Opening the chapter
Loading the text. Please wait.
Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 8 · Rooting in Spirit
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked Qi Bo: “Every needling method must first be rooted in spirit. Blood, vessels, nutritive qi, essence and spirit are what the five zang store. When they overflow and leave their stores, essence is lost, hun and po fly about, will and intention are confused, and wisdom and deliberation leave the body. Why does this happen? Is it heaven’s fault or human error? What are virtue, qi, life, essence, spirit, hun, po, heart, intention, will, thought, wisdom and deliberation? I ask their causes.”
Qi Bo replied: “What heaven gives within us is virtue; what earth gives within us is qi. Virtue flows and qi presses together, and life is born.
“What comes with life is called essence.
“The joining of two essences is called spirit.
“What follows spirit in coming and going is called hun.
“What joins essence in entering and leaving is called po.
“What takes charge of things is called the heart.
“What the heart remembers is called intention.
“What intention keeps is called will.
“Keeping and changing through will is called thought.
“Reaching far through thought is called deliberation.
“Dealing with things through deliberation is called wisdom.”
Hun and po remain distinct soul-aspect names in this text, not modern psychological structures.
“Thus the wise nourish life by following the four seasons, adapting to cold and summer heat, harmonizing joy and anger, settling their dwelling, regulating yin and yang and balancing firmness and softness. Then deviant harmful influences do not arrive and life and vision endure.
“Alarm and anxious thought injure spirit; injured spirit brings fear and unchecked overflowing. Sorrow stirring within exhausts life. Joy scatters spirit so it is not stored. Worry closes and chills qi so it does not move. Great anger confuses and disorders. Fear shakes spirit loose so it does not gather.”
“Alarm and anxious thought in the Heart injure spirit. This brings fear and loss of oneself, breakdown of flesh masses, wasting flesh, withered hair and failing color; the text places death in winter.
“Unresolved worry in the Spleen injures intention. This brings muddled confusion and inability to lift the limbs, withered hair and failing color; death is placed in spring.
“Sorrow stirring within the Liver injures hun. This brings frenzy, forgetfulness and lack of precision. Without precision, things are not correct. There are genital contraction, cramped sinews and inability to lift the rib-side bones, withered hair and failing color; death is placed in autumn.
“Unbounded joy in the Lung injures po. This brings frenzy, intention no longer attending to people, scorched skin, withered hair and failing color; death is placed in summer.
“Unceasing great anger in the Kidney injures will. This brings frequent forgetting of earlier words and inability to bend or extend lower back and spine, with damaged hair and failing color; death is placed in late summer.
“Unresolved fear injures essence. This brings aching bones, wilting counterflow and occasional involuntary discharge of essence.
“The five zang store essence and must not be injured. Injury loses their guard and empties yin; empty yin lacks qi, and lack of qi brings death. Needle users must observe the patient’s condition to know whether essence, spirit, hun and po remain, and the meaning of gain and loss. If the five are already injured, the text says needles cannot treat them.”
The rib-side graph is anomalous; the Kidney line uses an anomalous forgiveness graph in an anger context. Their contextual readings and all seasonal prognoses are retained without modern diagnoses or lifespan claims.
“The Liver stores blood; blood houses hun. Empty Liver qi brings fear; repletion brings anger.
“The Spleen stores nutritive qi, which houses intention. Empty Spleen qi leaves the limbs unusable and five zang unsettled; repletion brings abdominal distension and difficult elimination and urination.
“The Heart stores vessels; vessels house spirit. Empty Heart qi brings sorrow; repletion brings unceasing laughter.
“The Lung stores qi; qi houses po. Empty Lung qi brings blocked nose, impaired passage and scant qi; repletion brings noisy panting, chest fullness and breathing with the face raised.
“The Kidney stores essence; essence houses will. Empty Kidney qi brings counterflow; repletion brings distension and unsettles the five zang.
“Examine the illness forms of the five zang to know their qi’s emptiness or repletion, and regulate carefully.”
The displayed elimination graph is uncertain; the general passage-and-urination sense is retained without adding a menstrual condition.
Use ← / → or swipe left or right to change chapters