Suwen · The Six Periods and the Images of the Zang

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: I have heard that Heaven takes the measure of six sixes to complete a year, and the person takes nine nines as the joining of the system. By count the person also has three hundred and sixty-five joints, taken as heaven and earth, and this has been so for a long time. I do not know what is meant. Qi Bo answered: How clear a question. Let me speak it through. The measure of six sixes, the joining of nine nines — these are how one sets right the degrees of Heaven and the numbers of qi. The degrees of Heaven are what regulate the travel of sun and moon; the numbers of qi are what mark the use of transformation and birth. Heaven is yang, earth is yin; the sun is yang, the moon is yin. Travel has its allotted marks; the circuit has its roads and pattern. The sun travels one degree; the moon travels thirteen degrees and a remainder. Thus the long months and the short, three hundred and sixty-five days, complete a year; the leftover qi accumulates and fills the intercalary month. Set the starting-point at the beginning, set the gnomon right in the middle, push the remainder to the end — and the degrees of Heaven are complete. The Emperor said: I have already heard the degrees of Heaven. I wish to hear how the numbers of qi join with them. Qi Bo said: Heaven takes six sixes as its measure; earth takes nine nines as the joining of the system. Heaven has ten days; when the days have completed six circuits, the sexagenary cycle is round; when the cycle has returned six times, the year is finished — this is the method of three hundred and sixty days. From of old, what communicates with Heaven is the root of life, and that root is in yin and yang. Its qi, the nine provinces and the nine orifices, all communicate with Heaven's qi. Thus life is five, qi is three. Three complete Heaven, three complete earth, three complete the person. Three times three join and become nine. Nine divides into the nine wilds; the nine wilds are the nine zang. Thus the form-zang are four, the spirit-zang are five; together they are the nine zang, and so they answer it. The Emperor said: I have already heard the joining of six sixes and nine nines. You, Master, speak of leftover qi filling the intercalary month. I wish to hear what is meant by qi. I ask you, Master, to open the covering and undo the confusion. Qi Bo said: This is what the highest emperors kept secret, and what the first teachers handed down. The Emperor said: I ask to hear it through. Qi Bo said: Five days are called a hou; three hou are called a qi; six qi are called a season; four seasons are called a year — and each follows what governs it. The five movements succeed one another, and all govern. On the last day of the term they circle and begin again. The seasons are set, qi is laid out, like a ring with no end. The hou follows the same method. Thus it is said: if one does not know the additions of the year, the fullness and decline of qi, the arising of vacuity and repletion — one cannot be a worker. The Emperor said: The beginning of the five movements is like a ring with no end. What of their going too far, and their not reaching? Qi Bo said: The five qi take their stand in turn; each has what it conquers. The change of fullness and vacuity — this is their constant. The Emperor said: What of balanced qi? Qi Bo said: That which has no excess. The Emperor said: Going too far, and not reaching — how then? Qi Bo said: It is in the classic. The Emperor said: What is meant by what it conquers? Qi Bo said: Spring conquers late summer, late summer conquers winter, winter conquers summer, summer conquers autumn, autumn conquers spring. This is what is called obtaining the conquest of the five phases in their seasons. Each names its zang by the qi. The Emperor said: How does one know its conquest? Qi Bo said: Seek its arrival; all return to the beginning of spring. If it arrives before it should arrive, this is called going too far: then it presses what it does not conquer, and rides what it conquers — this is named qi overflowing. If one does not distinguish, a crooked pathogen is born within, and the worker cannot forbid it. If it does not arrive when it should arrive, this is called not reaching: then what it conquers runs amiss, what it generates receives illness, and what it does not conquer presses it — this is named qi in straits. What is called seeking its arrival is the time when qi arrives. Carefully wait for the time; qi can be met as expected. Miss the time, reverse the hou, and the five governments are not distinguished; a crooked pathogen is born within, and the worker cannot forbid it. The Emperor said: Is there a case of not succeeding? Qi Bo said: The qi of the blue Heaven cannot be without a constant. When qi does not succeed, this is called not constant; not constant, and then there is change. The Emperor said: Not constant, and then change — how then? Qi Bo said: When the change arrives, it makes illness. Where it conquers, the illness is slight; where it does not conquer, the illness is severe. If on this account one meets pathogen again, then there is death. Therefore when it is not its time, it is slight; when it is its time, it is severe. The Emperor said: Good. I have heard that qi joins and there is form; by change one sets the name right. The movement of heaven and earth, the transformation of yin and yang — as they are in the ten thousand things, which is less, which is more? May I hear this? Qi Bo said: How complete a question. Heaven is so wide it cannot be measured; earth is so great it cannot be fathomed. A question of great spiritual brightness — let me set out the method. Grass gives birth to five colors; the changes of the five colors cannot be looked at to the end. Grass gives birth to five flavors; the beauty of the five flavors cannot be exhausted. Craving and desire are not the same; each has what it communicates with. Heaven feeds the person with the five qi; earth feeds the person with the five flavors. The five qi enter the nose and are stored in the heart and lung; above, they make the five colors refined and bright, and the voice able to be made clear. The five flavors enter the mouth and are stored in the intestines and stomach. Flavor has that in which it is stored, and thereby nourishes the five qi. When qi is in harmony, there is life; the fluids complete one another, and spirit is born of itself. The Emperor said: What of the images of the zang? Qi Bo said: The heart is the root of life, the change of the spirit. Its flourish is in the face; its filling is in the blood vessels. It is taiyang within yang, and communicates with summer qi. The lung is the root of qi, the dwelling of the po. Its flourish is in the hair; its filling is in the skin. It is taiyin within yang, and communicates with autumn qi. The kidney is the root of hibernating and of sealing and storing, the dwelling of jing. Its flourish is in the hair of the head; its filling is in the bone. It is shaoyin within yin, and communicates with winter qi. The liver is the root of exhaustion from toil, the dwelling of the hun. Its flourish is in the nails; its filling is in the sinews. It gives birth to blood and qi. Its flavor is sour, its color green-blue. This is shaoyang within yang, and communicates with spring qi. The spleen, stomach, large intestine, small intestine, sanjiao, and bladder are the root of the granary, the dwelling of ying. They are named vessels: they can transform the dregs, turn the flavors, and let them enter and go out. Their flourish is in the four whites of the lips; their filling is in the muscle. Their flavor is sweet, their color yellow. This is of the kind of utmost yin, and communicates with earth qi. All eleven zang take their decision from the gallbladder. Thus if renying is one degree full, the illness is in shaoyang; two degrees full, in taiyang; three degrees full, in yangming; four degrees full and above is yang blocked. If the cun-opening is one degree full, the illness is in jueyin; two degrees full, in shaoyin; three degrees full, in taiyin; four degrees full and above is yin shut. If renying and the cun-opening are both full fourfold and above, this is shut-and-blocked. The pulse of shut-and-blocked is wasted; it cannot reach the jing-qi of heaven and earth — then there is death.

The line

I have heard that qi joins and there is form; by change one sets the name right.

The note

The images of the zang are seeing how qi joins and becomes shape — not an anatomy list. First set the periods; then set the names right. The name follows the running; it does not rule the running from the other side.