Lingshu · Forbidden to Transmit Lightly

The text

Lei Gong asked the Yellow Emperor: This lesser student received the work, and has passed through the Nine Needles in sixty chapters. Dawn and dusk I have worn them diligently. The nearer bindings have broken; the older slips are stained. Still I chant and will not set them down, and I have not yet exhausted their meaning. Gauging the Outer says to bind the mixed into one — I do not yet know what is meant. The great has no outside; the small has no inside. Great and small without limit, high and low without measure — how then to bind them? The talent and strength of scholars are thick or thin; thought is narrow and shallow, and cannot be broad, great, deep, and hidden. They force themselves in study as this lesser student does. I fear it will scatter in later ages and be cut off from sons and grandsons. May I ask how to bind it? The Yellow Emperor said: A good question. This is what the former teachers forbade, and they sealed it by a private transmission — the oath of cutting the arm and smearing blood. If you wish to have it, why have you not fasted? Lei Gong bowed twice, rose, and said: I ask to receive the charge in this. He then fasted and spent three nights, and asked: I dare ask — today at the straight yang, this lesser student wishes to receive the oath. The Yellow Emperor went with him into the fasting room; they cut the arm and smeared the blood. The Yellow Emperor himself spoke the vow: Today at the straight yang, we smear blood and pass the method. Whoever dares turn his back on these words, let the harm return upon him. Lei Gong bowed twice and said: This lesser student receives it. The Yellow Emperor then took his hand with the left, and with the right gave him the writings, and said: Be careful, be careful. I will speak it for you. In all the principle of needling, the channels come first. Trace where they walk; know their measures. Within, needle the five zang; without, needle the six fu. Examine wei qi — it is the mother of the hundred illnesses. Regulate the empty and the full, and empty and full then stop. Drain the blood networks; when the blood is exhausted, there is no danger. Lei Gong said: These are all what this lesser student has already passed through. I do not yet know how they are bound. The Yellow Emperor said: To bind a method is like cinching a bag. If the bag is full and you do not cinch it, it leaks. If the method is complete and you do not bind it, the spirit does not go with it. Lei Gong said: I wish, as lesser material, to cinch it before it is full. The Yellow Emperor said: To know how to bind it before it is full makes a craftsman. It does not make a teacher of the realm. Lei Gong said: I wish to hear how to be a craftsman. The Yellow Emperor said: The inch-mouth governs the inner; the man's-welcome governs the outer. The two answer each other, going together and coming together, as if one pulled a rope — large and small of one measure. In spring and summer the man's-welcome is a little larger; in autumn and winter the inch-mouth is a little larger. Such a one is called an even person. When the man's-welcome is greater than the inch-mouth by one-fold, the illness is in foot shaoyang; one-fold and restless, in hand shaoyang. The man's-welcome two-fold: illness in foot taiyang; two-fold and restless, in hand taiyang. The man's-welcome three-fold: illness in foot yangming; three-fold and restless, in hand yangming. Fullness is heat; emptiness is cold; tightness is painful impediment; an intermittent pulse is now severe, now at ease. When full, drain it; when empty, replenish it; when tight and painful, take it in the divisions of the flesh; when intermittent, take the blood networks, and also drink medicine; when sunken, moxa it; when neither full nor empty, take it by the channel — this is called channel-needling. When the man's-welcome is four-fold, both large and rapid, it is called overflowing yang. Overflowing yang is an outer block — death, not to be ordered. You must press and examine root and branch, watch cold and heat, and so test the illness of zang and fu. When the inch-mouth is greater than the man's-welcome by one-fold, the illness is in foot jueyin; one-fold and restless, in hand heart-governor. The inch-mouth two-fold: illness in foot shaoyin; two-fold and restless, in hand shaoyin. The inch-mouth three-fold: illness in foot taiyin; three-fold and restless, in hand taiyin. Fullness is swelling and fullness, cold in the center, food not transforming. Emptiness is heat in the center, thin stools, little qi, the color of the urine changed. Tightness is painful impediment; intermittent is pain that starts and stops. When full, drain it; when empty, replenish it; when tight, needle first and then moxa; when intermittent, take the blood networks and then regulate; when sunken, only moxa. What is sunken: the pulse and blood networks are in the center; in the center there is lodged blood; the blood is cold, so moxa is fitting. When neither full nor empty, take it by the channel — this is called channel-needling. When the inch-mouth is four-fold, it is called inner block. Inner block is both large and rapid — death, not to be ordered. You must examine the cold and warmth of root and branch, and so test the illness of zang and fu. Open the ying and the transports, and you may pass on the great count. The great count says: when full, only drain; when empty, only replenish; when tight, moxa and needle, and also drink medicine; when sunken, only moxa; when neither full nor empty, take it by the channel. What is called channel-ordering: drink medicine, and also moxa and needle. When the pulse is urgent, draw it; when the pulse is large and weak, one wants quiet — use strength without labor.

The line

Lei Gong asked the Yellow Emperor: This lesser student received the work, and has passed through the Nine Needles in sixty chapters.

The note

The bindings break, the slips stain — still it is forbidden to transmit lightly. Forbidden means this cannot be passed as idle talk. To wear it means put it on yourself first, then let another see.