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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 45 · External Assessment
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The Yellow Emperor said: “I have heard the nine needles and nine writings, personally received their regulation and gained some understanding. The nine needles begin with one and end with nine, yet I have not obtained their essential Way. At their smallest they have nothing within; at their greatest, nothing outside. Their depth cannot be made a lower boundary nor their height a covering. Subtle and indistinct, they are inexhaustible and flow without limit. I know they accord with heaven’s Way, human affairs and the changes of the four seasons. But I wish to gather their finest strands and bind them together as one. Is this possible?”
Qi Bo said: “Clear indeed is your question! This is not confined to needling; governing a state is likewise.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear the Way of needling, not affairs of state.”
Qi Bo said: “Governing a state depends on the Way. Without the Way, how could small and great, deep and shallow be joined into one?”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear it to the end.”
Qi Bo said: “Consider sun and moon, water and mirror, drum and echo. The brightness of sun and moon does not lose the shadow; the scrutiny of water and mirror does not lose the form; the response of drum and echo does not lag behind the sound. Movement receives a matching response, fully revealing the condition.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Subtle and hard to grasp! Clear brightness cannot be concealed; it cannot be concealed because it does not lose yin and yang. Join the signs and examine them, palpate and verify them, see and apprehend them, as clear water and a bright mirror do not lose a form.
“When the five tones are indistinct and the five colors unclear, the five zang are stirred. Within and without then affect each other, like a drum answering its stick, an echo its sound, and a shadow its form. Thus, for what is distant, observe outside to infer within; for what is near, observe within to infer outside. This is called the utmost of yin and yang, the covering of heaven and earth. Let it be stored in the Chamber of Linglan; I dare not let it leak away.”
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