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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 3 · Vital Qi Communicating with Heaven
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The Yellow Emperor said: “What has communicated with heaven since antiquity is the root of life, founded in yin and yang. Between heaven and earth, within the six directions, qi in the nine regions, nine openings, five zang organs and twelve joints all communicates with heaven’s qi. Its generation is in fives and its qi in threes. Repeatedly violating this lets harmful qi injure people. This is the root of lifespan.
When the qi of the azure heavens is clear and still, intention is ordered. Following it makes yang qi firm; even injurious influences cannot harm it. This follows the sequence of the seasons. Thus sages concentrate essence and spirit, partake of heaven’s qi and communicate with spiritual brightness. Losing this closes the nine openings within and congests flesh outside. Defensive qi disperses and comes apart: this is self-inflicted injury and the diminishing of qi.
Reading note: The supplied 傳精神 is read through the historical 摶, concentrating or bringing together, discussed in Suwen Jiaoyi.
Yang qi is like heaven and the sun. Losing its proper place shortens life and obscures its radiance. Heaven’s movement must shine with sunlight; thus yang rises and guards the exterior.
Under cold, it should move like a pivot. Daily activity becomes startled and spirit qi floats.
Under summer heat there is sweating. Agitation brings panting and loud breathing; at rest there is much speech. The body is like burning charcoal, and sweating releases it.
Under dampness the head feels wrapped. If damp heat is not expelled, the large sinews contract and shorten, and small sinews slacken and lengthen. Contraction causes spasm; slackening causes wilting weakness.
Under qi there is swelling. These four disturbances succeed one another until yang qi is exhausted.
Reading note: The supplied fourth cause says qi; Wind is not silently substituted for it.
When yang qi is strained by agitation and labor, it expands and essence is exhausted. Accumulated through summer, this causes jian jue, burning collapse. The eyes become blind and cannot see; the ears close and cannot hear. It collapses like a ruined embankment, flowing away without stopping.
With yang qi, great anger severs the relation of bodily form and qi; blood gathers above and causes bo jue, a forceful collapse. Injury to sinews leaves them slack and unable to hold. Sweat flowing only on one side causes one-sided wasting. Sweat meeting dampness produces pustules and heat rash. Rich food brings deep boils, as readily as filling an empty vessel. Sweating from labor while exposed to wind lets cold press upon the skin, producing rough facial lesions; constraint produces pustules.
Yang qi in its refined aspect nourishes spirit, and in its gentle aspect nourishes sinews. When opening and closing fail, cold qi follows in, producing severe bending of the body. Sinking into the vessels produces fistulous sores that linger among flesh and interstices. Transport-point qi becoming thin transmits into habitual fear and alarm. Nutritive qi not following its course runs contrary to the flesh’s pattern and produces abscesses and swelling. When sweating through the bodily exterior is unfinished, the form is weak and qi consumed; the transport openings close, producing wind-associated intermittent fever.
Wind is therefore the beginning of a hundred illnesses. In clarity and stillness, the flesh’s interstices close against it. Even a great wind with severe toxicity cannot cause harm. This follows the sequence of the seasons.
When illness persists, it transmits and changes; above and below no longer join, and even a good physician cannot manage it. Accumulated yang brings illness and death. When yang qi is obstructed, the obstruction should be drained. If it is not promptly corrected and treated, an unskilled practitioner brings failure.
Yang qi governs the exterior through the day. At dawn human qi arises; at midday yang qi flourishes; toward sunset it weakens and the gates of qi close. Thus in the evening gather and guard it. Do not disturb sinews and bones or expose oneself to mist and dew. Opposing these three periods leaves the bodily form worn and weakened.”
Qi Bo said: “Yin stores essence and repeatedly raises its activity; yang guards the outside and makes it firm.
Reading note: Qi ji, 起亟, is rendered as recurrent arising activity without identifying it with a modern physiological substance.
When yin cannot prevail over yang, flow in the vessels becomes forceful and rapid; their merging produces mania. When yang cannot prevail over yin, the qi of the five zang organs contends and the nine openings are blocked.
Thus sages set yin and yang in order. Sinews and vessels harmonize, bones and marrow become firm, and qi and blood follow their courses. Inside and outside are regulated together; harmful influences cannot injure them. The ears hear keenly and the eyes see clearly; qi remains established as before.
Wind lodging as an excessive influence causes essence to be lost and injures the Liver. Overeating in this condition makes sinews and vessels slacken abnormally; intestinal flux becomes hemorrhoids. Great drinking reverses qi. Forcing bodily strength injures Kidney qi and damages the prominent bone.
The essential point of yin and yang is that closely secured yang makes stability possible. If the two are not harmonious, it is like spring without autumn or winter without summer. Bringing them into harmony is the sage’s measure. If yang is overbearing and cannot be secured, yin qi is exhausted. When yin is balanced and yang secured, essence and spirit are ordered. When yin and yang separate decisively, essential qi is exhausted.
Exposure to dew and wind produces cold and heat. Injury by wind in spring leaves harmful qi lingering and produces profuse diarrhea. Injury by summer heat brings intermittent fever in autumn. Injury by dampness in autumn causes upward counterflow and cough, developing into wilting weakness and counterflow. Injury by cold in winter brings warm disease in spring. The qi of the four seasons takes turns injuring the five zang organs.
What nourishes yin has its basis in the five flavors. Yet the five palaces of yin are also injured by the five flavors.
Too much sour makes Liver qi overflow in fluid and exhausts Spleen qi.
Too much salty strains the qi of the great bones, shortens the flesh and suppresses Heart qi.
Too much sweet brings panting and fullness in Heart qi, a dark complexion and imbalance in Kidney qi.
Too much bitter leaves Spleen qi unmoistened and makes Stomach qi thick.
Too much acrid slackens sinews and vessels and brings essence and spirit toward exhaustion.
Reading note: The supplied organ assignments, including Heart in the salty clause, are retained rather than adjusted to another version.
Carefully harmonize the five flavors: bones are aligned, sinews supple, qi and blood flow, and the interstices are close. Thus the qi of the bones is refined. Guarding the Way according to its pattern preserves the natural allotment for a long time.
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