Lingshu · How Illness Travels

The text

The Yellow Emperor said: I received the nine needles from you, Master, and I have privately looked through the many methods. Some have guiding and stretching, moving qi, massage, moxa and ironing, needling and burning, or drinking medicine — may one guard a single one, or will one walk them all? Qi Bo said: The many methods are the methods of the many people; they are not what one person walks to the end. The Yellow Emperor said: This is what is meant by guarding the one and not losing it — then the ten thousand things are complete. I have already heard the essential of yin and yang, the principle of vacuity and repletion, the fault of tipping and shifting, and what belongs to what can be put in order. I wish to hear the changes of illness — overflow that travels, cutting off and ruin that cannot be put in order. May I hear it? Qi Bo said: How essential this question of the Dao. How bright, as one waking in the day. How hard-pressed, as one closing the eyes at night. If you can wear it and put it on, the spirit completes with it; when you have put it all on, the spirit obtains it of itself. The principle of giving birth to spirit may be written on bamboo and silk; it cannot be transmitted to sons and grandsons. The Yellow Emperor said: What is called waking in the day? Qi Bo said: Clear in yin and yang, like a puzzle undone, like a drunkard waking. The Yellow Emperor said: What is called closing the eyes at night? Qi Bo said: Mute, without sound; blank, without form; the hairs break, the interstices open; upright qi tips and spills; overflowing pathogen spreads and soaks; blood and vessels transmit and slip; great qi enters the zang; abdominal pain and overflow below — one may be brought to death, one may not be brought to life. The Yellow Emperor said: Great qi entering the zang — how is it? Qi Bo said: Illness first issues in the heart: in one day it goes to the lung, in three days to the liver, in five days to the spleen; if in three days it has not ended — death; in winter at midnight, in summer at midday. Illness first issues in the lung: in three days it goes to the liver, in one day to the spleen, in five days to the stomach; if in ten days it has not ended — death; in winter at sunset, in summer at sunrise. Illness first issues in the liver: in three days it goes to the spleen, in five days to the stomach, in three days to the kidney; if in three days it has not ended — death; in winter at sunset, in summer at the early meal. Illness first issues in the spleen: in one day it goes to the stomach, in two days to the kidney, in three days to the spine-muscles and the bladder; if in ten days it has not ended — death; in winter when people settle, in summer at the late meal. Illness first issues in the stomach: in five days it goes to the kidney, in three days to the spine-muscles and the bladder, in five days it rises to the heart; if in two days it has not ended — death; in winter at midnight, in summer in the afternoon. Illness first issues in the kidney: in three days it goes to the spine-muscles and the bladder, in three days it rises to the heart, in three days to the small intestine; if in three days it has not ended — death; in winter at great dawn, in summer at early late-afternoon. Illness first issues in the bladder: in five days it goes to the kidney, in one day to the small intestine, in one day to the heart; if in two days it has not ended — death; in winter at cock-crow, in summer in the late afternoon. All illnesses that travel and pass in this next sequence have a time of death, and may not be needled. Those that skip one zang, or reach a second, third, or fourth zang — these may be needled.

The line

Qi Bo said: The many methods are the methods of the many people; they are not what one person walks to the end.

The note

Guiding and stretching, or drinking medicine — one may guard a single one. How illness travels asks this: illness will move house of itself. To guard one method is sometimes to guard an old address.