Suwen · Root, Branch, and How Illness Travels

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: Illness has root and branch; needling has against and with. How is it? Qi Bo answered: In all the methods of needling, you must distinguish yin and yang; before and after answer each other; against and with obtain their use; root and branch shift places. Thus it is said: some are in the branch, and one seeks them in the branch; some are in the root, and one seeks them in the root; some are in the root, and one seeks them in the branch; some are in the branch, and one seeks them in the root. Thus in treating, some take the branch and obtain it; some take the root and obtain it; some take against and obtain it; some take with and obtain it. Therefore those who know against and with, walk upright and do not ask. Those who know root and branch, in ten thousand raisings are ten thousand times fitting. Those who do not know root and branch — this is called walking blind. Yin and yang, against and with, root and branch as a Dao: small and yet large — speak one and know the harm of a hundred illnesses; few and yet many; shallow and yet broad — one may speak one and know a hundred. By the shallow know the deep; look at what is near and know what is far. To speak of branch and root is easy, and yet one does not reach it. To treat contrary is against; to treat and obtain is with. What is ill first and then reverses: treat its root. What reverses first and then is ill: treat its root. What is cold first and then gives birth to illness: treat its root. What is ill first and then gives birth to cold: treat its root. What is hot first and then gives birth to illness: treat its root. What is hot first and then gives birth to fullness in the center: treat its branch. What is ill first and then leaks: treat its root. What leaks first and then gives birth to other illness: treat its root. You must first attune it, then treat the other illness. What is ill first and then gives birth to fullness in the center: treat its branch. What has fullness in the center first and then vexes the heart: treat its root. A person has guest qi and has shared qi. When the small and the great do not move freely: treat the branch. When the small and the great move freely: treat the root. When illness arises and there is a remainder: take the root and then the branch — first treat the root, later treat the branch. When illness arises and there is insufficiency: take the branch and then the root — first treat the branch, later treat the root. Examine the mild and the severe with care, and attune them by intent. When mild, travel them together; when severe, travel it alone. What first has the small and the great not moving freely, and later gives birth to illness: treat its root. As for the passing of illness: heart illness — first pain in the heart; in one day, coughing; in three days, pain in the flanks and limbs; in five days, closed and blocked, the body aching, the body heavy. If in three days it has not ended, death — in winter at midnight, in summer at midday. Lung illness: panting and coughing; in three days, fullness and pain in the flanks and limbs; in one day, the body heavy, the body aching; in five days, swelling. If in ten days it has not ended, death — in winter at sunset, in summer at sunrise. Liver illness: the head and eyes dizzy, the flanks and limbs full; in three days, the body heavy, the body aching; in five days, swelling; in three days, the low back and spine and lesser abdomen ache, the shins ache. If in three days it has not ended, death — in winter at sunset, in summer at the early meal. Spleen illness: the body aching, the body heavy; in one day, swelling; in two days, the lesser abdomen, low back, and spine ache, the shins ache; in three days, the sinews of the muscles beside the spine ache, urine is closed. If in ten days it has not ended, death — in winter when people settle, in summer at the late meal. Kidney illness: the lesser abdomen, low back, and spine ache, the thigh-bone aches; in three days, the sinews of the muscles beside the spine ache, urine is closed; in three days, the belly swells; in three days, both flanks and limbs ache. If in three days it has not ended, death — in winter at great dawn, in summer at late afternoon. Stomach illness: swelling and fullness; in five days, the lesser abdomen, low back, and spine ache, the thigh-bone aches; in three days, the sinews of the muscles beside the spine ache, urine is closed; in five days, the body is heavy. If in six days it has not ended, death — in winter after midnight, in summer when the sun declines. Bladder illness: urine is closed; in five days, the lesser abdomen swells, the low back and spine ache, the thigh-bone aches; in one day, the belly swells; in one day, the body aches. If in two days it has not ended, death — in winter at cockcrow, in summer at late afternoon. All illnesses that pass in this sequence — such as these all have a time of death, and cannot be needled. If it skips one zang and stops, or reaches three or four zang, then it may be needled.

The line

What is ill first and then reverses: treat its root. What reverses first and then is ill: treat its root.

The note

Root and branch are not labels of first and second. What is ill first is the root; what changes later is the branch. To travel is still to be walking. To treat the root is to stand where it set out.