Pressure point (穴位) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chinese | 穴位 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kanji | 急所 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kana | きゅうしょ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Transcriptions | |
---|---|
Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | xuéwèi |
Bopomofo | ㄒㄩㄝˊ ㄨㄟˋ |
Wade–Giles | hsüeh-wei |
Wu | |
Romanization | yiuih入 we去 |
Hakka | |
Romanization | hied5 vi55 |
Yue: Cantonese | |
Jyutping | jyut6 wai6*2 |
Southern Min | |
Hokkien POJ | hia̍t-uī |
Transcriptions | |
---|---|
Romanization | kyūsho |
A pressure point (Chinese: ; Japanese: kyūsho " , tender spot";Sinhala: නිල/මර්ම ස්ථාන Nila/Marma Sthana (in Angampora); Telugu: మర్మ స్థానం Marma Sthanam; Malayalam: മര്മ്മം marmam; Tamil: வர்மம் varmam) derives from the meridian points in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Indian Ayurveda and Siddha medicine, and the field of martial arts, and refers to an area on the human body that may produce significant pain or other effects when manipulated in a specific manner.
The concept of pressure points spread through the Tamil martial art called Varma kalai, which is a martial art that concentrates on the body's pressure points. The concept of pressure points is also present in the old school Japanese martial arts; in a 1942 article in the Shin Budo magazine, Takuma Hisa asserted the existence of a tradition attributing the first development of pressure-point attacks to Shinra Saburō Minamoto no Yoshimitsu (1045–1127).
Hancock and Higashi (1905) published a book which pointed out a number of vital points in Japanese martial arts.
Accounts of pressure-point fighting appeared in Chinese Wuxia fiction novels and became known by the name of Dim Mak, or "Death Touch", in western popular culture in the 1960s.