 顴骨者, 骨之本也. 顴大則骨大, 顴小則骨小.
Translation영역
The Lingshu says: the cheekbone is the root of the bone. Where the cheekbone is large the bones are large; where small, small.
Clinical note임상 주석
One visible bone standing for all the rest. The Lingshu's outer diagnosis reads the whole frame from the face, as the Liver chapter's 2.5 read the liver from the ribs — and as a rough guide to skeletal build it is not wrong.
Yeongchu 靈樞
22.5 Bone Cold 骨寒
Source원문
黃帝曰, 人有身寒, 湯火不能熱, 厚衣不能溫, 然不凍慄, 是爲何病. 岐伯對曰, 是人者, 素腎氣勝, 以水爲事. 太陽氣衰, 腎脂枯不長. 一水不能勝兩火, 腎者水也而生於骨, 腎不生則髓不能滿, 故寒甚至骨也. 所以不能凍慄者, 肝一陽也, 心二陽也, 腎孤藏也, 一水不能勝二火, 故不能凍慄. 病名曰骨痺, 是人當攣節也. 《內經》
Translation영역
The Yellow Emperor said: there are people whose bodies are cold, whom hot water and fire cannot warm and thick clothes cannot heat, and yet they do not shiver — what disease is this? Qi Bo answered: such a person is by nature strong in kidney qi and makes water his business. The greater yang qi has declined, the kidney's fat is withered and does not grow. One water cannot overcome two fires. The kidney is water and is engendered in the bone; where the kidney does not engender, the marrow cannot fill, and so the cold is severe enough to reach the bone. That they cannot shiver is because the liver is the first yang and the heart the second, while the kidney stands alone: one water cannot overcome two fires, and so they cannot shiver. The disease is named bone impediment, and such a person's joints will cramp.
Clinical note임상 주석
Cold that cannot be warmed and yet does not produce shivering — the Suwen is describing a body that has lost the ability to generate heat rather than one that is merely cold. 以水爲事, making water his business, is read as a life spent in cold and wet.
Naegyeong 內經
22.6 Bone Heat 骨熱
Source원문
骨熱者, 髓禿齒乾, 乃爲骨熱病也. 《內經》
Translation영역
In bone heat the marrow is bald and the teeth dry — this is the bone heat disease.
Naegyeong 內經
Source원문
口前板齒乾燥者, 骨熱病也. 《易老》
Translation영역
Where the front teeth of the mouth are dry and parched, it is the bone heat disease.
Clinical note임상 주석
The front teeth as a window on the marrow. The Teeth chapter makes the teeth the surplus of the bone, so a dry front tooth is a dry marrow — and in a high fever the incisors do dry first, since they are what the open mouth exposes.
Yeokro 易老
Source원문
其或骨間有熱, 以至四肢緩弱不擧, 此則骨痿. 欲斯疾之有瘳也, 艱哉. 《直指》
Translation영역
Where there is heat between the bones, so that the four limbs are slack and weak and cannot be lifted, this is bone wilting. To wish such a disease healed — that is hard.
Jikji 直指
Source원문
當與骨蒸門參看.
Translation영역
This should be read together with the Steaming Bones chapter.
Donguibogam · Gol
22.7 Bone Wilting 骨痿
Source원문
腎氣熱則腰脊不擧, 骨枯而髓減, 發爲骨痿. 有所遠行勞倦, 逢大熱而渴, 渴則陽氣內伐, 內伐則熱舍於腎. 腎者水藏也, 今水不勝火, 則骨枯而髓虛, 故足不任身, 發爲骨痿. 下經曰, 骨痿者, 生於大熱也. 《內經》
Translation영역
Where the kidney qi is hot the lumbus and spine cannot be lifted, the bone withers and the marrow diminishes, and it breaks out as bone wilting. Where one has walked far and grown weary and meets great heat and thirst, the thirst makes the yang qi attack within, and attacking within the heat lodges in the kidney. The kidney is the water viscus; now that water cannot overcome fire, the bone withers and the marrow empties, so the legs cannot bear the body and it breaks out as bone wilting. The Lower Classic says: bone wilting is engendered by great heat.
Clinical note임상 주석
A long walk in great heat with thirst, and afterwards legs that will not carry the body. The Suwen's account of heat injury going to the bone is the Wilting chapter's foundation, and 足不任身 — the legs not answering for the body — is the phrase the tradition uses for any paralysis of the lower limbs.
Naegyeong 內經
22.8 Bone Pain 骨痛
Source원문
凡人一身, 風淫濕滯, 血刺痰攻, 皆能作痛. 至於骨之攣疼, 或寒或熱, 入裏徹骨, 則倍擠千萬, 大不恿焉. 病入於骨, 此勞極損傷之不可救藥者也. 《直指》
Translation영역
In the whole body, wind running riot, damp stagnating, blood stabbing and phlegm attacking can all make pain. But as for the cramping ache of the bone, cold or hot, entering the interior and piercing to the bone — it presses a thousandfold and is not to be borne. When disease has entered the bone, that is taxation at its limit and detriment beyond the reach of medicine.
Jikji 直指
Source원문
扁鵲曰, 疾在腠理, 湯熨之所及也. 在血脈, 鍼石之所及也. 在腸胃, 酒醴之所及也. 其在骨髓, 雖司命無柰之何矣. 夫病在骨髓, 扁鵲以爲難, 則骨髓有病, 病亦深矣. 《資生》
Translation영역
Bian Que said: while the disease is in the interstices, fomentation and ironing reach it; in the blood vessels, needles and stone lancets reach it; in the intestines and stomach, wine and sweet liquor reach it; but when it is in the bone and marrow, even the Arbiter of Fate can do nothing. Since Bian Que held a disease in the bone and marrow to be hard, then where the marrow is diseased, the disease is deep indeed.
Clinical note임상 주석
Bian Que's four depths, from the Shiji's account of him refusing to treat a prince who had waited too long. It is the oldest statement in Chinese medicine of the idea that a disease has a stage past which treatment does not reach, and the Bone chapter takes it as its own.
Jasaenggyeong 資生經
Source원문
痛風骨髓痛, 虎骨散方主之方見風門. 濕熱筋骨痛, 二妙散主之方見風門.
Translation영역
For pain wind with pain in the bones and marrow, Tiger Bone Powder governs it formula in the Wind chapter. For damp heat pain in sinews and bones, Two Marvels Powder governs it formula in the Wind chapter.
Clinical note임상 주석
The chapter's only two prescriptions, both borrowed from the Wind chapter — the Bone chapter has no formulary of its own. Two Marvels Powder is phellodendron and atractylodes lancea, and it is still the standard pair for damp heat in the lower limbs.
Donguibogam · Gol
22.9 The Patterns of Bone Injury 骨傷證
Source원문
內經曰, 久立傷骨. 又曰, 多食甘則骨痛而髮落.
Translation영역
The Neijing says: standing long injures the bone. It also says: eating much sweetness makes the bones ache and the hair fall.
Clinical note임상 주석
久立傷骨 — standing long injures the bone. One of the Suwen's five labours, and the Body chapter's 1.16.2 gave the whole set: looking long injures the blood, lying long the qi, sitting long the flesh, standing long the bone, walking long the sinew.
Naegyeong 內經
22.10 The Outer Signs of Bone Disease 骨病外證
Source원문
靈樞曰, 耳焦枯受塵垢者, 病在骨.
Translation영역
The Lingshu says: where the ears are scorched and withered and take on dust and grime, the disease is in the bone.
Clinical note임상 주석
The ear is the kidney's orifice, and the kidney rules the bone — so a dry, dirty-looking ear is read as the bone's trouble showing at the surface. The Ear chapter reads the same feature for the kidney itself.
Yeongchu 靈樞
22.11 The Signs of the Bone Expiring 骨絶證
Source원문
病人骨絶者, 齒黃落, 十日死. 《脈經》
Translation영역
Where a patient's bone is expiring, the teeth yellow and fall out: death in ten days.
Maekgyeong 脉經
22.12 Simple Medicinals 單方
Source원문
凡十四種.
Translation영역
Fourteen kinds in all.
Clinical note임상 주석
Fourteen simples for the bone — loadstone, rehmannia, achyranthes, dendrobium, schisandra, anemarrhena, psoralea, lycium root bark, turtle shell, Sichuan pepper, pine nut, deer antler velvet, ox marrow and dog meat. Nine of them are said to fill the marrow rather than treat a symptom, which is the chapter's whole therapeutics: 塡骨髓, fill the marrow, and the bone follows. Psoralea's name says it — 補骨脂, the resin that supplements bone.
Donguibogam · Gol
22.13 Acupuncture and Moxibustion 鍼灸法
Source원문
骨會大杼. 骨病治此, 宜灸之. 《難經》
Translation영역
The meeting point of bone is Daejeo (大杼, BL11); bone disease is treated here, and it should be moxaed.
Clinical note임상 주석
One of the Nanjing's eight meeting points — 骨會大杼, the bone meets at Daejeo, beside the first thoracic vertebra. It is still the point named first for any disease of bone.
Nangyeong 難經
Source원문
筋攣骨痛, 補魂門. 《綱目》
Translation영역
For cramping sinews and aching bones, supplement Honmun (魂門, BL47).
Gangmok 綱目
Source원문
脊膂强痛, 鍼人中. 《綱目》
Translation영역
For stiffness and pain of the spine and lumbar muscles, needle Injung (人中, GV26).
Clinical note임상 주석
Injung, under the nose, for a back that will not bend — the governing vessel needled at its far end to release its other end. It is still the emergency point for acute lumbar sprain, and one of the few classical prescriptions that a modern practitioner can test in a minute.
Gangmok 綱目
About this translation 凡例
Base text: Donguibogam (東醫寶鑑, 1613 first edition), Outer Form, Volume 3, Bone chapter. The Chinese text is collated against the public-domain Wikisource transcription and a printed edition; original character forms (脉, 人參) are retained. Terminology follows Wiseman & Feng, A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine. Translation and clinical notes are original to this site. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.