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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 76 · Demonstrating Unhurried Discrimination
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor sat at ease, summoned Lei Gong and asked: “You have received the art and recited the books. If you can survey diverse learning, reach comparison by kinds and join the principles, tell me your strengths: the five zang and six fu, Gallbladder, Stomach, Large and Small Intestines, Spleen, enclosure and Bladder, brain, marrow, nasal fluids and saliva, crying, tears, sorrow and the courses of water. All concern human life. Strive to understand errors in treatment, so that complete success may be possible. If you cannot know them, the world will reproach you.”
The enclosure term is retained without silently replacing the source’s listed structures.
Lei Gong said: “I can recite the upper and lower chapters of the Pulse Classic; they are very numerous. Yet distinguishing differences and comparing kinds has not brought complete success. How could that suffice for clear understanding?”
The Emperor said: “Try to distinguish and comprehend faults of the five zang, disharmony of the six fu, failures with needles and stones, what suits potent medicinals, decoctions and nourishing flavors. Give their manifestations fully and answer in detail. Ask about what you do not know.”
Lei Gong said: “Liver emptiness, Kidney emptiness and Spleen emptiness all cause bodily heaviness and vexed oppression. Potent medicinals, needling, moxibustion, stone treatment and decoctions are applied; sometimes illness ceases, sometimes not. I wish to hear the explanation.”
The Emperor said: “How advanced you are in years, yet how slight your question! I was mistaken to question you.”
“I asked about the deep and obscure, yet you answered with the upper and lower chapters. Why?”
“A Spleen-empty floating pulse resembles the Lung; a Kidney-small floating pulse resembles the Spleen; a Liver-tense, sinking and scattered pulse resembles the Kidney. Practitioners often confuse these, yet they can be understood through unhurried discrimination.”
The Kidney-small wording follows the source rather than silently replacing it with the neighboring emptiness term.
“The three zang occupy Earth, Wood and Water among them. Even a child knows this. Why ask about it?”
Lei Gong said: “Here is someone with headache, contracted sinews, heavy bones, timidity and scant qi, hiccups, belching, abdominal fullness, occasional fright and little desire to lie down. From which zang does this arise? The pulse is floating and string-like, hard as stone when pressed. I do not understand it. I asked again about the three zang to know how to compare their kinds.”
The Emperor said: “This is what unhurried discrimination means. In the old, seek it in the fu; in the young, in the channels; in the mature, in the zang. What you describe misses the eight Winds and pent-up heat, the wasting of the five zang and their successive reception of harmful influence.
“A floating and string-like pulse means the Kidney is insufficient; a sinking, stony pulse means Kidney qi is attached within. Timidity and scant qi mean the water passages do not move and bodily form and qi are depleted. Cough and vexed oppression mean Kidney qi counterflow. In one person’s qi, the illness is in one zang. To say all three zang act together is outside the method.”
The explanation’s sinking pulse and cough are retained even though the preceding case stated floating hardness and did not separately list cough.
Lei Gong said: “Here is someone with slack, weary limbs, panting, cough and bleeding. Foolishly examining the person, I thought the Lung injured. The pulse was floating, large and tight; I dared not treat. A crude practitioner applied the stone, much blood came out, and the illness improved. After bleeding stopped the body felt light. What is this?”
The Emperor said: “You know many things to treat, yet have missed this illness. It is like a wild goose flying, still rushing into heaven.”
“Sages treating illness follow methods and keep measures. They draw on things and compare kinds, comprehending transformation in what is obscure, following above to reach below. Why cling rigidly to the written channel rules?”
“A floating, large and empty pulse means Spleen qi is cut off outwardly, leaves the Stomach and returns outside to Yangming.”
“Two Fire cannot overcome Three Water; therefore the pulse is disordered and inconstant.”
The numerical Fire and Water expressions are retained as the text’s labels, not converted into measured quantities.
“Slack and weary limbs mean Spleen essence does not circulate. Panting and cough mean Water qi joins Yangming. Bleeding means the vessels are tense and blood has nowhere to go. To take this as Lung injury is an error running wild. Failure to draw comparisons means knowledge is unclear.”
“In Lung injury, Spleen qi does not keep guard, Stomach qi is not clear and channel qi does not act as envoy. The true zang break down; channel vessels are cut off alongside and the five zang leak. There are either nosebleeds or vomiting. These two patterns do not resemble one another.”
“It is like heaven without form and earth without pattern: white and black are far apart.”
“This failure is my fault. I thought you knew it and therefore did not tell you. Clearly draw comparisons with unhurried discrimination, and diagnosis is called easy. This is the highest Way.”
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