Lingshu · The Balanced Person Who Stops Grain

The text

The Yellow Emperor said: I wish to hear why a person who does not eat dies in seven days. Bo Gao said: Let this servant speak the reason. The stomach is one chi five cun in girth, five cun in diameter, two chi six cun long; bent across, it receives three dou five sheng of water and grain. Of the grain within, two dou commonly stay; one dou five sheng of water, and it is full. The upper burner discharges qi, sending out what is refined and subtle, fierce, slippery, and swift; the lower burner irrigates downward all the intestines. The small intestine is two cun and a half in girth, eight fen and a lesser half of a fen in diameter, three zhang two chi long; it receives two dou four sheng of grain, six sheng three he and a greater half of a he of water. The winding intestine is four cun in girth, one cun and a lesser half of a cun in diameter, two zhang one chi long; it receives one dou of grain, seven sheng and a half of water. The broad intestine is eight cun in girth, two cun and a greater half of a cun in diameter, two chi eight cun long; it receives nine sheng three he and one-eighth of a he of grain. The length of the intestines and stomach is in all five zhang eight chi four cun; they receive nine dou two sheng one he and a greater half of a he of water and grain — this is the number of water and grain the intestines and stomach receive. The balanced person is not like this: when the stomach is full the intestines are empty; when the intestines are full the stomach is empty; empty and full by turns — thus qi can go above and below, the five zang are at rest, blood and vessels are even, and jing and spirit then dwell. Thus spirit is the jing-qi of water and grain. Therefore in the intestines and stomach there should stay two dou of grain and one dou five sheng of water. Thus the balanced person stools twice a day, two sheng and a half each time; in one day, five sheng; in seven days, five sevens are three dou five sheng — and the water and grain that stayed are exhausted. Thus that a balanced person who does not eat or drink dies in seven days is because the jing-qi and fluids of water and grain are all exhausted.

The line

The Yellow Emperor said: I wish to hear why a person who does not eat dies in seven days.

The note

Without food, death in seven days — because the sea is empty. The balanced person who stops grain is to let a person see that grain is not a habit. It is whether the sea is still there.