Lingshu · The Years of Heaven

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked Qi Bo: I wish to hear of a person's first birth. What qi is built as the foundation? What is set up as the shield-post? What, lost, is death? What, gained, is life? Qi Bo said: Take the mother as the foundation; take the father as the shield-post. Lose the spirit, and there is death; gain the spirit, and there is life. The Yellow Emperor said: What is the spirit? Qi Bo said: When blood and qi are already in accord, ying and wei already open, the five zang already formed, spirit-qi lodged in the heart, hun and po complete — then a person is made. The Yellow Emperor said: People's long life and early death are each unlike. Some die young, some live out the years; some die at once; some are ill a long time. I wish to hear the Dao of it. Qi Bo said: The five zang firm and secure; blood vessels even and in tune; flesh parting and gliding; skin tight; the walking of ying and wei not losing its constant; breath faint and slow; qi measured in its walking; the six fu transforming grain; the fluids spread and lifted — each as its constant. Therefore they can last long. The Yellow Emperor said: A person lives a hundred years and then dies — how is this brought about? Qi Bo said: Let the passages be tunneled and long; the foundation walls high and square; ying and wei opened and even; the three regions and the three li risen; bones high, flesh full — then a hundred years may be brought to their end. The Yellow Emperor said: The flourishing and decline of qi, on to death — may I hear it? Qi Bo said: At ten years of life the five zang first settle; blood and qi are already open; the qi is below, so they love to run. At twenty, blood and qi first flourish; the flesh is just growing, so they love to hurry. At thirty, the five zang are greatly settled; the flesh is firm; the blood vessels are full, so they love to walk. At forty, the five zang, the six fu, and the twelve channels are all in great flourish and have leveled off; the interstices first loosen; the flowering declines and falls; the hair is somewhat streaked with white; even and full, they do not shake, so they love to sit. At fifty, liver qi first declines; the liver leaf first thins; the bile first wanes; the eyes first are not clear. At sixty, heart qi first declines; they readily worry and grieve; blood and qi slacken, so they love to lie down. At seventy, spleen qi is empty; the skin withers. At eighty, lung qi declines; the po leaves, so speech readily errs. At ninety, kidney qi is scorched; the channels of the four zang are empty. At a hundred, all five zang are empty; spirit-qi has all gone; the form and bones live alone, and it is the end. The Yellow Emperor said: Those who cannot finish the years and die — how is it? Qi Bo said: All five zang are not firm; the passages are not long; the openings flare outward; breath is sudden and hurried; the foundation walls are also low; the vessels thin, the blood little; the flesh not stone-hard; often struck by wind and cold; blood and qi empty; the vessels not open; the true and the stray attack each other, in disorder drawing each other on — therefore they end at mid-life.

The line

Qi Bo said: At ten years of life the five zang first settle; blood and qi are already open; the qi is below, so they love to run.

The note

Ten years, twenty, thirty — on to a hundred. The years of heaven are a table of a life's qi. Lose what holds them, and age arrives before the years do.