Lingshu · Distinguishing the Qi

The text

The Yellow Emperor said: I have heard that a person has jing, qi, jin, ye, blood, and vessels. I took them to be one qi. Now they are told apart as six names, and I do not know why it is so. Qi Bo said: Two spirits contend, join and form a shape; always they precede the birth of the body — this is called jing. What is called qi? Qi Bo said: The upper burner opens and issues, spreading the flavors of the five grains, steaming the skin, filling the body, glossing the hair, like the watering of mist and dew — this is called qi. What is called jin? Qi Bo said: The interstices discharge; sweat comes out in streams — this is called jin. What is called ye? Qi Bo said: Grain enters and qi fills; the rich moisture pours into the bones; the bone-joints bend and stretch; what is discharged and moist fills and benefits brain and marrow; the skin is moist and lustrous — this is called ye. What is called blood? Qi Bo said: The middle burner receives qi, takes the juice, transforms it, and it grows red — this is called blood. What is called the vessel? Qi Bo said: What dams and holds ying-qi, and lets it have nowhere to escape — this is called the vessel. The Yellow Emperor said: Of these six qi, remainder and insufficiency, the more and less of qi, the vacuity and repletion of brain and marrow, the clear and turbid of blood and vessels — how does one know them? Qi Bo said: When jing slips away, the ears are deaf. When qi slips away, the eyes are not clear. When jin slips away, the interstices open, and sweat greatly discharges. When ye slips away, the bone-joints do not bend and stretch freely, the color withers, brain and marrow melt, the shins ache, the ears often ring. When blood slips away, the color is white, withered and without luster; the vessels are empty. These are the signs. The Yellow Emperor said: Of the six qi, how is noble and base? Qi Bo said: The six qi each have a region that governs them. Their noble and base, good and ill, may serve as constant governors. Yet the five grains and the stomach are the great sea.

The line

The Yellow Emperor said: I have heard that a person has jing, qi, jin, ye, blood, and vessels. I took them to be one qi. Now they are told apart as six names, and I do not know why it is so.

The note

Jing, qi, jin, ye, blood, and vessels were one qi to begin with. They are told apart as six names so a person will not put one thing in the wrong place. To distinguish is to look at them apart, and still remember they are one.