'The Slippery Pulse comes smoothly flowing and uninhibited; it feels smooth like pearls rolling in a dish.'  One of twenty eight classical pulse descriptions used in diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The examination of the pulse is one of the main methods of arriving at a diagnosis in Chinese medicine.  It is a part of the si zhen, or four examinations, which include visual examination, inquiry, listening and smelling, and palpation.  Today the pulse is almost exclusively felt on both of the radial arteries, close to the wrists, or what is termed the cun kou in Chinese.  In the past the pulse was also palpated at other locations on the body, including the ankle and neck.  Practitioners of Chinese medicine believe that feeling the pulse at the wrist provides an image or representation of the flow of chi, blood, and body fluids within the entire body.  This is an idea that extends back to the earliest days of Chinese medicine, being mentioned in the ancient Nan Ching, or The Classic of Difficulties:

'All the twelve [acupuncture] channels have sections where the movement in these vessels can be felt.  Still, one selects only the cun kou in order to determine whether the five viscera and six bowels harbour a pattern of death or life, of good or evil auspices.'