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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 79 · The Year’s Exposure
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked Qi Bo: “The canon says injury by summer heat brings intermittent fever in autumn. Why do its attacks occur at particular times?”
Qi Bo replied: “Harmful influence lodges at Fengfu and illness follows the spine downward. Defensive qi has a great meeting at Fengfu in each day and night. On the next day it descends one section, so attacks occur later each day. This is influence first lodged in spine and back. Each arrival at Fengfu opens the interstices; harmful qi enters and illness attacks. Thus attacks grow later daily.
“Defensive qi traveling from Fengfu descends one section each day, reaching the base of the tail on the twenty-first day. On the twenty-second it enters the spine and pours into the hidden Chong vessel. Traveling for nine days, it emerges within the collarbone hollow. Its qi then ascends and illness gradually increases. When it strikes within the five zang and links sideways to the membrane source, its course is distant, qi deep and travel slow. It cannot attack every day, so accumulation brings an attack on the next day.”
All sections, days and the nine-day return remain the historical account; intermittent fever is not silently equated with a single modern infection.
The Yellow Emperor said: “Defensive qi opens the interstices whenever it reaches Fengfu, letting harmful influence enter. But if it descends one section daily, it no longer lies at Fengfu. How can this be?”
Qi Bo said: “Fengfu is not fixed. Where defensive qi responds, the interstices must open. The section where qi dwells is its fu, its dwelling.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Good. Wind and intermittent fever belong together, yet wind remains constantly while intermittent fever rests at particular times. Why?”
Qi Bo said: “Wind qi remains in its place. Intermittent-fever qi follows channels and networks, sinking to strike within, so it attacks only when defensive qi answers it.”
The Emperor said: “Good.”
The Yellow Emperor asked Shao Shi: “The four seasons and eight winds strike people, bringing cold and summer heat. Cold tightens skin and closes interstices; heat relaxes skin and opens them. Do injurious wind and harmful qi thereby enter, or must there be empty harmful influence from the eight proper directions before they can injure?”
Shao Shi replied: “It is not simply so. Injurious wind and harmful qi strike without a fixed season. Entering through open interstices, they reach deeply and illness is extreme within, sudden and violent. Entering through closed ones, they remain shallowly and illness is gradual and slow.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Why can sudden illness occur when cold and warmth are moderate and the interstices are not open?”
Shao Shi replied: “Does the Emperor not know how harmful influence enters? Even in ordinary quiet living, the interstices have times of opening and closing, relaxing and tightening.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “May I hear them?”
Shao Shi said: “People participate in heaven and earth and answer sun and moon. At full moon, sea water is abundant in the west; human blood and qi accumulate, flesh fills, skin is dense, hair firm, interstices close and grime adheres. Even injurious wind enters only shallowly then.
“When the moon’s outline is empty, sea water is abundant in the east. Human blood and qi are empty, defensive qi departs and form remains alone. Flesh diminishes, skin loosens, interstices open, hair weakens, texture thins and grime falls. Injurious wind then enters deeply and causes sudden, violent illness.”
The supplied western/eastern sea-water statements remain historical correspondences, not a modern tidal model or medical risk calculation.
The Yellow Emperor said: “Why do some suffer sudden death or sudden illness?”
Shao Shi replied: “With three emptinesses, death comes violently and swiftly. With three repletions, harmful influence cannot injure the person.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear the three emptinesses.”
Shao Shi said: “Meeting a declining year, an empty moon and a season lacking harmony, then receiving injurious wind, is called the three emptinesses. A practitioner who discusses treatment without knowing them becomes crude.”
The Emperor said: “I wish to hear the three repletions.”
Shao Shi said: “Meeting an abundant year, a full moon and a harmonious season means that even injurious wind and harmful qi cannot endanger the person. These are called the three repletions.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Excellent is the discussion, clear is the Way. Let it be kept in a golden coffer. Yet this concerns one person.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear why, in a given year, people all suffer similar illness.”
Shao Shi said: “This concerns the signs of the eight proper directions.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “How are they observed?”
Shao Shi said: “Observe the winter solstice, when Taiyi stands in the Shizhe palace. Heaven must answer its arrival with wind and rain. Wind and rain from the south are empty wind, injuring people. If they arrive at midnight, everyone lies asleep and does not encounter them, so illness is scarce that year. If they arrive by day, people are relaxed and all receive the empty wind, so illness is abundant.
“Empty harmful influence lodges in bone without manifesting outside. At the Beginning of Spring, yang qi issues greatly and the interstices open. If wind then comes from the west, people again receive empty wind. The two influences strike together, knotting and interrupting channel qi. Meeting this wind and rain is called encountering the year’s exposure. With a harmonious year and little injurious wind, illness and death are scarce. With much injurious wind and harmful qi and disharmonious cold and warmth, illness and death are abundant.”
Shizhe follows the supplied palace spelling. The seasonal directions and population claims remain the source’s, without modern epidemiological conversion.
The Yellow Emperor said: “How does empty harmful wind injure high and low ranks, and how can it be observed?”
Shao Shi replied: “On the first day of the first month, Taiyi occupies Tianliu palace. Northwest wind without rain that day predicts many deaths. North wind at dawn predicts many deaths in spring. North wind traveling at dawn on that day predicts illness and death in three of ten people. North wind at midday predicts many deaths in summer; north wind in the evening many deaths in autumn. North wind all day predicts great illness with six of ten dying.
“On that first day, wind from the south is called the Drought Direction. Wind from the west is called White Bones and predicts national calamity and many deaths. Wind from the east that lifts roofs and raises sand and stones predicts great disaster in the state. Wind from the southeast predicts deaths in spring. Mild, harmonious weather without wind makes grain cheap and people free of illness. Cold, windy weather makes grain expensive and illness frequent. These are the year’s wind signs that injure people.
“In the second month, no wind at Chou predicts much heart and abdominal illness. In the third month, lack of warmth at Xu predicts much cold-and-heat illness. In the fourth month, lack of summer heat at Si predicts much burning illness. In the tenth month, lack of cold at Shen predicts many sudden deaths. The winds meant here lift roofs, break trees, raise sand and stones, stir fine hair and open interstices.”
Both repeated dawn predictions, the three-in-ten and six-in-ten statements, and all supplied month/branch combinations are retained. The Si graph is anomalous. These are historical divinations, not present-day forecasts or survival statistics.
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