Suwen · On Strange Illness

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: There is one carrying a child who in the ninth month loses the voice. What is this? Qi Bo answered: The network vessel of the womb is cut. The Emperor said: How do you say this? Qi Bo said: The network of the womb is tied to the kidney. The Shaoyin vessel threads the kidney and ties the root of the tongue. Thus speech cannot come. The Emperor said: How does one treat it? Qi Bo said: There is no treatment. In the tenth month it will return. The Needling Method says: Do not diminish what is insufficient; do not add to what has a surplus — thereby completing a lingering illness — and only then regulate it. What is meant by not diminishing what is insufficient: when the body is wasted and thin, do not use the sharp stone. What is meant by not adding to what has a surplus: when there is form in the abdomen and one drains it, draining it the jing comes out and the illness alone occupies the center. Thus it is said: the lingering illness is completed. The Emperor said: Illness of fullness below the flank, qi reversed, not done for two or three years — what illness is this? Qi Bo said: The illness is called resting accumulation. It does not hinder food. One must not moxa or needle. For the accumulation, use guiding and pulling and take medicine. Medicine alone cannot treat it. The Emperor said: There is one whose body, thighs, and shins are all swollen, pain ringing the navel. What illness is this? Qi Bo said: The illness is called hidden beam. This has wind as its root. Its qi overflows in the large intestine and lodges in the gao. The source of the gao is below the navel; thus the pain rings the navel. One must not move it. If one moves it, it becomes an illness of water and rough urine. The Emperor said: There is one whose cubit pulse is racing in the extreme, the sinews tight and visible. What illness is this? Qi Bo said: This is what is called sinew rash. This person's abdomen must be tight. If white and black colors appear, the illness is extreme. The Emperor said: There is one ill with headache, not done for several years. How was this gotten, and what is the illness named? Qi Bo said: There must have been an offense of great cold, inward as far as the bones and marrow. Marrow takes the brain as its master. The brain is reversed, and so the head hurts; the teeth hurt as well. The illness is called reversing against the current. The Emperor said: Good. The Emperor said: There is one ill with a sweet mouth. What is the illness named, and how is it gotten? Qi Bo said: This is an overflow of the five qi. It is called spleen-dan. The five flavors enter the mouth and are stored in the stomach; the spleen moves their jing-qi for it. The fluids are in the spleen, and so the person's mouth is sweet. This arises from the fat and the beautiful. This person must often eat what is sweet and beautiful and much that is fat. The fat makes inner heat in a person; the sweet makes fullness in the center. Thus the qi overflows upward and turns into wasting thirst. Treat it with orchid, to take away the stale qi. The Emperor said: There is one ill with a bitter mouth; one takes Yanglingquan. One with a bitter mouth — what is the illness named, and how is it gotten? Qi Bo said: The illness is called gallbladder-dan. The liver is the general of the center; decisions are taken from the gallbladder; the throat is its envoy. This person has often planned and considered and not decided; thus the gallbladder is vacuous, qi overflows upward, and the mouth is bitter from it. Treat it at the alarm and transport points of the gallbladder. The treatment is in How the Twelve Officials of Yin and Yang Serve One Another. The Emperor said: There is one with dribbling, tens of urinations in a day — this is insufficiency. The body is hot as charcoal; the neck and chest are as if barred; the greeting pulse is restless and full; there is panting, qi reversed — this is surplus. The Taiyin pulse is faint and fine as a hair — this is insufficiency. Where is the illness, and what is it named? Qi Bo said: The illness is in the Taiyin; its fullness is in the stomach, and somewhat in the lung. The illness is called reversal; death, it cannot be treated. This is what is called getting five surpluses and two insufficiencies. The Emperor said: What is meant by five surpluses and two insufficiencies? Qi Bo said: What are called the five surpluses: the qi of five illnesses has a surplus. The two insufficiencies: the qi of illness is also insufficient. Now outwardly one has gotten five surpluses, inwardly two insufficiencies. This body is neither surface nor interior. That it is truly death is clear. The Emperor said: There are those born with an illness of the summit. What is the illness named, and how was it gotten? Qi Bo said: The illness is named womb-illness. It was gotten while in the mother's abdomen. The mother had a great fright; qi rose and did not come down; jing and qi dwelt together. Thus the child was made to arise with an illness of the summit. The Emperor said: There is one ill, puffy as if there were water; pressing the pulse, it is large and tight; the body has no pain; the form is not thin, yet one cannot eat, or eats little. What is the illness named? Qi Bo said: The illness is born in the kidney. It is named kidney wind. In kidney wind, if one cannot eat and is given to fright, and after the fright the heart qi wilts — death. The Emperor said: Good.

The line

The Yellow Emperor asked: There is one carrying a child who in the ninth month loses the voice. What is this?

The note

Strange here is not a hunt for the odd. Losing the voice in the ninth month of carrying a child is the uterine network briefly cut — not the forerunner of a speech disorder. On Strange Illness teaches: what is rarely seen still has a reason.