Lingshu · Questions Asked Aloud

The text

The Yellow Emperor sat at leisure, sent those at his sides away, and asked Qi Bo: I have already heard the classic of the nine needles, the discourse on yin and yang going against and going with; the six channels are complete. I wish to obtain questions asked aloud. Qi Bo left his mat and bowed twice: How good a question this is. This is what the former teachers passed by mouth. The Yellow Emperor said: I wish to hear what was passed by mouth. Qi Bo answered: The first birth of the hundred illnesses is always born of wind and rain, cold and heat, yin and yang, joy and anger, food and drink and dwelling, great startle and sudden fear. Then blood and qi part and leave one another, yin and yang break and scatter, the channels and collaterals reverse and are cut, the vessel-roads do not communicate, yin and yang go against each other, wei-qi stays and lingers, the channel vessels are empty, blood and qi lose their order, and so they lose their constant. What the discourse does not place in the channels — let me speak its method. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person yawns — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo answered: Wei-qi travels yang by day; at midnight it travels yin. Yin governs night; night is lying down. Yang governs what is above; yin governs what is below. Thus yin-qi gathers below, and yang-qi is not yet exhausted; yang draws upward, yin draws downward; yin and yang draw on each other — hence the many yawns. When yang-qi is exhausted and yin-qi abundant, the eyes close. When yin-qi is exhausted and yang-qi abundant, abundance, and one wakes. Drain foot shaoyin; fill foot taiyang. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person hiccups — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo said: Grain enters the stomach; stomach-qi pours upward into the lung. Now there is old cold qi and new grain-qi, both returning into the stomach; new and old disorder each other, the true and the pathogen attack each other, qi joins and reverses, and issues again from the stomach — hence hiccup. Fill hand taiyin; drain foot shaoyin. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person sobs — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo said: This is yin-qi abundant and yang-qi vacuous; yin-qi swift and yang-qi slow; yin-qi abundant and yang-qi cut off — hence sobbing. Fill foot taiyang; drain foot shaoyin. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person shivers with cold — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo said: Cold qi lodges in the skin; yin-qi is abundant, yang-qi vacuous — hence shivering cold and trembling. Fill all the yang. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person belches — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo said: Cold qi lodges in the stomach; reversal rises from below and scatters, and issues again from the stomach — hence belching. Fill foot taiyin and yangming. One saying: fill the brow-root. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person sneezes — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo said: Yang-qi is even and free, fills the heart, and issues at the nose — hence sneezing. Fill foot taiyang at the brook of the brow-root. One saying: above the brow. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person droops — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo said: When the stomach is not replete, all the vessels are vacuous; when all the vessels are vacuous, the sinew-vessels slacken and grow idle; when the sinew-vessels slacken and grow idle, one walks yin and uses force, and qi cannot return — hence drooping. According to where it is, fill the spaces of the divided flesh. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person grieves and tears and snivel come out — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo said: The heart is the master of the five zang and six fu. The eyes are where the ancestral vessels gather; they are the road of the upper fluids. Mouth and nose are the gates of qi. Thus grief, sorrow, care, and worry move the heart; the heart moved, the five zang and six fu all shake; shaking, the ancestral vessels are stirred; the ancestral vessels stirred, the fluid-roads open; the fluid-roads open — hence tears and snivel come out. Fluids are what irrigate jing and moisten the empty openings. Thus when the road of the upper fluids opens, there is weeping; weeping that will not stop exhausts the fluids; fluids exhausted, jing is not irrigated; jing not irrigated, the eyes have nothing they see. Therefore it is named robbed jing. Fill the heavenly-pillar channel that flanks the neck. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person long-sighs — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo said: Worry and thought make the heart-tether tight; the heart-tether tight, the qi-road is bound; bound, it does not move freely — hence the long sigh, to stretch it out. Fill hand shaoyin and the heart-governor; leave it at foot shaoyang. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person's saliva runs down — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo said: Food and drink all enter the stomach. When there is heat in the stomach, the worms stir; the worms stirring, the stomach slackens; the stomach slackening, the abyss of fluid opens — hence saliva runs down. Fill foot shaoyin. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person's ears ring within — what qi makes it so? Qi Bo said: The ears are where the ancestral vessels gather. Thus when the stomach is empty, the ancestral vessels are vacuous; vacuous, they slip downward; where a vessel is exhausted — hence the ears ring. Fill guest-and-host, and where the nail of the thumb of the hand meets the flesh. The Yellow Emperor said: When a person bites their own tongue — what qi makes it so? This is reversal rising against the current and walking upward; vessel-qi arriving in kinds. When shaoyin-qi arrives, one bites the tongue; when shaoyang-qi arrives, one bites the cheek; when yangming-qi arrives, one bites the lips. Look at what governs the illness, and fill it. All these twelve pathogens are strange pathogens that run to the empty openings. Thus wherever the pathogen is, all is insufficiency. When qi above is insufficient, the brain is not full from it, the ears suffer ringing from it, the head suffers tilting from it, the eyes are dizzy from it. When qi in the center is insufficient, urine and stool change from it, the intestines suffer sounding from it. When qi below is insufficient, it becomes wilting reversal and oppression of the heart. Fill below the outer ankle of the foot and leave it. The Yellow Emperor said: How does one treat them? Qi Bo said: The kidney governs yawning — take foot shaoyin. The lung governs hiccup — take hand taiyin. Shaoyin of the foot in sobbing: yin and yang are cut off — therefore fill foot taiyang, drain foot shaoyin. Shivering cold — fill all the yang. Belching — fill foot taiyin and yangming. Sneezing — fill foot taiyang at the brow-root. Drooping: according to where it is, fill the spaces of the divided flesh. Tears coming out — fill the heavenly-pillar channel that flanks the neck; what flanks the neck is the mid-parting of the head. Long sigh — fill hand shaoyin and the heart-governor; leave it at foot shaoyang. Saliva running down — fill foot shaoyin. Ringing in the ear — fill guest-and-host, and where the nail of the thumb of the hand meets the flesh. Biting one's own tongue — look at what governs the illness, and fill it. Dizzy eyes and a tilting head — fill below the outer ankle of the foot and leave it. Wilting reversal and oppression of the heart — needle two cun above between the big toes of the foot and leave it. One saying: leave it below the outer ankle of the foot.

The line

Qi Bo left his mat and bowed twice: How good a question this is. This is what the former teachers passed by mouth.

The note

Questions asked aloud are a string of everyday strangeness: yawning, hiccup, sneeze, grief. Qi Bo speaks them back into yin and yang. What is strange is often ordinary qi that has walked off the path.