Suwen · The Secret Canon of the Orchid Chamber

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: I wish to hear how the twelve zang employ one another — what is noble, what is low. Qi Bo answered: How complete a question. Let me speak it through. The heart is the office of the sovereign; spiritual brightness comes forth from it. The lung is the office of the chancellor; order and measure come forth from it. The liver is the office of the general; planning and consideration come forth from it. The gallbladder is the office of the upright; decision comes forth from it. The chest-center is the office of the envoy-minister; joy comes forth from it. The spleen and stomach are the office of the granary; the five flavors come forth from them. The large intestine is the office of transmission; transformation comes forth from it. The small intestine is the office of receiving and holding; the transforming of things comes forth from it. The kidney is the office of making strong; skill and craft come forth from it. The sanjiao is the office of opening the ditches; the water-roads come forth from it. The bladder is the office of the regional capital; the fluids are stored there. When qi transforms, they can go out. These twelve offices must not lose one another. Therefore when the sovereign is bright, those below are at peace. To nourish life by this is long years, and to the end of the age there is no peril; to take it as the realm is a great flourishing. When the sovereign is not bright, the twelve offices are in danger; the roads of employment close and do not open, and the form is greatly harmed. To nourish life by this is disaster; to take it as the realm, the ancestral house is in great danger. Beware, beware. The utmost Dao lies in the fine; change is without end — who knows its source? How straitened it is: those who waste it stare and stare — who knows its essential? In the earnestness of care, which is the good? The numbers of the dim and fleeting are born from a hair's breadth; the numbers of a hair's breadth arise from measure. A thousand of them, ten thousand of them, can be added and made large; push them and enlarge them, and their form is then established. The Yellow Emperor said: Good. I have heard the Dao of jing and light, the work of the great sage. To declare the great Dao — unless I fast and choose an auspicious day, I dare not receive it. The Yellow Emperor then chose an auspicious day and a good omen, and stored it in the Orchid Chamber, to be transmitted and kept.

The line

Therefore when the sovereign is bright, those below are at peace. To nourish life by this is long years, and to the end of the age there is no peril; to take it as the realm is a great flourishing.

The note

The twelve offices are not a chart of officials. The heart is the sovereign — not so you will suppress the rest, but so there is brightness. If the sovereign is not bright, the twelve offices are in danger. Disorder begins at the center.