封喉 Fēng Hóu

封喉

Fēng Hóu

廖文翡

武侠世界里，我们常常见到“一剑封喉”这个词。“一剑封喉”是指快速攻击对方要害，不给对方任何反抗机会，将之置于死地。星期天，我们人少，我们太极拳师父教了我们如何“封喉”不用剑——用指掐住对方喉部周围的要害，比如动脉（图一）。后来师傅又教了我们如何化解。晓绪甚至学会了如何继续攻击。

In the novels of martial arts, one often encounters a word “一剑封喉” (Yí jiàn fēng hóu) Its direct English translation is “a sword seals throat”, meaning hitting the key nub of your rival without leaving the rival any room for manoeuvre. Last Sunday, our Taijiquan master showed us how to seal one’s throat without a sword! The secret is to get your fingers to your rival’s neck and squeeze your rival’s nub, such as jugulars (See Figure 1). Our master also showed us how to solve the situation when one wants to seal our throat. Xiaoxu even learned how to continue the offense.

图一 人体颈部血管分布图。

Figure 1 The distribution of vessels near the neck.

 

“封喉”这个词总让我联想到一种植物“见血封喉”(Antiaris toxicaria，见图二)。它是桑科(Moraceae)见血封喉属(Antiaris)下唯一被学术界承认的物种，其下还有几个不同的亚种。见血封喉在海南、云南、两广地区都有分布。其所以叫“见血封喉”，是因为它的树汁有剧毒。其树汁常被涂于箭头，见血封喉因此又被称作“毒箭木”。西双版纳民间有云：“七上八下九倒地”，指的就是中箭的人或其他动物上坡走不过七步，下坡走不过八步，平地上走不过九步就会倒地身亡。于见血封喉比起来，武侠小说里的鹤顶红神马的都弱爆了！

“封喉” (seal throat) reminds me of a tree species named antiaris, “见血封喉” (Jiàn xiě fēng hóu) in Chinese (See Figure 2). Only one species, Antiaris toxicaria, is formally accepted in the genus Antiaris. Antiaris has several subspecies and varieties. It distributes in Australia, tropical Africa, tropical Asia, tropical islands in Southeast Asia, as well as Hainan, Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi in China. Its Chinese name came from the toxicity of its sap. As a saying in Yunnan goes, “seven up eight down nine death”, meaning that a victim makes no more than seven steps up or eight steps down a hill, or nine steps on a flat ground before death. Comparing with the sap of antiaris, poisons, such as arsenic, are nothing!

图二 见血封喉树叶。

Figure 2 A twig of Antiaris toxicaria.

 

More information about Antiaris toxicaria, please click:

Antiaris toxicaria

见血封喉