Lingshu · Discourse on the Year's Dew

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked Qi Bo: The classic says that injured by summer-heat in summer days, in autumn one is ill with intermittent heat. The issuing of intermittent heat has its time. What is the reason? Qi Bo answered: Pathogen lodges as a guest at Fengfu; the illness follows the spine downward. Wei qi, in one day and one night, always greatly meets at Fengfu; the next day it goes down one joint, and so that day's bout is later. This is because it first lodged as a guest in the spine and back. Therefore each time it reaches Fengfu the interstices open; when the interstices open, pathogenic qi enters; when pathogenic qi enters, the illness issues. This is why the daily bout is still later. The travel of wei qi at Fengfu goes down one joint a day. On the twenty-first day it goes down to the tail-base. On the twenty-second day it enters inside the spine and pours into the hidden thoroughfare vessel. It travels nine days and goes out in the empty basin; its qi travels upward, and so the illness slightly increases. When it inwardly beats upon the five zang and crosswise joins the membranes of the origin, the road is far, the qi is deep, the travel is late, and it cannot issue daily — therefore on the next day it stores and then issues. The Yellow Emperor said: Each time wei qi reaches Fengfu the interstices then open; opening, the pathogen enters. If wei qi goes down one joint a day, it is then not at Fengfu. How is that? Qi Bo said: Fengfu has no constant. Where wei qi answers, it must open the interstices. The joint where the qi lodges — that is then its mansion. The Yellow Emperor said: Good. Wind and intermittent heat are of the same kind, yet wind is always present, and intermittent heat rests especially by time. Why is that? Qi Bo said: Wind-qi remains in its place; intermittent-heat qi follows the channels and networks, sinks and inwardly beats. Therefore when wei qi answers, it then issues. The Emperor said: Good. The Yellow Emperor asked Shao Shi: I have heard that when the four seasons and the eight winds strike a person, there is therefore cold and heat. In cold the skin is tight and the interstices close; in summer-heat the skin is slack and the interstices open. Does thief wind and pathogenic qi thereby get to enter? Or must it be the vacant pathogen of the eight corrects that can injure a person? Shao Shi answered: It is not so. When thief wind and pathogenic qi strike a person, they do not obtain it by the season. Yet they must rely on the opening. If they enter deep, the inward extreme is illness; in making the person ill, it is sudden and violent. If they rely on the closing, they enter shallow and remain; the illness is slow and late. The Yellow Emperor said: There are those whose cold and warmth are fitting, whose interstices do not open, and yet who suddenly fall ill. What is the reason? Shao Shi answered: Does your Majesty not know how the pathogen enters? Even in ordinary dwelling, the opening and closing, the slackness and tightness, of the interstices have their reasons, and often have their times. The Yellow Emperor said: May it be heard? Shao Shi said: The person takes part with heaven and earth, and answers the sun and moon. Thus when the moon is full, the sea-water is abundant in the west; a person's blood and qi gather; the flesh is full; the skin is tight; the hair is firm; the interstices are salt-closed; smoke-grime clings. At such a time, even if one meets thief wind, it enters shallow, not deep. When the moon's rim is empty, the sea-water is abundant in the east; a person's blood and qi are vacant; the wei qi leaves; the form dwells alone; the flesh diminishes; the skin is slack; the interstices open; the hair is broken; the interstices of fat are thin; smoke-grime falls. At such a time, if one meets thief wind, it enters deep, and in making the person ill it is sudden and violent. The Yellow Emperor said: There are those who suddenly die a violent death, or fall violently ill. Why is that? Shao Shi answered: Those with the three vacancies die a violent and swift death. Those who obtain the three repletions — pathogen cannot injure them. The Yellow Emperor said: I wish to hear the three vacancies. Shao Shi said: Riding the decline of the year, meeting the emptiness of the moon, missing the accord of the time, and thereby being injured by thief wind — these are called the three vacancies. Therefore if a discourse does not know the three vacancies, the worker turns out to be coarse. The Emperor said: I wish to hear the three repletions. Shao Shi said: Meeting the abundance of the year, meeting the fullness of the moon, obtaining the accord of the time: even if there is thief wind and pathogenic qi, they cannot endanger one. This is named the three repletions. The Yellow Emperor said: How good the discourse, how clear the Dao. I ask that it be stored in the golden casket. Yet this is the discourse of one person. The Yellow Emperor said: I wish to hear why a year makes all alike ill. By what cause is it so? Shao Shi said: This is the waiting of the eight corrects. The Yellow Emperor said: How does one wait? Shao Shi said: In waiting this, always on the day of the winter solstice Taiyi stands in the Ye Zhe palace. When it arrives, heaven must answer it with wind and rain. If wind and rain come from the south, it is vacant wind, that which thief-injures a person. If it arrives at midnight, the ten thousand people are all lying down and do not offend it — therefore that year the people have little illness. If it arrives by day, the ten thousand people are slack and idle and are all struck by vacant wind — therefore the ten thousand people have much illness. Vacant pathogen enters and lodges as a guest in the bone and does not issue without. When it comes to the beginning of spring, yang qi greatly issues, the interstices open; and on the day of the beginning of spring, wind comes from the west, and the ten thousand people are again all struck by vacant wind. These two pathogens beat together, and the channel-qi knots and takes its place. Therefore all who meet its wind and encounter its rain are named as meeting the year's dew. If by the accord of the year there is little thief wind, the people have little illness and little death. If the year has much thief wind and pathogenic qi, and cold and warmth are not in accord, then the people have much illness and die. The Yellow Emperor said: The wind of vacant pathogen — how does it injure the noble and the base? How does one wait? Shao Shi answered: On the first day of the first month, Taiyi dwells in the Tianliu palace. If that day there is northwest wind and no rain, many people die. On the first day of the first month, at dawn a north wind: in spring, many of the people die. On the first day of the first month, at dawn a north wind travels: of the people who fall ill and die, there are three in ten. On the first day of the first month, at midday a north wind: in summer, many of the people die. On the first day of the first month, at evening a north wind: in autumn, many of the people die. A north wind the whole day: great illness; of those who die, there are six in ten. On the first day of the first month, wind coming from the south is named the drought quarter; coming from the west is named white bone: the state will have calamity, and many people will die. On the first day of the first month, wind coming from the east tears down houses and lifts sand and stones: the state has a great disaster. On the first day of the first month, wind coming from the southeast: in spring there is death. On the first day of the first month, if heaven is mild and warm, without wind, grain is cheap and the people are not ill; if heaven is cold and there is wind, grain is dear and the people have much illness. This is what is meant by waiting the winds of the year that injure a person. In the second month, on chou, if there is no wind, the people have much illness of the heart and abdomen. In the third month, on xu, if it is not warm, the people have much cold and heat. In the fourth month, on ji, if it is not hot, the people have much dan-illness. In the tenth month, on shen, if it is not cold, the people have much sudden death. All that are called winds are those that tear down houses, snap trees, lift sand and stones, raise the fine hairs, and open the interstices.

The line

Shao Shi said: The person takes part with heaven and earth, and answers the sun and moon.

The note

When the moon is full, blood and qi gather; when the moon is empty, the interstices open. The three vacancies and three repletions are year, month, and hour stacked on one person. The year's dew is the wind and dew of that year.