Suwen · Categories of Yin and Yang

The text

When the first month of spring had just arrived, the Yellow Emperor sat at ease, looked out over the eight extremes, set right the qi of the eight winds, and asked Lei Gong: In the kinds of yin and yang, the Dao of the channel vessels, what the five interiors govern — which zang is most honored? Lei Gong answered: Spring, Jia and Yi, green-blue: the center is governed by the liver; it governs seventy-two days; this is the time the pulse governs. I take that zang as most honored. The Emperor said: Think again of the Upper and Lower Classics, of yin and yang and ease and measure. The one you name most honored is the lowest. Lei Gong kept a fast of seven days, and at dawn sat in attendance again. The Emperor said: The three yang are the warp; the two yang are the ties; the one yang is the wandering division. By this one knows the end and beginning of the five zang. The three yin are the surface; the two yin are the interior; the one yin reaches the cut-off, and makes the new moon and the dark moon. Then they join, and the pattern is set right. Lei Gong said: I have received the work and cannot yet see it clearly. The Emperor said: What is called the three yang: taiyang is the warp. The three-yang pulse arrives at hand taiyin, string-like and floating, not sunken. Decide it by measure; watch it with the heart; join it to the discourse of yin and yang. What is called the two yang is yangming. It arrives at hand taiyin, string-like, sunken and urgent, not drumming. When heat arrives with this illness, all die. The one yang is shaoyang. It arrives at hand taiyin, joining above to renying, string-like, urgent, hanging and not cut off — this is illness of shaoyang. Yin alone: death. The three yin are what the six channels govern. They meet at taiyin, hidden and drumming, not floating; emptiness above, in the heart. The two yin reach the lung; their qi returns to the bladder; without, they join spleen and stomach. The one yin arrives alone: the channel is cut off, qi floats, it does not drum; hook-like and slippery. These six pulses, now yin, now yang, join and belong, press one another, cross-communicate with the five zang, and join yin and yang. What arrives first is the host; what arrives after is the guest. Lei Gong said: I have spent my meaning in full. I received the transmission of the channel vessels, recited and obtained the Dao of ease and measure, so as to join ease and measure — and I do not know yin and yang, do not know female and male. The Emperor said: The three yang are the father; the two yang are the guard; the one yang is the record. The three yin are the mother; the two yin are the female; the one yin is the lone envoy. Two yang and one yin: yangming governs the illness; it cannot dominate the one yin. Soft and stirring; the nine orifices are all sunken. Three yang and one yin: the taiyang pulse dominates; the one yin cannot stop it. Within, the five zang are in disorder; without, there is startle and fright. Two yin and two yang: the illness is in the lung. The shaoyin pulse is sunken; it dominates the lung and injures the spleen; without, it injures the four limbs. Two yin and two yang both arriving and meeting: the illness is in the kidney. Cursing and wild conduct; illness at the crown becomes mania. Two yin and one yang: the illness comes forth from the kidney. Yin qi is a guest wandering in the heart and stomach-pit; the lower empty orifices are a dike, blocked and not open; the four limbs part and leave. One yin and one yang, taking turns cut off: this yin qi reaches the heart. Above and below have no constant; going out and coming in are not known; the throat is dry. The illness is in soil-spleen. Two yang and three yin: utmost yin is all present. Yin does not pass yang; yang qi cannot stop yin. Yin and yang are both cut off. Floating: a blood conglomeration. Sunken: pus and puffed flesh. When yin and yang are both robust, they go down to yin and yang. Above they join what is bright; below they join what is dim. The examination decides the term of death and life, and so joins the head of the year. Lei Gong said: I ask of the near term. The Yellow Emperor did not answer. Lei Gong asked again. The Yellow Emperor said: It is in the channel-discourses. Lei Gong said: I ask to hear the near term. The Yellow Emperor said: Illness of the three months of winter, if the illness joins yang: by the first month of spring the pulse has the signs of death; all leave in the going-out of spring. Illness of the three months of winter, if the pattern is already spent: grasses and willow leaves are all killed. In spring, yin and yang are both cut off; the term is in the first month of spring. Illness of the three months of spring is called yang killed. Yin and yang both cut off: the term is when the grasses are dry. Illness of the three months of summer: utmost yin does not pass ten days. Yin and yang crossing: the term is at thin water. Illness of the three months of autumn: if the three yang all rise, it ends of itself without putting in order. If yin and yang join and meet: standing, one cannot sit; sitting, one cannot rise. The three yang arriving alone: the term is at stone-water. The two yin arriving alone: the term is at full waters.

The line

When the first month of spring had just arrived, the Yellow Emperor sat at ease, looked out over the eight extremes, set right the qi of the eight winds, and asked Lei Gong: In the kinds of yin and yang, the Dao of the channel vessels, what the five interiors govern — which zang is most honored?

The note

To sort into kinds is to divide yin and yang again into roads that can be walked. The Dao of the channels shows itself in the sorting — not in saying everything at once.