Suwen · On Wilting

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: The five zang make a person wilt. How is that? Qi Bo answered: The lung governs the skin and hair of the body. The heart governs the blood and vessels of the body. The liver governs the sinew membranes of the body. The spleen governs the flesh of the body. The kidney governs the bones and marrow of the body. Thus when the lung is hot and its leaves are scorched, the skin and hair are weak and depleted; they grow thin and cling, and wilting of the legs is born. When the heart qi is hot, the vessels below reverse and rise; when they rise, the vessels below are vacuous; when vacuous, vessel-wilting is born — the pivot breaks, one cannot lift, the shins slacken and will not bear the ground. When the liver qi is hot, the gallbladder drains, the mouth is bitter, the sinew membranes dry; when the sinew membranes dry, the sinews tighten and spasm, and it arises as sinew-wilting. When the spleen qi is hot, the stomach is dry and there is thirst; the flesh is without feeling, and it arises as flesh-wilting. When the kidney qi is hot, the lumbar region and spine will not lift; the bones wither and the marrow is lessened, and it arises as bone-wilting. The Emperor said: How is it gotten? Qi Bo said: The lung is the eldest of the zang, the cover of the heart. When something is lost, when what is sought is not gotten, the lung sounds; when it sounds, the lung is hot and its leaves are scorched. Thus it is said: the five zang, because the lung is hot and its leaves are scorched, arise as wilting of the legs. This is what is meant. When grief and sorrow are too extreme, the network of the womb is cut. When that network is cut, yang qi stirs within; when it arises, there is collapse below the heart and frequent bloody urine. Thus the Root Classic says: when the great channels are empty, flesh impediment arises, and it is transmitted as vessel-wilting. When thought is without end, when what is wished is not gotten, the intent overflows outward, and one enters the chamber too extremely, the ancestral sinew slackens and lengthens, and it arises as sinew-wilting, and as white overflow. Thus the Lower Classic says: sinew-wilting is born from the liver being made to serve within. When one is gradually soaked by damp, taking water as one's work, if something remains, and the place one lives is damp against damp, the flesh is steeped and sodden, impediment without feeling, and it arises as flesh-wilting. Thus the Lower Classic says: flesh-wilting is gotten from damp ground. When one has traveled far and is worn by labor, and meets great heat and thirst: thirst, then yang qi attacks within; attacking within, heat lodges in the kidney. The kidney is the water zang. Now water cannot prevail over fire, so the bones wither and the marrow is vacuous; thus the feet will not bear the body, and it arises as bone-wilting. Thus the Lower Classic says: bone-wilting is born from great heat. The Emperor said: How does one tell them apart? Qi Bo said: When the lung is hot, the color is white and the hair is ruined. When the heart is hot, the color is red and the network vessels overflow. When the liver is hot, the color is green and the nails are withered. When the spleen is hot, the color is yellow and the flesh creeps. When the kidney is hot, the color is black and the teeth are dried. The Emperor said: What you have said will do. The discourse says that in treating wilting one takes the Yangming alone. How is that? Qi Bo said: The Yangming is the sea of the five zang and the six fu. It governs the moistening of the ancestral sinew. The ancestral sinew governs the binding of the bones and the freeing of the hinges. The Thoroughfare vessel is the sea of the channels. It governs the soaking and pouring of the ravines and valleys. It meets the Yangming at the ancestral sinew. Yin and yang together meet at the ancestral sinew; the meeting is at the Street of Qi, and the Yangming is the eldest of them. All belong to the Belt vessel and network to the Governing vessel. Thus when the Yangming is vacuous the ancestral sinew slackens, the Belt vessel does not draw, and the feet wilt and are of no use. The Emperor said: How does one treat it? Qi Bo said: In each case fill its ying and open its transport points; regulate what is vacuous and what is replete; harmonize what is reversed and what follows. Sinew, vessel, bone, and flesh — each in the month when it receives — and the illness is done. The Emperor said: Good.

The line

The Yellow Emperor asked: The five zang make a person wilt. How is that?

The note

Wilting comes from the five zang. Yangming is the sea; when the sea is not full, the four limbs dry first. First ask which zang's heat has scorched the branches and leaves.