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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 9 · Six Periods and Manifestations of the Zang Organs
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 completes a year through divisions of six by six, while people are governed through gatherings of nine by nine. People also have three hundred sixty-five divisions, corresponding to heaven and earth. I have long heard this but do not understand its meaning.”
Qi Bo replied: “How illuminating the question! Let me explain. Six-by-six divisions and nine-by-nine gatherings rectify heaven’s measures and qi’s numbers. Heaven’s measures regulate the sun and moon’s courses; qi’s numbers record the operation of transformation and generation.
Heaven is yang and earth yin; sun yang and moon yin. Their movements have divisions and their circuits an ordered course. The sun travels one degree and the moon thirteen degrees with a remainder. Greater and lesser months thus make three hundred sixty-five days in a year. Accumulating the remainder of qi fills an intercalary period. Establish the starting point at the beginning, set the standard at the middle, and calculate the remainder at the end: heaven’s measures are complete.”
The Emperor said: “I have heard heaven’s measures. I wish to hear how qi’s numbers correspond to them.”
Qi Bo said: “Heaven takes six by six as divisions and earth nine by nine as its governing gatherings. Heaven has ten day designations; six rounds complete a Jia cycle, and six Jia cycles complete a year: the method of three hundred sixty days.
What communicates with heaven is the root of life, founded on yin and yang. Qi in the nine regions and nine openings all communicates with heaven’s qi. Its generation is in fives and its qi in threes. Three completes heaven, three earth and three humanity. Three taken three times combines as nine. Nine divides into nine fields; nine fields correspond to nine storehouses. Four storehouses of form and five of spirit combine as nine storehouses in correspondence.”
The Emperor said: “I have heard the gatherings of six by six and nine by nine. You speak of accumulating qi to fill an intercalary period. What is meant by qi? Please dispel my ignorance and doubts.”
Qi Bo said: “This is what the ancient sovereign kept secret and earlier teachers transmitted.”
Reading note: Shangdi, 上帝, follows Wang Bing’s explanation as a sovereign of antiquity.
The Emperor said: “Please let me hear it fully.”
Qi Bo said: “Five days are called a hou; three hou a qi; six qi a season; and four seasons a year. Each follows the rule of its governing influence. The five movements succeed one another and each governs. At the end of the appointed period, the circuit begins again. Seasons are established and qi distributed like a ring without an end; the hou follow the same method. Thus one who does not know what is added to the year, the strength and decline of qi, and the origins of deficiency and excess cannot be a practitioner.”
The Emperor asked: “The beginning of the five movements is like a ring without an end. What of their excess and insufficiency?”
Qi Bo said: “The five qi take their positions in turn, each with what it overcomes. Changes of strength and deficiency are their regular course.”
The Emperor asked: “What is balanced qi?”
Qi Bo said: “It does not exceed its proper measure.”
The Emperor asked: “What of excess and insufficiency?”
Qi Bo said: “They are recorded in the canon.”
The Emperor asked: “What is meant by what it overcomes?”
Qi Bo said: “Spring overcomes late summer, late summer winter, winter summer, summer autumn, and autumn spring. These are the seasonal prevailing relations of the five phases. Each organ is assigned through its qi.”
The Emperor asked: “How is its prevailing known?”
Qi Bo said: “Seek its arrival, taking the beginning of spring as the common starting point. Arrival before its time is excess: it presses upon what normally overcomes it and overrides what it normally overcomes. This is called excessive qi. Failure to distinguish it lets wayward influences arise within, beyond the practitioner’s restraint.
Failure to arrive when due is insufficiency: what it normally overcomes acts recklessly, what it generates becomes ill, and what overcomes it presses upon it. This is called constrained qi. Seeking its arrival means observing when qi arrives. Attend carefully to its time and its arrival can be expected. Lose the time, reverse the observations and fail to distinguish the five governing influences, and wayward influences arise within, beyond the practitioner’s restraint.”
The Emperor asked: “Can they fail to succeed one another?”
Qi Bo said: “The qi of the azure heavens cannot lack regularity. Failure of qi’s succession is called anomalous; anomaly brings change.”
The Emperor asked: “What happens when anomaly brings change?”
Qi Bo said: “When change arrives, illness occurs. On the prevailing side it is slight; on the side unable to prevail it is severe. If harmful influences affect it again, death follows. Thus outside its season it is slight; in its season severe.”
The Emperor said: “Good. I have heard that qi joins to make form, and names are rectified according to transformation. In heaven and earth’s movements and yin–yang transformations, what is little and what is much among all things? May I hear?”
Qi Bo said: “How comprehensive the question! Heaven is so broad it cannot be measured, and earth so great it cannot be reckoned. Your question reaches the great spiritual mysteries; let me set out their pattern. Plants produce five colors, whose variations exceed what can be seen, and five flavors, whose delights cannot be exhausted. Desires differ, each having its own communication.
Heaven nourishes people with five qi and earth with five flavors. Five qi enter the nose and are stored in Heart and Lung, making the five colors bright above and the voice clear. Five flavors enter the mouth and are stored in intestines and stomach. Each flavor has where it is stored, nourishing the five qi. Qi harmonizes and life arises; fluids complete one another and spirit naturally comes forth.”
The Emperor asked: “What are the manifestations of the zang organs?”
Qi Bo said: “Heart is the root of life and where spirit transforms. Its splendor is in the face and its fullness in blood and vessels. It is Taiyang within yang and communicates with summer qi.
Lung is the root of qi and abode of the po, the bodily soul. Its splendor is in body hair and its fullness in skin. It is Taiyin within yang and communicates with autumn qi.
Kidney governs hibernation and is the root of sealing and storage, the abode of essence. Its splendor is in head hair and its fullness in bones. It is Shaoyin within yin and communicates with winter qi.
Liver is the root of exertion and exhaustion and abode of the hun, the ethereal soul. Its splendor is in the nails and its fullness in sinews, generating blood and qi. Its flavor is sour and color blue-green. It is Shaoyang within yang and communicates with spring qi.
Spleen, Stomach, Large Intestine, Small Intestine, Triple Burner and Bladder are the root of the granaries and abode of nourishment. Called vessels, they transform dregs and transmit flavors in and out. Their splendor is in the lips and pale area around them, their fullness in flesh, flavor sweet and color yellow. This utmost-yin category communicates with Earth qi. All eleven organs take their decisions from Gallbladder.
A Renying pulse onefold stronger indicates illness in Shaoyang; twofold in Taiyang; threefold in Yangming; fourfold or more is obstructed yang. A Cunkou pulse onefold stronger indicates illness in Jueyin; twofold in Shaoyin; threefold in Taiyin; fourfold or more is barred yin. Renying and Cunkou both four times stronger or more is closure and obstruction. Such overflowing pulses cannot reach heaven and earth’s essential qi, and death follows.”
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