Lingshu · Inferring the Outside

The text

The Yellow Emperor said: I have heard the nine needles in nine chapters; I myself received their regulation, and have rather obtained their meaning. The nine needles begin at one and end at nine, yet I have not yet obtained their essential Dao. The nine needles: made small, they have no inside; made large, they have no outside; so deep they cannot be a bottom; so high they cannot be a cover; vague and without end; overflowing without limit. I know they join the Dao of heaven, human affairs, and the changes of the four seasons. Yet I wish to bind the mixed, down to a fine hair, into one — may it be so? Qi Bo said: How clear a question this is. Not only the Dao of the needle — governing a state is also so. The Yellow Emperor said: I wish to hear the Dao of the needle, not the affairs of a state. Qi Bo said: To govern a state, there is only the Dao. Without the Dao, how can small and large, deep and shallow, be mixed and joined as one? The Yellow Emperor said: I wish to hear it to the end. Qi Bo said: The sun and the moon; water and the mirror; the drum and the echo. The brightness of sun and moon does not lose the shadow; the seeing of water and mirror does not lose the form; the answer of drum and echo does not come after the sound. Move and shake, and they answer and accord — they obtain the feeling to the end. The Yellow Emperor said: How hard-pressed this is. Brightness so bright cannot be covered; that it cannot be covered is that it does not lose yin and yang. Join and examine it, press and test it, see and obtain it — like clear water and a bright mirror that do not lose the form. When the five tones are not shown, the five colors not clear, the five zang tossing in waves — then outer and inner raid upon each other, like the drum answering the drumstick, the echo answering the sound, the shadow answering the form. Thus those far watch the outer and infer the inner; those near watch the inner and infer the outer. This is called the extreme of yin and yang, the cover of heaven and earth. Please store it in the chamber of the Numinous Orchid; I dare not let it leak.

The line

The nine needles begin at one and end at nine, yet I have not yet obtained their essential Dao.

The note

Inferring the outside is pushing from the outer to the inner. The nine needles begin at one and end at nine, like the start and stop of a tone. You cannot see the inside; you can still hear it from the beat without.