36 vital points

There are several articles in Bubishi, which are referring to punching painful points of human body - kyusho. The text mentions Bronze man[6] statue, so we can conclude that this sphere of fighting was regarded with great seriousness that is a scientific method of that time was applied by relying on traditional Chinese medicine. The positions of the vital points ware described by using a specific acupuncture point on the statue.
The whole chapter is full of legends of circulation of life energy (ki), of punches with delayed reactions (shichen) or "touch of death" (dim mak). Its very difficult to say whether it is a sort of encrypted text impossible to translate today, or the written material is full of myths, owing to limited knowledge of physiology of human body at that time. The chapter is not homogenous, for example, one article is about classification of vital pints according to acupunctural points, another is about points based on experience and observation, while third article names the points that can be activated only by means of weapons[7].
There are several versions of Bubishi manuscript and all of them differ among themselves more or less[8]. It is most visible in the chapter on vital points. Some versions have certain articles excluded whereas in some only the points mentioned are different. Number "36" is very important in Chinese numerology, but in reality it is not final number of vital points. The interesting thing is that the text itself doesn't describe precisely how to punch a vital point, which leads me to conclusion that the author was already familiar with the information, that is, the article served as a kind of script or reminder. The differences between some of the versions occurred probably because of difference in understanding and applying of knowledge in reality. In this article, also, I've give a list of vital points limited by my understanding, opinions and experience.
There is almost no applying of knowledge if vital points for majority of today karate clubs. Instructors basic concern is "…how to win a match?" and therefore "almighty" seiken surface is primal weapon with only a few of simple techniques practiced. To make things worse, fist punch to chin is often thought as basic technique, which is very dangerous in reality because one may easily break the bones of the hand.
To understand this section of karate correctly, it is necessary to observe things from the perspective of practical self-defence. In the street, as a rule, the attacker is stronger than you are, so you must make your punch worth twice as strong. You will achieve this if you cunningly hit the opponent in the most painful points. Therefore the knowledge of basic anatomy and physiology of human body is essential. Apart from knowing the spot where to hit, one should know how and with what to do so. Random punching with fist won't do any good. The greatest efficiency is achieved when the striking surface and technique are adjusted to the vital point. Besides the fist, it includes the use of palm, ridge hand, finger pokes, tearing, pinching, and pressing… This is described particularly in the article #20, "Six hands of Shaolin". There are suppositions that the article had inspired master Chojun Miyagi when he formed Tensho kata out of some longer Chinese kata.