Suwen · Regulating the Spirit by the Four Seasons

The text

The three months of spring: this is called the unfolding of the stored. Heaven and earth both give birth; the ten thousand things take their flourish. Sleep at night, rise early, walk widely in the courtyard, let the hair hang free and loosen the form, so that the will may come to life. Give life and do not kill; give and do not seize; reward and do not punish. This is the Dao of nourishing birth in answer to spring qi. Go against it and the liver is harmed; in summer there will be a cold change, and what is offered to growth will be little. The three months of summer: this is called flourishing and flowering. The qi of heaven and earth meet; the ten thousand things bloom and fruit. Sleep at night, rise early, do not weary of the sun; let the will be without anger; let the flowering essence come to fullness; let qi find its outlet, as if what one loves were outside. This is the Dao of nourishing growth in answer to summer qi. Go against it and the heart is harmed; in autumn there will be intermittent heat, what is offered to gathering will be little, and at the winter solstice illness will be heavy. The three months of autumn: this is called containing and leveling. Heaven's qi grows sharp; earth's qi grows clear. Sleep early, rise early, rise with the rooster. Let the will be quiet, to ease autumn's punishment; gather in the spirit-qi, so that autumn qi is level; do not send the will outward; let lung qi be clear. This is the Dao of nourishing gathering in answer to autumn qi. Go against it and the lung is harmed; in winter there will be undigested discharge, and what is offered to storage will be little. The three months of winter: this is called closing and storing. Water ices, the ground splits; do not disturb the yang. Sleep early, rise late, wait for the daylight. Let the will be as if crouched, as if hidden, as if holding a private thought, as if already having obtained. Leave the cold, go toward warmth; do not let the skin leak, lest qi be seized again and again. This is the Dao of nourishing storage in answer to winter qi. Go against it and the kidney is harmed; in spring there will be wilting and reversal, and what is offered to birth will be little. Heaven's qi is what is clear, quiet, and bright. It stores virtue without cease, and so it does not fall. If Heaven itself shines, sun and moon are not bright; pathogen harms the empty orifices; yang qi is shut; earth's qi veils the light; cloud and mist are not refined, and the white dew that should answer from above does not descend. If the meeting of above and below is not shown, the life of the ten thousand things is not given; if it is not given, many famous trees die. If foul qi is not released, wind and rain have no measure, white dew does not fall, then what is stored withers and does not flourish. Thief winds come often, sudden rains rise often; heaven and earth and the four seasons do not keep one another, they lose the Dao, and what has not yet reached its midpoint is cut off. Only the sage follows this, and so the body has no harsh illness, the ten thousand things are not lost, and the qi of life is not exhausted. Go against spring qi, and shaoyang does not give birth; liver qi changes within. Go against summer qi, and taiyang does not grow; heart qi is hollow within. Go against autumn qi, and shaoyin does not gather; lung qi is scorched and full. Go against winter qi, and taiyin does not store; kidney qi sinks alone. The yin and yang of the four seasons are the root of the ten thousand things. Therefore the sage nourishes yang in spring and summer, nourishes yin in autumn and winter, and so follows the root. Thus they rise and sink with the ten thousand things at the gate of birth and growth. Go against the root, and you fell the trunk and ruin what is true. Yin and yang and the four seasons are the end and beginning of the ten thousand things, the root of death and life. Go against them and disaster is born; follow them and harsh illness does not arise. This is called obtaining the Dao. The Dao — the sage walks it; the foolish wear it as ornament. Follow yin and yang and you live; go against them and you die. Follow them and there is order; go against them and there is chaos. To turn following into going against — this is called inner blocking. Therefore the sage does not treat illness already formed, but treats what has not yet become illness; does not put in order a chaos already formed, but puts in order what has not yet become chaos. This is what is meant. To give medicine after illness is already formed, to put in order after chaos is already formed — this is like digging a well when thirsty, like casting a spear in the middle of a fight. Is it not already late?

The line

Therefore the sage does not treat illness already formed, but treats what has not yet become illness; does not put in order a chaos already formed, but puts in order what has not yet become chaos. This is what is meant.

The note

The four seasons come before the person. What going against spring harms is not the calendar — it is shaoyang, which has not yet had time to be born. To treat what has not yet become illness is, while chaos is still unformed, to return to the root.