Suwen · On Great Strange Signs

The text

Liver full, kidney full, lung full — all replete — and there is swelling. Congestion of the lung: panting, and both flanks are full. Congestion of the liver: both flanks full; lying down, there is fright; urine will not come. Congestion of the kidney: from the feet to the lesser abdomen, fullness; the shins are unequal in size; the thigh and shin are large; lameness that shifts into one-sided withering. The heart pulse full and large: epilepsy, tugging, sinews in spasm. The liver pulse small and urgent: epilepsy, tugging, sinews in spasm. The liver pulse rushing and violent: there has been fright; if the pulse does not arrive, as if mute — do not treat; it ends of itself. The kidney pulse small and urgent, the liver pulse small and urgent, the heart pulse small and urgent, none of them drumming: all are conglomerations. Kidney and liver both sunken: stone-water. Both floating: wind-water. Both vacuous: death. Both small and stringlike: about to be frightened. The kidney pulse large, urgent, and sunken; the liver pulse large, urgent, and sunken: both are mounting swellings. The heart pulse beating, slippery, and urgent: heart mounting. The lung pulse sunken and beating: lung mounting. The three yang urgent: conglomeration. The three yin urgent: mounting. The two yin urgent: epileptic reversal. The two yang urgent: fright. The spleen pulse drums outward; if sunken, intestinal pouring — in time it ends of itself. The liver pulse small and slow: intestinal pouring, easy to treat. The kidney pulse small and beating, sunken: intestinal pouring with blood below; if the blood is warm and the body hot — death. Heart and liver pouring also let blood below; when the two zang are ill together, it can be treated. The pulse small, sunken, and rough: intestinal pouring; if the body is hot — death; if heat appears, death in seven days. The stomach pulse sunken, drumming, and rough, or drumming large outside the stomach; the heart pulse small, hard, and urgent: all are diaphragm [block] and one-sided withering. In men it arises on the left, in women on the right. If the voice is not lost and the tongue can turn, it can be treated; it rises in thirty days. If it follows and the voice is lost, it rises in three years. If the years are not yet twenty — death in three years. The pulse arrives beating: bleeding from the nose, the body hot — death. The pulse coming suspended, hooklike, and floating is the ordinary pulse. The pulse arrives like panting: it is called sudden reversal. In sudden reversal one does not know how to speak with others. The pulse arrives as if racing: it makes a person suddenly frightened; in three or four days it ends of itself. The pulse arrives as floating meetings, floating meetings as if racing, ten arrivals or more in one breath: the channel qi that was given is insufficient. When this is faintly seen, death in ninety days. The pulse arrives like fire newly kindled: the jing of the heart that was given has been seized. When the grass dries, death. The pulse arrives like scattered leaves: the liver qi that was given is vacuous. When the tree leaves fall, death. The pulse arrives like a visiting inspector. A visiting inspector: the pulse is blocked and then drums. The kidney qi that was given is insufficient. When the hanging [blossoms] leave and the jujube flowers, death. The pulse arrives like pellets of mud: the jing of the stomach that was given is insufficient. When the elm pods fall, death. The pulse arrives like a crossbar: the gallbladder qi that was given is insufficient. When the grain ripens, death. The pulse arrives like a string of thread: the jing of the womb that was given is insufficient. The illness is given to speech; when frost falls, death. If there is no speech, it can be treated. The pulse arrives like crossing lacquer. Crossing lacquer: it arrives along both sides, left and right. When this is faintly seen, death in thirty days. The pulse arrives like a gushing spring, floating and drumming in the flesh: the Taiyang qi that was given is insufficient. There is little qi and flavor. When the chive flowers, death. The pulse arrives like crumbling earth; press it and it cannot be gotten: what was given to the flesh is insufficient. Of the five colors, black is seen first; when the white lei sprouts, death. The pulse arrives like a hanging uvula. A hanging uvula: floating to the touch, and the more one presses the larger it is. What was given to the twelve transport points is insufficient. When water freezes, death. The pulse arrives like a blade laid on its back. A blade laid on its back: floating, it is small and urgent; press it, it is hard, large, and urgent. The five zang are rank and cooked; cold and heat have joined in the kidney alone. Such a person cannot sit. At the start of spring, death. The pulse arrives like a pellet, slippery, not meeting the hand. Not meeting the hand: press it and it cannot be gotten. The large-intestine qi that was given is insufficient. When the jujube leaves are born, death. The pulse arrives like a blossom: it makes a person given to fear, unwilling to sit or lie; walking or standing, always listening. The small-intestine qi that was given is insufficient. In late autumn, death.

The line

Liver full, kidney full, lung full — all replete — and there is swelling.

The note

Great strange signs are pulse and form walked to their extreme. Fullness, congestion, fright — all are qi stopped where it should not stop. Even the extreme is still a running.