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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 62 · The Moving Transporting Vessels
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor said: “There are twelve channel vessels, yet Hand Taiyin, Foot Shaoyin and Foot Yangming alone move without rest. Why?”
Qi Bo said: “This makes clear the Stomach vessel.”
The Stomach is the sea of the five zang and six fu. Its clear qi pours upward into the Lung, and Lung qi travels along Taiyin. Its movement comes and goes with breathing. In one exhalation the pulse moves twice; in one inhalation it also moves twice. Because breathing never ceases, its movement does not stop.
The Yellow Emperor said: “When qi passes Cunkou, above it rests at ten and below it lies hidden at eight. By what course does it return? I do not know its limit.”
The supplied ten and eight graphs are retained. An older reading uses an emergence graph in their place; no modern pulse distance, duration or count is inferred from these disputed numerals.
Qi Bo said: “When qi leaves the zang it is sudden as a bow or crossbow releasing, or water descending a bank. Rising to the fish region of the hand, it turns and declines. The remaining qi weakens and disperses in upward counterflow, so its movement is faint.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Why does Foot Yangming move?”
Qi Bo said: “Stomach qi pours upward into the Lung. Its fierce qi rushes to the head, follows the throat upward into the openings, follows the eye connections and enters the brain’s networks. It emerges at the cheek, descends to Kezhuren, follows the jaw, joins Yangming and descends with it to Renying. This is Stomach qi branching into Yangming.
“Thus yin and yang, above and below, move as one. A small yang pulse in yang illness is contrary; a large yin pulse in yin illness is contrary. If yin and yang are both still or both moving like a stretched cord tipping to one side, there is illness.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Why does Foot Shaoyin move?”
Qi Bo said: “The Chong vessel is the sea of the twelve channels. With Shaoyin’s great network, it arises below the Kidney and emerges at Qijie. It follows the inner edge of the yin thigh, enters obliquely into the hollow behind the knee, follows the inner edges of shin and thigh alongside Shaoyin, descends behind the inner ankle and enters the sole. Its branch enters the ankle obliquely, emerges to connect with the upper foot, enters the great-toe interval and pours into the networks to warm feet and shins. This is the vessel that moves continually.”
The supplied shin-and-thigh sequence is retained rather than silently changed to a reconstructed bone course.
The Yellow Emperor said: “Nutritive and defensive circulation penetrate above and below like an endless ring. But when harmful qi or great cold is suddenly met, hands and feet become slack, the yin and yang pathways and their meetings of mutual transport lose their coordinated movement. How does qi return?”
Qi Bo said: “The meetings of yin and yang at the four extremities are qi’s great networks. The four streets are its direct pathways. Thus, when a network is cut off, the direct pathway remains open; when the extremities are released, qi follows and reunites. Their mutual transport is like a ring.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Good. This is what is meant by a ring without an end, whose beginning cannot be known.”
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