Lingshu · Thief Wind

The text

The Yellow Emperor said: You, master, say that thief wind and stray qi wound a person and make him ill. Now there are those who never leave the screen, never go out from room and cave, and suddenly fall ill. It is not that they failed to leave thief wind and stray qi. What is the reason? Qi Bo said: These have all once been wounded by damp qi, stored in the blood vessels, between the divisions of the flesh, staying long and not leaving. Or they have fallen; foul blood is within and does not leave. Suddenly joy and anger are not measured; drink and food do not fit; cold and warmth miss their time; the interstices close and do not open. When they open and meet wind and cold, blood and qi clot and bind, and join with the old stray — this becomes cold impediment. If there is heat, then sweat comes out; sweat coming out, they receive wind. Though they do not meet thief wind and stray qi, there must be a cause added, and then it breaks out. The Yellow Emperor said: What you, master, have spoken is all what the ill person himself knows. Those who have met no stray qi, and have no will of startle and dread, and yet suddenly fall ill — what is the reason? Is it only a matter of ghosts and spirits? Qi Bo said: This too has a cause. The stray has stayed and not yet broken out. Then the will has something it hates, and something it longs for; blood and qi are in disorder within; the two qi struggle with each other. Where it came from is faint: look and it is not seen; listen and it is not heard. Therefore it seems like ghosts and spirits. The Yellow Emperor said: Those who end it by invocation — what is the reason? Qi Bo said: The former shamans, because they knew what overcomes the hundred illnesses, first knew where the illness was born from — then invocation could end it.

The line

The Yellow Emperor said: You, master, say that thief wind and stray qi wound a person and make him ill. Now there are those who never leave the screen, never go out from room and cave, and suddenly fall ill. It is not that they failed to leave thief wind and stray qi. What is the reason?

The note

One does not leave the room, and still falls ill at once. Thief wind need not break the door. Opening and closing have their times; when the time is there, the wind is there. A screen is not an absolute wall.