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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 27 · Separation and Union of True and Harmful Qi
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked: “I have heard of nine needles and nine chapters. You expanded nine by nine into eighty-one chapters, and I understand their meaning. The canon discusses the flourishing and decline of qi, its shifting left and right, regulating below through above and right through left, excess and insufficiency, and supplementation and draining at the ying-spring and shu-transport points. I know these. They concern shifting nutritive and defensive qi and the production of deficiency and repletion, rather than harmful qi entering the channels from outside. I wish to hear how harmful qi in the channels makes a person ill and how to treat it.”
Qi Bo replied: “When sages established measures and numbers, they necessarily corresponded to Heaven and Earth. Heaven has stellar degrees; Earth channel waters; people channel vessels. When Heaven and Earth are warm and harmonious, channel waters are calm. When Heaven is cold and Earth frozen, they congeal and become rough. When Heaven and Earth are hot, they surge and overflow. When a violent wind suddenly rises, their waves swell into ridges.
When harmful influence enters the vessels, cold congeals and roughens blood, while summer heat makes qi fluid. Deficient harmful influence enters and lodges through this, like wind striking channel waters. The beating channel vessels sometimes likewise swell on arrival. Qi proceeds along the vessels in sequence; its arrival under the hand at the cun opening is now large, now small. Large means harmful qi has arrived; small means normality. It travels without a fixed site, through yin and yang, and cannot be assigned a fixed measure.
Follow and examine it through the three regions and nine examinations. When suddenly encountered, block its path early. Insert the needle on inhalation without making qi oppose itself. Remain still and retain it, preventing harmful qi from spreading. Turn the needle on inhalation, taking the obtaining of qi as the aim. Wait for exhalation to withdraw it; remove it when exhalation ends. The great qi is discharged: therefore this is called draining.”
The Emperor asked: “How does one supplement insufficiency?”
Qi Bo said: “First stroke and follow the course; press and disperse; push and hold; flick to rouse it; scratch to draw it downward; free its passage and treat it. Draw the outer gate open to enclose its spirit. Insert the needle when exhalation ends, remain still and retain it, taking the arrival of qi as the aim. Wait as for an honored guest, unaware that evening comes.
When qi arrives, suitably protect it. Wait for inhalation to withdraw the needle, preventing qi from escaping and keeping each influence in its place. Push the gate closed, preserving spiritual qi. The great qi stays: therefore this is called supplementation.”
The Emperor asked: “How does one watch for qi?”
Qi Bo said: “When harmful qi leaves the networks and enters the channels, it lodges in the blood vessels. Its cold or warmth has not yet harmonized with them. Like rising waves, it comes and goes and is not always present. Thus when it comes, press and stop it, then treat it; do not drain by meeting its full rush. True qi is channel qi, and channel qi may be extremely deficient. This is the meaning of ‘its coming cannot be met.’
If observation of harmful qi is uncertain and the great qi has already passed, draining strips away true qi. Once stripped away it does not return; harmful qi arrives again and illness accumulates. This is the meaning of ‘its departure cannot be pursued.’
Not allowing even a hair to intervene means waiting until harmful qi arrives and then applying the needle to drain it. Acting before or after exhausts blood and qi, and the illness cannot be reduced. Thus knowing when treatment is possible is like releasing a trigger; not knowing is like striking with a mallet. Knowing the mechanism’s Way permits not even a hair’s delay. One who does not know the mechanism strikes it without release. This is what those sayings mean.”
The Emperor asked: “How do supplementation and draining apply?”
Qi Bo said: “This attacks harmful influence. Quickly release the abundant blood to restore true qi. The harmful influence is newly lodged, flowing freely without a fixed place. Pushing moves it forward; drawing checks it. Needle against its course: the text calls this warming the blood. Needle to release its blood and the illness ends immediately.
Reading note: The supplied 溫血也 is retained as warming the blood, without replacing it with a different textual reading.”
The Emperor said: “Good. But when true and harmful qi have combined and no wave ridges rise, how can one observe them?”
Qi Bo said: “Carefully stroke and follow the fullness and deficiency of the three regions and nine examinations, and regulate them. Examine discord and diminution between left and right, above and below. Determine the diseased zang organ to assign its period. Without knowing the three regions, yin and yang are not distinguished and Heaven and Earth not separated. Use Earth to observe Earth, Heaven to observe Heaven and the human region to observe the human region. Regulate the central gathering places to establish the three regions.
Thus if needling does not recognize the diseased pulse sites of the three regions and nine examinations, the practitioner cannot prevent even a great disorder about to arrive. Punishing what has committed no fault is called great delusion. It instead disorders the great channels, and true qi cannot be restored. Treating repletion as deficiency and harmful qi as true qi makes needling senseless and turns it into a robber of qi. It takes away a person’s correct qi and treats a following course as contrary. Nutritive and defensive qi scatter into disorder; true qi is lost, and harmful influence alone lodges within. It cuts short a long life and brings premature calamity. Not knowing the three regions and nine examinations, one cannot preserve longevity.
Not knowing how to accord with the four seasons and five phases further adds the overcoming influences. One releases the harmful influence and attacks the correct, cutting short a person’s life. A newly arriving harmful influence has no fixed place: pushing moves it forward; drawing checks it. Meet it and drain it, and the illness ends immediately.”
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