Lingshu · When Defensive Qi Loses Its Regularity

The text

The Yellow Emperor said: Wei qi that stays in the abdomen, tangled and gathered, not walking, pent and smoldering, missing its usual place, making the limbs and flanks and the stomach full, panting, calling, breath against the current — how does one send it away? Bo Gao said: When the qi has gathered in the chest, take it above. When it has gathered in the abdomen, take it below. When above and below are both full, take it at the sides. The Yellow Emperor said: How does one take it? Bo Gao answered: Gathered above: drain Daying, Tiantu, and the throat. Gathered below: drain Sanli and the qi thoroughfare. Above and below both full: take above and below, and one cun under the lower flanks. When severe, take it in the chicken-foot. If you examine the pulse and it is large, string-like, and urgent, or cut off and not arriving, or the abdominal skin is very tight — it must not be needled. The Yellow Emperor said: Good. The Yellow Emperor asked Bo Gao: How does one know illness of skin, flesh, blood and qi, sinew, and bone? Bo Gao said: Color rising between the brows, thin and lustrous: the illness is in the skin. Lip color green, yellow, red, white, or black: the illness is in the flesh. Ying qi soaking and wet: the illness is in blood and qi. Eye color green, yellow, red, white, or black: the illness is in the sinews. Ears scorched and withered, taking dust and grime: the illness is in the bone. The Yellow Emperor said: What is the form of the illness, and how does one take it? Bo Gao said: The hundred illnesses change; they cannot be counted. Yet the skin has regions; the flesh has pillars; blood and qi have transports; the bone has belongings. The Yellow Emperor said: I wish to hear the reason. Bo Gao said: The regions of the skin transport to the four ends. The pillars of the flesh are in the divisions of the yang flesh of the arms and shins, and in the divisions of foot shaoyin. The transports of blood and qi transport to the networks; when qi and blood stay and lodge, they are full and rise. The region of the sinews has no yin and no yang, no left and no right — watch where the illness sits. The belongings of the bone are the bone-hollows, by which benefit is received and the brain marrow is increased. The Yellow Emperor said: How does one take it? Bo Gao said: Illness changes — floating and sunken, deep and shallow — and cannot be exhausted. Each is in its place. Illness at ease: take it shallow. Severe: take it deep. At ease: use few. Severe: use many. Follow the change and regulate qi — therefore one says the high craftsman. The Yellow Emperor asked Bo Gao: People fat or thin, large or small, cold or warm, old, robust, young, or little — how does one tell them apart? Bo Gao answered: A person fifty years and above is old; twenty and above is robust; eighteen and above is young; six and above is little. The Yellow Emperor said: How does one measure and know fat and thin? Bo Gao said: People have the plump, the greasy, and the fleshy. The Yellow Emperor said: How does one tell these apart? Bo Gao said: Ham-flesh firm, skin full: plump. Ham-flesh not firm, skin slack: greasy. Skin and flesh that will not part: fleshy. The Yellow Emperor said: What of the body's cold and warmth? Bo Gao said: The greasy: flesh wet, and if the grain is coarse, the body is cold; if the grain is fine, the body is hot. The plump: flesh firm; fine grain is hot, coarse grain is cold. The Yellow Emperor said: What of fat and thin, large and small? Bo Gao said: The greasy have much qi, and the skin hangs slack — therefore they can let the belly go and the fat hang. The fleshy: the body holds large. The plump: the body is gathered and small. The Yellow Emperor said: What of the more and less of blood and qi in these three? Bo Gao said: The greasy have much qi; much qi is heat; heat endures cold. The fleshy have much blood and so fill the form; filling the form, they are even. The plump: the blood is clear, the qi slippery and little, therefore they cannot be large. This is how they differ from ordinary people. The Yellow Emperor said: What of ordinary people? Bo Gao said: In ordinary people, skin, flesh, plumpness, and grease cannot be added one upon another; blood and qi cannot be the more in one. Therefore the form is neither small nor large; each matches its body. They are named ordinary people. The Yellow Emperor said: Good. How does one order them? Bo Gao said: You must first tell apart the three forms, the more and less of blood, the clear and turbid of qi — then regulate. In ordering, do not lose the constant channels. Thus the greasy person lets the belly go and the fat hangs; the fleshy person holds large above and below; the plump person, though plump, cannot be large.

The line

The Yellow Emperor said: Wei qi that stays in the abdomen, tangled and gathered, not walking, pent and smoldering, missing its usual place, making the limbs and flanks and the stomach full, panting, calling, breath against the current — how does one send it away?

The note

Wei qi lingers in the abdomen and misses its usual place. Losing regularity means wei is still there — only the shift is wrong. A person pants and fills; sometimes wei has lost the road.