Suwen · Taiyin and Yangming

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: Taiyin and Yangming are inner and outer to each other; they are the vessels of spleen and stomach. Why, when they fall ill, are they different? Qi Bo answered: Yin and yang sit in different places. They take turns at vacuity and repletion, take turns at going against and following. Some follow from the inside, some from the outside; what they follow is not the same, and so the illnesses have different names. The Emperor said: I wish to hear of their different forms. Qi Bo said: Yang is the qi of heaven; it governs the outside. Yin is the qi of earth; it governs the inside. Thus the Dao of yang is repletion; the Dao of yin is vacuity. Thus those who offend thief-wind and vacant pathogen — yang receives it. Those whose drink and food are without measure, whose rising and resting are not in time — yin receives it. When yang receives it, it enters the six fu; when yin receives it, it enters the five zang. Entering the six fu, the body is hot and one cannot lie down in time; above, it becomes panting and calling. Entering the five zang, there is flooding fullness and closing blockage; below, it becomes undigested outflow; after long, intestinal flux. Thus the throat governs the qi of heaven; the gullet governs the qi of earth. Thus yang receives wind-qi; yin receives damp-qi. Thus yin qi travels from the feet upward to the head, then downward along the arms to the tips of the fingers. Yang qi travels from the hands upward to the head, then downward to the feet. Therefore it is said: in a yang illness, it goes up to the extreme and then down; in a yin illness, it goes down to the extreme and then up. Thus those harmed by wind — the above receives it first; those harmed by damp — the below receives it first. The Emperor said: When the spleen is ill and the four limbs are of no use, why is that? Qi Bo said: The four limbs all receive qi from the stomach, yet it cannot reach their channels of itself; it must go by way of the spleen, and only then can they receive it. Now when the spleen is ill and cannot move the fluids for the stomach, the four limbs cannot receive the qi of water and grain; qi declines day by day; the vessel-roads are not free; sinew, bone, and flesh all have no qi by which to live. Therefore they are of no use. The Emperor said: The spleen does not govern a season — why is that? Qi Bo said: The spleen is earth; it governs the center. It is always, through the four seasons, lending growth to the four zang; each is given eighteen days of borrowed government; it cannot govern a season alone. The spleen zang is always making bright the jing of stomach-earth. Earth gives birth to the ten thousand things and takes heaven and earth as law; therefore it reaches above and below, to head and feet, and cannot govern a season. The Emperor said: Spleen and stomach are joined only by a membrane — and yet it can move the fluids for the stomach. Why is that? Qi Bo said: The foot Taiyin is the third yin; its vessel pierces the stomach, belongs to the spleen, and networks the gullet. Therefore Taiyin moves qi for it through the three yin. Yangming is the outer; it is the sea of the five zang and six fu; it also moves qi for it through the three yang. The zang and fu each, by their channels, receive qi from Yangming; therefore they move the fluids for the stomach. When the four limbs cannot receive the qi of water and grain, they decline more each day; the yin roads are not free; sinew, bone, and flesh have no qi by which to live. Therefore they are of no use.

The line

Qi Bo said: The spleen is earth; it governs the center. It is always, through the four seasons, lending growth to the four zang; each is given eighteen days of borrowed government; it cannot govern a season alone.

The note

Spleen and stomach are inner and outer, yet they fall ill differently — because yin and yang sit in different places. Earth governs the center, not as power, but as whether movement and transformation still hold the middle.