Suwen · The Eight Corrects and Spiritual Brightness

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: In the service of the needle there must be a law and a measure. What, now, is the law, and what is the measure? Qi Bo answered: Take heaven as the law and earth as the measure; join them to the light of heaven. The Emperor said: I wish to hear this to the end. Qi Bo said: In every method of needling, you must watch the qi of sun, moon, stars, the four seasons, and the eight corrects. When the qi is settled, then needle. Thus when heaven is warm and the day is clear, a person's blood is moist and flowing, and wei qi floats; so the blood is easy to drain, and qi is easy to move. When heaven is cold and the day is yin, a person's blood congeals and weeps, and wei qi sinks. When the moon first is born, blood and qi first become refined, and wei qi first begins to travel. When the moon's outline is full, blood and qi are replete, and the flesh is firm. When the moon's outline is empty, the flesh is reduced, the channels and collaterals are vacant, wei qi has gone, and the form dwells alone. Therefore one regulates blood and qi by the times of heaven. Therefore when heaven is cold, do not needle; when heaven is warm, do not hesitate. When the moon is born, do not drain; when the moon is full, do not replenish; when the moon's outline is empty, do not treat. This is called regulating by obtaining the time. Follow the order of heaven, the times of fullness and vacuity; shift the light to fix the place, stand upright and wait. Thus to drain when sun and moon are being born is called emptying the zang. To replenish when the moon is full — blood and qi overflow, and the collaterals hold leftover blood — is named double repletion. To treat when the moon's outline is empty is called disordering the channels. Yin and yang cross and tangle; the true and the pathogenic are not told apart; what has sunk stays and lodges; the outside is vacant and the inside is in disorder; overflowing pathogen then rises. The Emperor said: What do the stars and the eight corrects watch for? Qi Bo said: The stars are that by which the travel of sun and moon is measured. The eight corrects are that by which one watches the vacant pathogens of the eight winds, arriving in their time. The four seasons are that by which one divides where the qi of spring, autumn, winter, and summer dwells, so as to regulate it in its time. The vacant pathogens of the eight corrects — avoid them; do not offend them. If the vacuity of the body meets the vacuity of heaven, the two vacuities stir each other; their qi reaches the bone; if it enters, it harms the five zang. If the artisan watches and saves in time, it cannot harm. Therefore it is said: the prohibitions of heaven must not go unknown. The Emperor said: Good. I have heard of taking the stars as law. I wish to hear of taking the ancient past as law. Qi Bo said: Those who take the ancient past as law first know the Needle Classic. Those who test it in the coming present first know the cold and warmth of the day, the vacuity and fullness of the moon, so as to watch whether qi is floating or sinking, and regulate it in the body — then they see that it stands and is verified. To watch the dim and unseen means that form, qi, ying, and wei do not take form on the outside, yet the artisan alone knows them. By the cold and warmth of the day, the vacuity and fullness of the moon, the floating and sinking of the four seasons' qi, joined and compared and then regulated — the artisan always sees it first, and yet it has not taken form on the outside. Therefore this is called watching in the dim. One who passes through to the inexhaustible can transmit it to later ages. This is how the artisan differs. And yet it does not appear on the outside, so others cannot see it at all. Look, and there is no form; taste, and there is no flavor; therefore it is called the dim, as if a spirit were only half there. Vacant pathogen is the vacant pathogenic qi of the eight corrects. Regular pathogen is when the bodily form, as if from exertion, sweats, the skin interstices open, and one meets a vacant wind; it enters the person slightly, so no one knows its condition, no one sees its form. The superior artisan saves it at the sprout, and must first see the qi of the three regions and nine assessments; when all is still regulated and not yet ruined, he saves it. Therefore he is called the superior artisan. The lesser artisan saves what has already formed, saves what has already failed. To save what has already formed means he does not know the mutual loss among the three regions and nine assessments, and so the illness ruins it. To know where it is, is to know the place of the illness-pulse in the three regions and nine assessments and treat it there. Therefore this is called guarding the gates. He does not know the condition, and yet he sees the form of the pathogen. The Emperor said: I have heard of replenishing and draining, but I have not yet got their meaning. Qi Bo said: To drain, one must use the square. The square means: when qi is just at its fullness, when the moon is just at its fullness, when the day is just warm, when the body is just settled; when the breath is just drawing in, insert the needle; then again wait for the breath just drawing in, and turn the needle; then again wait for the breath just going out, and slowly withdraw the needle. Therefore it is said, to drain one must use the square — then its qi travels. To replenish, one must use the round. The round means travel; travel means to shift. The needle must hit the ying; then again, on the in-breath, press the needle out. Thus the round and the square are not the needle. Therefore one who nourishes the spirit must know whether the form is fat or thin, whether ying, wei, blood, and qi are full or in decline. Blood and qi are the person's spirit; they must not be nourished carelessly. The Emperor said: How subtle this discourse is! To join the human form to yin and yang and the four seasons, the response of vacuity and repletion, the appointed time of the dim — who but you could pass through it? Yet you have often spoken of form and spirit. What is called form, what is called spirit? I wish to hear this to the end. Qi Bo said: Let me speak of form. Form, O form — the eye is dim. Ask where the illness is; search it in the channels; it is suddenly there before you; press, and you cannot get it; you do not know its condition. Therefore it is called form. The Emperor said: What is called spirit? Qi Bo said: Let me speak of spirit. Spirit, O spirit — the ear does not hear. The eye is bright, the heart opens, and the will goes first. In sudden clarity one alone understands; the mouth cannot speak it. All look, and one alone sees. Just then it is as if dusk; then, alone, it is openly bright — as wind blowing the clouds away. Therefore it is called spirit. The three regions and nine assessments are the source of this. The discourse on the nine needles need not be kept.

The line

To watch the dim and unseen means that form, qi, ying, and wei do not take form on the outside, yet the artisan alone knows them; by the cold and warmth of the day, the vacuity and fullness of the moon, the floating and sinking of the four seasons' qi, joined and compared and then regulated — the artisan always sees it first, and yet it has not taken form on the outside, and so this is called watching in the dim.

The note

Spiritual brightness is not supernatural power. The eight corrects are heaven's beat. To watch the dim is to see the running that has not yet come out at the skin.