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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 80 · Comparing Strength and Decline
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
Lei Gong asked: “In the greater and lesser amounts of qi, what opposes the order and what follows it?”
The Yellow Emperor replied: “Yang follows the left, yin the right; the old follow above, the young below. Thus in spring and summer, returning to yang means life and returning to autumn and winter means death. In the reverse case, returning to autumn and winter means life. Thus whether qi is greater or lesser, opposition becomes counterflow.”
Lei Gong asked: “Can excess also cause counterflow?”
The Emperor replied: “Once it rises without descending, cold counterflow reaches the knees. The young die in autumn and winter; the old live in autumn and winter. Qi rises without descending, with headache and illness of the head. Yang is sought but not found; yin sought without certainty. The five divisions are separated and show no clear sign, as though in an empty wilderness or hidden in a vacant chamber. It continues faintly, joined without filling the day.”
The obscure closing image is retained without supplying an exact survival time beyond the source’s own day wording.
“Counterflow from scant qi therefore makes people dream confusedly; at its extreme there is bewilderment. The three yang are cut off and the three yin faint: this is called scant qi.”
“When Lung qi is empty, a person dreams of white things, of people being cut down and blood scattered about. In its corresponding season, the dreams are of weapons and battle.”
“When Kidney qi is empty, a person dreams of boats and drowning people. In its corresponding season, the dreamer lies hidden in water, as if afraid.”
“When Liver qi is empty, a person dreams of fragrant plants and growing grass. In its corresponding season, the dreamer lies under a tree and dares not rise.”
The obscure jun-xiang plant expression is kept at the level of fragrant vegetation, without assigning a modern species.
“When Heart qi is empty, a person dreams of fighting fire and yang things. In its corresponding season, the dream is of burning and scorching.”
“When Spleen qi is empty, a person dreams of insufficient food and drink. In its corresponding season, the dream is of building walls and roofing houses.”
“All these involve empty qi in the five zang, excess yang qi and insufficient yin qi. Join them with the five examinations and regulate yin and yang according to what is in the channel vessels.”
“Diagnosis has ten measures for assessing people: measures of vessels, zang, flesh, sinews and transporting points. When the account of yin and yang qi is complete, the person’s illness shows itself fully. Pulse movement is inconstant: yin scatters and it inclines toward yang; the pulse loses something and is incomplete. Examination has no single fixed course. It must consider above and below and assess common people, rulers and ministers.
“Incomplete instruction from a teacher leaves the art unclear. Failure to observe opposing and following is reckless practice: holding the female and losing the male, abandoning yin and attaching to yang, not knowing how they join. Diagnosis is therefore unclear. Passed to later generations, a contrary discourse displays only itself.”
The text names ten measures but lists five kinds here. The counts are retained; no five missing items are invented. Older commentary reads paired aspects within the five kinds.
“When utmost yin is empty, heaven’s qi is cut off; when utmost yang is abundant, earth’s qi is insufficient. Yin and yang crossing together is what the accomplished person attends to. In their crossing, yang qi arrives first and yin qi afterward.”
“Thus sages holding the Way of diagnosis grasp the earlier and later arrival of yin and yang. The patterns of the unusual and ordinary have sixty heads. Examination joins subtle matters, follows changes of yin and yang and reveals the circumstances of the five centers. Within this discourse, take the essentials of emptiness and repletion and determine the matters of the five measures. Knowing this is sufficient for diagnosis.”
The sixty heads are retained as a textual grouping; their missing contents are not reconstructed.
“Feeling yin without obtaining yang gives a diagnosis of perishing. Obtaining yang without yin means one’s learning is not profound. Knowing left but not right, right but not left, above but not below, earlier but not later—treatment cannot last. Know the unfavorable and favorable, illness and absence of illness, high and low, sitting and rising, moving and stopping. Use them in order, and the Way of diagnosis is complete and free from peril for countless generations.”
“Begin from what is excessive and know what is insufficient. Assess matters above and below; pulse matters follow their patterns. Thus weak bodily form with empty qi means death. Abundant bodily form and qi with insufficient pulse qi means death. Abundant pulse qi with insufficient bodily form and qi means life.”
These contrasting prognostic statements are retained as the source’s claims, not reconciled into a new rule.
“Thus diagnosis has a great method. Sitting and rising follow regular order; entry and exit follow a course. To turn spiritual illumination to the task, there must be clarity and purity. Observe above and below, oversee the eight correct and harmful influences, distinguish the divisions of the five centers, press the pulse for movement and stillness, examine the chi region for smoothness, roughness, cold and warmth, and observe size. Join these with the illness’s manifestations, understand opposing and following, and know the illness’s name.
“Diagnosis can then achieve complete success without losing the person’s circumstances. Sometimes observe breathing; sometimes intention. Thus the order is not lost. The Way is deeply clear and discerning, so it endures. Those who do not know it lose the channels and sever principle, speaking recklessly and predicting rashly. This is called losing the Way.”
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