Chinese/Japanese Pulse Image chart: Fish Circling Pulse

Illustration of Fish Circling Pulse (yuxiang mai) from Renyuan maiying guizhi tushuo (Pictorial Handbook of Pulse Images Based on the Person). This is a specialist text on pulse diagnosis attributed to the third-century master Shuhe, edited and revised by Shen Jifen in the Ming period (1368-1644). It discusses various pulse images and the medical conditions to which they relate, and contains 48 pulse image diagrams. This undated edition was engraved and published in Japan.

The text states: Fish Circling Pulse (is one of the Sixteen Weird Pulses (guai mai). It is also known as Severed Corpse (jue shi) pulse. Its pulse image is likened to a fish, not moving forward but just agitating its tail. It sometimes moves and then stops repeatedly beneath the fingers, beating once per breath or once per palpation, like a fish in the water. When this pulse is found in a patient suffering from cold damage with underlying Yin disease(?), death will ensue within two days; if the patient is elderly, death will ensue within half a day.