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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 81 · Abscesses and Deep Sores
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The Yellow Emperor said: “I have heard that intestines and Stomach receive grain. The upper burner sends out qi to warm the divisions of flesh, nourish bones and joints and open interstices. The middle burner sends out qi like dew, pouring upward into valleys and seeping into minute vessels. Jin and ye fluids harmonize and transform to redness as blood.
“With harmonious blood the minute vessels fill first, overflow into networks and then, when these are full, into channels. Yin and yang spread and movement follows breathing, with ordered courses and circuits agreeing with heaven, never resting.
“Palpate and regulate: follow emptying to remove repletion. Draining makes it insufficient; swift action diminishes qi; retention has its before and after. Follow emptying to remove emptiness; supplementation brings excess. Once blood and qi are regulated, form and qi are sustained. I know balance and imbalance of blood and qi but not how abscesses and deep sores arise, their times of success or failure, and how to measure near or distant times of life and death. May I hear them?”
The supplied dew image, before-and-after phrase and repeated emptying wording are retained despite differing readings. The second emptying clause is not silently rewritten as repletion.
Qi Bo said: “Channel vessels circulate without stopping, sharing heaven’s measure and earth’s ordering. When celestial lodges lose their measure, sun and moon are eclipsed. When earth’s courses lose order, waterways overflow, grasses fail, grains do not grow and roads are blocked. People cannot travel and settlements separate. Blood and qi are likewise.
“Blood vessels, nutritive and defensive circulation move continually, answering the stars above and the channel numbers below. Cold harmful influence lodging in channels and networks makes blood rough. It does not flow, and defensive qi gathers there, unable to return. Thus swelling forms; cold transforms into heat. Prevailing heat rots flesh into pus. Undrained pus rots sinews and injures bone; injured bone loses marrow. If it does not meet a bone hollow it cannot drain. Blood withers into emptiness, sinew, bone and flesh fail to nourish one another, channel vessels fail and leak, and steaming influence reaches the five zang. Their injury brings death.”
The damaged grass-name graph is rendered in its crop-and-waterway context. The complete progression remains the text’s historical account.
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear all the forms of abscesses and deep sores, their names and the stated fatal days.”
Qi Bo said: “An abscess arising within the throat is called Fierce Ju. Left untreated it becomes pus; undrained pus blocks the throat, with death stated in half a day. Once pus forms, drain it and combine treatment with pork fat, eaten cold; the account says it ends in three days.
“One arising in the neck is called Yao Ju, large and red-black. Without urgent treatment, heat descends into Yuanye, injures Ren in front and steams Liver and Lung within, bringing death in more than ten days. Great eruption of retained yang, wasting the brain and remaining at the nape, is called Brain Melting. With an unhappy-looking color, needle-like nape pain and vexation, it is declared fatal and beyond treatment.
“One arising at shoulder and upper arm is called Ci Yong, red-black in appearance. Treat urgently. Sweat reaching the feet means it does not injure the five zang. Four or five days after eruption, the text prescribes its named cheng-juan action.
“A red, firm lesion beneath the armpit is called Rice Ju. Its stone instrument should be fine and long; use spaced stone treatment, apply pork fat and leave it unwrapped. It is said to end in six days. A firm abscess that does not break is called Horse-Blade, Flanking-the-Tassel Ying and requires urgent treatment.
“One arising in the chest is called Well Ju, like a large bean, rising over three or four days. Without early treatment it descends into the abdomen; untreated, death is stated in seven days. One in the front chest is called Sweet Ju, blue-green and grain-seed-like, with persistent cold and heat. Treat urgently to remove cold and heat. The stated fatal interval is ten years, with pus emerging after death.
“One at the rib-side is called Bai Ci and is described as a women’s illness. Apply moxibustion. It forms a great abscess with pus; treatment reveals new flesh the size of a small red bean. The account calls for chopped ling and qiaocao roots, one sheng each, boiled in one dou and six sheng of water down to three sheng. The patient is urged to drink, wear thick clothing and sit above the cauldron until sweat reaches the feet, at which point it is said to end.
“One in the thigh and shin is called Thigh-Shin Ju. Its form is not striking, but it changes to abscess pus striking bone. Without urgent treatment, death is stated in thirty days. One at the rump is called Sharp Ju, red, firm and large; untreated, death is stated in thirty days.
“One on the yin side of the thigh is called Red Spreading. Without urgent treatment, death is stated in sixty days. If it is within the two thighs, lack of treatment is said to bring death in ten days.
“One at the knee is also called Ci Yong. It is large, without changed color, with cold and heat and stone-like hardness. Do not use stone while it is hard: the text declares that fatal. Wait until it softens; stone treatment then permits life. Abscesses and deep sores arising at joints and answering one another are declared untreatable. Those arising in yang are assigned death in one hundred days; in yin, thirty days.
“One on the shin is called Rabbit Bite, red to the bone. Treat urgently; otherwise it harms the person. One at the inner ankle is called Slow Traveling. Its abscess-like form has no changed color. Repeatedly use stone at its transporting site to stop cold and heat; it is said not to be fatal.
“One above or below the foot is called Fourfold Spreading, a great abscess. Urgent treatment is prescribed; death is stated in one hundred days. One beside the foot is called Li Yong. It is not large and begins like an eruption at the little toe. Treat urgently and remove the black part. If it does not diminish, it increases; untreated, death is stated in one hundred days.
“One on a toe is called Shedding Yong. Red-black appearance is declared fatal and untreatable; without red-black it is not declared fatal. If it does not decline, the text calls for urgent cutting off, otherwise predicting death.”
All sites, repeated Ci Yong names, intervals and the final cutting statement are retained as historical text. The supplied cheng-juan action and grain-seed simile contain damaged graphs. Ling and qiaocao are uncertain source plant names, not modern botanical identifications. The ten-year interval is not changed to days, nor is a missing negative inserted in the Fourfold Spreading sentence. Quantities, heat methods, stone methods and outcomes are not converted into modern clinical instructions or validated prognoses.
The Yellow Emperor said: “You speak of yong and ju. How are they distinguished?”
Qi Bo said: “Nutritive and defensive circulation linger in the channels; blood becomes rough and stops. Defensive qi follows and is blocked, unable to move, producing heat. Unceasing great heat prevails and rots flesh into pus. Yet it cannot sink into bone and marrow, does not scorch them dry and does not injure the five zang. Thus it is named yong.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “What is ju?”
Qi Bo said: “Heat qi is deeply abundant and sinks into flesh and skin. Sinews and marrow wither; it links inward to the five zang and exhausts blood and qi. Beneath the swelling, sinew, bone and sound flesh are all consumed. Thus it is named ju. The skin over ju is broad and hard, like skin on an ox’s neck. The skin over yong is thin and lustrous. These are their signs.”
The supplied broad-and-hard reading is retained; an older variant describes withered skin. Yong and ju remain the book’s historically distinguished categories.
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