Chinese/Japanese Pulse Image chart: Cup-mouth Pulse

Illustration of Cup-mouth Pulse (zhankou 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: Cup-mouth Pulse is one of the Sixteen Weird Pulses (guai mai). It is also known as Assisting Corpse pulse (fu shi mai). Its pulse image is like an up-turned cup under the finger; heavy at both ends and hollow in the middle. There are eight or nine occurences to each sequence of exhalation and inhalation. If a patient has this pulse, death will ensue within a day.