Suwen · Comparing Fullness and Decline

The text

Lei Gong asked: Qi has more and less — which is against, which is with? The Yellow Emperor answered: Yang follows from the left; yin follows from the right; the old follow from above; the young follow from below. Therefore in spring and summer, returning to yang is life; returning to autumn and winter is death. Reverse this, and returning to autumn and winter is life. Therefore, whether qi is more or less, going against is in all cases reversal. He asked: Is it those with surplus who reverse? The answer: One upward and not down: a cold reversal reaching the knee. The young die in autumn and winter; the old live in autumn and winter. Qi upward and not down: headache and illness at the crown. Seek yang and you do not obtain it; seek yin and you cannot examine it. The five regions are walled off and have no sign — as if dwelling in an open waste, as if hiding in an empty room. Faint, faint — it will not fill the day. Therefore reversal of little qi makes a person dream wildly; at its extreme, one is lost. The three yang cut off, the three yin slight — this is little qi. Therefore when lung qi is vacant, it makes a person dream of white things, of people cut and blood in plenty; obtaining its time, one dreams of soldiers at war. When kidney qi is vacant, it makes a person dream of boats and of people drowning; obtaining its time, one dreams of hiding in water, as if in fear. When liver qi is vacant, one dreams of mushroom-fragrance and growing grass; obtaining its time, one dreams of hiding under a tree, not daring to rise. When heart qi is vacant, one dreams of saving from fire and of yang things; obtaining its time, one dreams of burning and scorching. When spleen qi is vacant, one dreams of drink and food insufficient; obtaining its time, one dreams of building walls and covering a house. These are all vacancy of the five zang-qi: yang qi has surplus; yin qi is insufficient. Join them to the five examinations; attune yin and yang; it is in the channel vessels. Examination has ten measures for measuring a person: the measure of the pulse, the measure of the zang, the measure of the flesh, the measure of the sinews, the measure of the transports. When yin and yang qi are spent, a person's illness is complete of itself. The pulse stirs without a constant; yin is scattered, yang is somewhat present; the pulse slips and is not complete — this is walking without a constant. Examination must be of above and below; measure the people, the lord, and the high officers. To receive the teacher and not finish makes the arts unclear; not to watch against and with is to walk in vain; to hold the female and lose the male, to abandon yin and attach to yang, not to know joining — therefore the examination is not clear. Transmitted to later ages, the reversed discourse shows itself. When utmost yin is vacant, Heaven's qi is cut off; when utmost yang is full, Earth's qi is insufficient. Yin and yang joining and meeting: this is what the utmost person walks. When yin and yang join and meet: yang qi arrives first; yin qi arrives after. Therefore the sage's Dao of holding examination: hold yin and yang in their before and after. The configuration of the strange and the constant is then sixty heads. Examination joins the fine matters; it follows the change of yin and yang; it makes plain the circumstance of the five interiors. The discourse within takes the essential of vacancy and repletion, sets the matters of the five measures. Know this, and one is enough to examine. Therefore: press yin and not obtain yang — the examination perishes. Obtain yang and not obtain yin — the learning one keeps is not deep. Know the left and not the right; know the right and not the left; know above and not below; know before and not after — therefore putting in order does not last. Know the ugly and the good; know illness and no illness; know the high and the low; know sitting and rising; know walking and stopping. Use them with a record, and the Dao of examination is then complete; for ten thousand ages there is no peril. Rise from what has surplus, and know what is insufficient. Measure the matter above and below; the matter of the pulse is thereby pressed to the end. Therefore: form weak and qi vacant — death. Form and qi with surplus, pulse-qi insufficient — death. Pulse-qi with surplus, form-qi insufficient — life. Therefore examination has a great method. Sitting and rising have a constant; going out and coming in have a conduct, so as to turn spiritual brightness. It must be clear; it must be still. Watch above, watch below; govern the stray of the eight corrects; distinguish the regions of the five interiors; press the stillness and motion of the pulse; follow the meaning of the chi — slippery or rough, cold or warm; watch the large and the small; join them to the capacity of the illness. Obtain against and with, and then know the name of the illness. Examination can be complete in ten; it does not lose the circumstance of the person. Therefore examination at times watches the breath, watches the intention — and so does not lose the thread. The Dao is very clear in its watching; therefore it can last long. Not to know this Dao is to lose the classic and cut off the pattern; wasted speech, vain terms. This is called losing the Dao.

The line

The Yellow Emperor answered: Yang follows from the left; yin follows from the right; the old follow from above; the young follow from below. Therefore in spring and summer, returning to yang is life; returning to autumn and winter is death. Reverse this, and returning to autumn and winter is life. Therefore, whether qi is more or less, going against is in all cases reversal.

The note

The old follow from above; the young follow from below. Fullness and decline have a place. Place is position. First see which side of fullness the person is standing on, and which side of decline.