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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 6 · Separation and Union of Yin and Yang
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked: “I have heard that heaven is yang and earth yin, sun yang and moon yin. The greater and lesser months make a year of three hundred sixty days, and people correspond to this. Why, then, do three yin and three yang not correspond simply to yin and yang?”
Qi Bo replied: “Yin and yang can be numbered by tens, extended to hundreds, numbered by thousands and extended to tens of thousands, beyond counting; their essential principle is one. Heaven covers and earth carries, and all things begin to grow. What has not emerged from earth occupies yin and is called yin within yin. What has emerged is called yang within yin. Yang grants its proper ordering, and yin acts as its master. Thus generation follows spring, growth summer, gathering autumn and storage winter. Losing this regularity blocks heaven and earth in all four directions. Yin–yang transformations in people can likewise be counted in many divisions.”
The Emperor said: “I wish to hear of the separation and union of the three yin and three yang.”
Qi Bo said: “The sage stands facing south. In front is Broad Brightness; behind the Great Thoroughfare. The region of the Great Thoroughfare is called Shaoyin. Above Shaoyin is Taiyang, whose root begins at Zhiyin and binds at the Gate of Life: yang within yin. Above the middle of the body is Broad Brightness. Below it is Taiyin, and before Taiyin Yangming, whose root begins at Lidui: yang within yin. Outside Jueyin is Shaoyang, whose root begins at Qiaoyin: lesser yang within yin.
In the separation and union of the three yang, Taiyang is opening, Yangming closing and Shaoyang the pivot. The three channels must not lose one another. Joined together without floating, they are called one yang.”
The Emperor said: “I wish to hear of the three yin.”
Qi Bo said: “Outside is yang and inside yin. Thus the interior is yin; its convergence below is called Taiyin. Taiyin’s root begins at Yinbai: yin within yin. Behind Taiyin is Shaoyin, rooted at Yongquan: lesser yin within yin. Before Shaoyin is Jueyin, rooted at Dadun. Yin reaching the severance of yang is called yin’s utmost yin.
In the separation and union of the three yin, Taiyin is opening, Jueyin closing and Shaoyin the pivot. The three channels must not lose one another. Joined together without sinking, they are called one yin.
Yin and yang travel back and forth. Accumulated transmission forms one complete circuit, with qi inside and bodily form outside, mutually completing each other.”
Reading note: The rare repeated graph 𩅞𩅞 is rendered as movement to and fro, following Wang Bing’s explanation of qi’s coming and going in the collected classical commentary.
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