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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 78 · Examining the Four Failures
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The Yellow Emperor was in the Hall of Light, with Lei Gong seated in attendance.
The Yellow Emperor said: “You have understood many books and received much instruction. Try to explain success and failure: how success is obtained and how failure occurs.”
Lei Gong replied: “Following the classics and receiving instruction, all speak of complete success. Yet errors sometimes occur. Please explain these matters.”
The Emperor said: “Are you young and not yet wise enough, or will you speak in confused mixtures? There are twelve channel vessels and three hundred sixty-five network vessels. People know these clearly and practitioners follow and use them. Failure to achieve complete success comes from unfocused essence and spirit, disordered intention, and a mismatch between outside and within. Thus doubt and peril sometimes arise.”
“To diagnose without knowing yin and yang, opposing and following, is the first failure in treatment.”
“Not completing instruction from a teacher, recklessly mixing arts, falsely calling one’s words the Way, changing names to claim personal merit and rashly using stone treatment, leaving bodily harm afterward—this is the second failure in treatment.”
“Failing to suit treatment to the dwelling of rich or poor, high or low, the thickness of their sitting supports and the cold or warmth of their bodies; failing to suit food and drink, distinguish courage from timidity or compare kinds—this suffices to confuse oneself, not to make oneself clear. This is the third failure in treatment.”
“Examining illness without asking its beginning, worry and distress, irregular food and drink, excessive activity and rest, or injury by poison; failing to discuss these first and immediately grasping Cunkou—what illness can be correctly identified? Reckless talk invents names and reaches the limits of crude practice. This is the fourth failure in treatment.”
“Thus people’s talk races beyond a thousand li, yet they do not understand the discussion of cun and chi, and their examination lacks human affairs. The Way of treatment’s rules is preserved through unhurried discrimination.”
“Sitting and grasping Cunkou without matching the five pulses or knowing where the many illnesses arise, one first blames oneself and then leaves the fault to the teacher. Treatment does not follow principle; the art is cast into the marketplace. Reckless treatment sometimes cures, and the foolish mind is pleased with itself.”
“Alas, how deep and obscure! Who knows this Way? Its greatness is likened to heaven and earth and matched with the four seas. You do not know its instruction and receive clarity as darkness.”
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