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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 15 · Fifty Circuits
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear how the fifty circuits work.”
Qi Bo replied: “Heaven’s circuit has twenty-eight mansions, each of thirty-six parts. Human qi makes one circuit in one thousand eight parts; the sun travels through the twenty-eight mansions. Above and below, left and right, front and back, the human channel vessels number twenty-eight, circling the body for sixteen zhang and two chi, answering the twenty-eight mansions.”
“The water clock descends through one hundred ke to divide day and night. On one exhalation, the pulse moves twice and qi travels three cun; on one inhalation, it also moves twice and qi travels three cun. In one settled breath cycle, qi travels six cun.
“Ten breaths: qi travels six chi; the sun two parts.
“Two hundred seventy breaths: qi travels sixteen zhang and two chi, crossing within and completing one bodily circuit; water descends two ke and the sun travels twenty-five parts.
“Five hundred forty breaths: two bodily circuits; water four ke and the sun forty parts.
“Two thousand seven hundred breaths: ten bodily circuits; water twenty ke and the sun five mansions and twenty parts.
“Thirteen thousand five hundred breaths: fifty bodily circuits; water one hundred ke and the sun twenty-eight mansions. The water clock is exhausted and the vessel circuit ends.”
All intermediate figures, including the differing twenty-five and forty part statements, are preserved without recalculation or conversion into clock minutes or modern circulation rates.
“Crossing within means traveling together as one count. Thus fifty circuits complete the full span of heaven and earth, traveling eight hundred ten zhang in all.”
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