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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 6 · Longevity and Early Death, Firmness and Softness
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked Shaoshi: “I have heard that among living people there are firm and soft, weak and strong, short-lived and long-lived, yin and yang. I wish to hear their principles.”
Shaoshi replied: “There is yin within yin and yang within yang. Clearly know them and needling has a method; obtain the illness’s beginning and needling has a principle. Carefully assess its origin and accord with the time. Within, join the five zang and six fu; outside, sinews, bones and skin. Inside and outside both have yin and yang. Within, the five zang are yin and six fu yang. Outside, sinews and bones are yin, skin yang.
“For illness in yin within yin, needle yin springs and streams. For yang within yang, yang seas. For yin within yang, yin rivers. For yang within yin, network vessels. Illness in yang is named Wind; in yin, obstruction; in both, Wind obstruction.
“Visible form without pain belongs to yang; pain without visible form belongs to yin. In the latter, yang is intact and yin injured: promptly treat yin without attacking yang. In the former, yin is intact and yang injured: promptly treat yang without attacking yin. If both move, now with form, now without, and there is vexation of the Heart, it is named yin overcoming its yang. This is neither exterior nor interior; its form does not last.”
The Yellow Emperor asked Bo Gao: “I have heard about bodily form and qi. How do illness’s earlier and later, external and internal responses accord?”
Bo Gao replied: “Wind and cold injure bodily form; worry, fear, resentment and anger injure qi. When qi injures the zang, zang illness follows; when cold injures form, the form responds. Wind injures sinews and vessels, and they respond. This is the mutual response of form and qi, outside and within.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “How is it needled?”
Bo Gao replied: “For illness of nine days, three needlings bring it to an end; for one month, ten needlings. Scale more or less, far or near, by this. For longstanding obstruction that does not leave the body, inspect the blood networks and let out their blood completely.”
The durations and counts are the text’s claims, not a newly calculated treatment schedule.
The Yellow Emperor said: “How do external and internal illness differ in ease or difficulty of treatment?”
Bo Gao replied: “If bodily form is ill first and illness has not entered the zang, needle for half its days. If the zang are ill first and form then responds, needle for twice its days. This is the correspondence of external and internal with ease and difficulty.”
The Yellow Emperor asked Bo Gao: “I have heard that form may be relaxed or tense, qi strong or declining, bones large or small, flesh firm or brittle and skin thick or thin. How are long and short life assessed through these?”
Bo Gao said: “If form and qi support one another, life is long; otherwise short. If skin and flesh enclose one another well, life is long; otherwise short. If blood, qi, channels and networks can sustain form, life is long; if not, short.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “What is meant by relaxed and tense bodily form?”
Bo Gao replied: “Full form with relaxed skin means long life; full form with tense skin means short life. Full form with a firm, large pulse follows the order; full form with a small, weak pulse means declining qi, and decline is dangerous. If form is full but the cheekbones do not rise, the bones are small, and small bones mean short life. If form is full and great masses of flesh are firm and divided, the flesh is firm and life long. If they lack distinct divisions and firmness, the flesh is brittle and life short.
“These are heaven’s endowment of life and the means of establishing form, determining qi and observing length of life. Understand them before approaching a patient to decide life and death.”
The bodily correspondences and prognoses are retained as the source’s historical framework, not a modern assessment of lifespan.
The Yellow Emperor said: “I have heard of long and short life, but have no means to measure it.”
Bo Gao replied: “If the wall foundation is low, its height not reaching its ground, the person dies before thirty. If illness is added, before twenty.”
The wall and ground are facial-comparison terms with differing older interpretations. The image and ages are retained without assigning a certain anatomical measurement or endorsing the lifespan claim.
The Yellow Emperor said: “How does form or qi prevailing determine long or short life?”
Bo Gao replied: “In an ordinary healthy person, qi surpassing form means long life. In illness with bodily flesh wasted away, qi surpassing form means death. Form surpassing qi means danger.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I have heard that needling has three variations. What are they?”
Bo Gao replied: “There is needling nutritive qi, defensive qi and cold obstruction remaining in the channels.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “How are these three variations needled?”
Bo Gao replied: “Needling nutritive qi brings out blood; needling defensive qi brings out qi; needling cold obstruction brings warmth within.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “What illnesses arise from nutritive qi, defensive qi and cold obstruction?”
Bo Gao replied: “Nutritive illness brings cold and heat, scant qi and blood moving above and below. Defensive illness brings qi passing now and then, pent-up sighing and resounding rushes, with Wind and cold lodging in intestines and stomach. Cold obstruction remains without leaving, with occasional pain and numb skin.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “How does needling cold obstruction bring warmth within?”
Bo Gao replied: “For commoners, the text uses fire heating; for great persons, medicinal warm application.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “How is the medicinal warm application made?”
Bo Gao replied: “Use pure wine twenty jin, Sichuan pepper one sheng, dried ginger one jin and cassia heart one jin. These four are crushed and soaked in the wine. Cotton wadding one jin and fine white cloth four zhang are also put into the wine. Set the wine in the gentle heat of horse dung, cover and seal it without leakage. After five days and nights, take out cloth and wadding and dry them in the sun. When dry, soak again until the liquid is used up. Each soaking lasts a full day before removal and drying.
“When dry, use the dregs with the wadding, folding the cloth into doubled towels six or seven chi long, making six or seven towels. Heat a towel over charcoal from fresh mulberry wood and apply warmth where cold obstruction has been needled, allowing heat to reach the illness. When it cools, heat it again and reapply, stopping after thirty repetitions. Wipe the sweating body with a towel, also stopping after thirty repetitions. Rise and walk within, without exposure to Wind. Apply warmth after each needling. Thus the text says the illness ceases. This is what is called warmth within.”
All ingredients, historical units, durations and counts are retained as the source’s preparation account. The obscure crushing graph is read contextually; no metric conversion, modern heating temperature or additional preparation step is supplied.
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