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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 50 · Courage
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked Shao Yu: “People walk and stand together, are of equal age and wear clothing of equal thickness. Suddenly they meet fierce wind and violent rain. Some become ill and others do not; sometimes all become ill and sometimes none. Why?”
Shao Yu said: “Which part of your question is most urgent?”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear it all.”
Shao Yu said: “Spring has the blue-green wind, summer the yang wind, autumn the cool wind and winter the cold wind. The illnesses caused by these four seasonal winds differ in form.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “How do the four seasonal winds make people ill?”
Shao Yu said: “Yellow color, thin skin and weak flesh cannot withstand spring’s empty wind. White color, thin skin and weak flesh cannot withstand summer’s empty wind. Blue-green color, thin skin and weak flesh cannot withstand autumn’s empty wind. Red color, thin skin and weak flesh cannot withstand winter’s empty wind.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Does a person of black color not become ill?”
Shao Yu said: “A person of black color with thick skin and firm flesh is not ordinarily injured by the four seasonal winds. With thin skin, unfirm flesh and uneven color, illness occurs when long summer brings an empty wind. With thick skin and firm flesh, long summer’s empty wind does not cause illness. Such a person must suffer repeated cold exposure, affecting outside and inside alike, before illness occurs.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Good.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “The ability or inability to bear pain is not the distinction between courage and timidity. A brave person who cannot bear pain advances on seeing danger but stops on encountering pain. A timid person who can bear pain fears on hearing of danger but does not move when hurt. A brave person who can bear pain fears neither danger nor pain. A timid person who cannot bear pain sees danger and pain, turns the eyes and glances about, becomes too frightened to speak, loses qi in alarm and changes complexion, seeming now dead and now alive. I have seen this but do not know why. I wish to hear the reason.”
Shao Yu said: “Bearing or not bearing pain depends on thickness or thinness of skin, firmness or brittleness of flesh, and relaxation or tension. It is not what is meant by courage or timidity.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear what produces courage and timidity.”
Shao Yu said: “A brave person has deep, firm eyes and long, straight, raised features. The texture of the Triple Burner runs transversely. The Heart is upright and straight; the Liver large and firm; the Gallbladder full and broad. Anger makes qi abundant and expands the chest. The Liver rises and the Gallbladder spreads crosswise; the eye corners open, the eyes lift, hair rises and the face turns blue-green. This is the source of courage.”
The long, straight, raised-feature phrase and the burner-texture wording are retained without supplying a missing facial measurement or a modern psychological explanation.
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear what produces a timid person.”
Shao Yu said: “A timid person has large eyes that do not diminish or close in, yin and yang failing to match, longitudinal burner texture and a short, small breastbone tip. The Liver connections are relaxed; the Gallbladder is unfilled and lengthwise. The intestines and Stomach are straightened and the rib-sides empty. Even in great anger, qi cannot fill the chest. Though Liver and Lung rise, qi declines and descends again, so anger cannot last. This is the source of timidity.”
The graph in “do not diminish” has an older closing-in reading; the ambiguity is kept visible. These form-and-character correspondences remain historical assertions.
The Yellow Emperor said: “When a timid person drinks wine and becomes angry without avoiding a brave person, which zang makes this happen?”
Shao Yu said: “Wine is the essence of water and grain, the fluid of cooked grain. Its qi is swift and fierce. Entering the Stomach, it distends it and makes qi counterflow upward to fill the chest. The Liver floats and the Gallbladder spreads crosswise. At that moment the person resembles the brave. When qi declines, regret follows. Taking oneself for the brave and not knowing to avoid them is named the disorder of wine.”
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