Suwen · On Cough

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: The lung makes a person cough — why? Qi Bo answered: The five zang and six fu all make a person cough. It is not the lung alone. The Emperor said: I wish to hear their forms. Qi Bo said: The skin and the fine hairs are what the lung pairs with. The skin and fine hairs first receive pathogenic qi; the pathogenic qi then follows what it pairs with. Cold drink and food enter the stomach, and from the lung vessel go up to the lung; then the lung is cold. When the lung is cold, outside and inside join the pathogen; lodging there as a guest, it becomes a lung cough. The five zang each receive illness in their own time. When it is not their time, each transmits it to the lung. The person and heaven-and-earth take part in each other; therefore the five zang each, in the season they govern, if they meet cold, receive illness. If slight, it becomes cough; if extreme, it becomes outflow or pain. Meeting autumn, the lung receives the pathogen first; meeting spring, the liver receives it first; meeting summer, the heart receives it first; meeting utmost yin, the spleen receives it first; meeting winter, the kidney receives it first. The Emperor said: How does one tell them apart? Qi Bo said: The form of a lung cough: coughing with panting breath that has a sound; if extreme, one spits blood. The form of a heart cough: coughing, then pain in the heart. In the throat something stands like a stalk; if extreme, the gullet swells and the throat is impeded. The form of a liver cough: coughing, then pain below both flanks; if extreme, one cannot turn; turning, there is fullness below both flanks. The form of a spleen cough: coughing, then pain below the right flank, dimly drawing the shoulder and back; if extreme, one cannot move; moving, the cough is violent. The form of a kidney cough: coughing, then low back and back draw each other in pain; if extreme, one coughs out drool. The Emperor said: What of the coughs of the six fu? Where do they receive the illness? Qi Bo said: When a cough of the five zang has lasted long, it then moves to the six fu. If a spleen cough does not end, the stomach receives it. The form of a stomach cough: coughing and then vomiting; if the vomiting is extreme, the long worms come out. If a liver cough does not end, the gallbladder receives it. The form of a gallbladder cough: coughing and vomiting bile. If a lung cough does not end, the large intestine receives it. The form of a large-intestine cough: coughing and then losing the stool. If a heart cough does not end, the small intestine receives it. The form of a small-intestine cough: coughing and then losing qi; the qi and the cough are lost together. If a kidney cough does not end, the bladder receives it. The form of a bladder cough: coughing and then losing urine. If a long cough does not end, the triple burner receives it. The form of a triple-burner cough: coughing and then belly fullness, no wish to drink or eat. These all gather in the stomach and have their pass at the lung; they make a person have much snivel and spit, a puffy face, and qi going against its course. The Emperor said: How does one treat it? Qi Bo said: In treating the zang, treat their transport points. In treating the fu, treat their uniting points. In puffiness and swelling, treat their channels. The Emperor said: Good.

The line

Qi Bo answered: The five zang and six fu all make a person cough. It is not the lung alone.

The note

Cough is not only in the lung. All five zang and six fu can make a person cough. First ask which breath struck which door.