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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 38 · Counterflow and Accord, Stoutness and Thinness
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked Qi Bo: “I have heard your teaching on needling in full and in many particulars. Its responses seem like arrows, yet its grounds have not been made firm. Does your teaching come from practiced learning, or arise from careful observation of things?”
The supplied graph in “like arrows” differs from the usual arrow graph. The image is retained without silently rewriting the Chinese.
Qi Bo replied: “The sage’s Way accords above with heaven, below with earth and between them with human affairs. Clear standards must establish degrees and numbers, patterns and checks; only then can it be transmitted. A carpenter cannot discard chi and cun and merely imagine length, nor abandon ink line and level to make a level surface. A craftsperson cannot set aside the compass to make a circle or remove the square to make a square. Knowing how to use these follows the inherent nature of things, a teaching easy to apply and the constant principles of counterflow and accord.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear what this natural condition is.”
Qi Bo said: “Opening a deep pool lets water drain without great effort, and the pool can be emptied. Following the excavated course and opening its obstruction lets the channel flow. This concerns slipperiness and roughness of qi, clarity and turbidity of blood, and contrary and favorable movement.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Do light and dark complexion, stoutness and thinness, youth and maturity each have their own measures?”
Qi Bo said: “A person mature in age and substantial in constitution, with full blood and qi and firm skin, who then receives harmful influence, is to be needled deeply with retention: this is the stout person. In a person with broad shoulders, thin flesh at armpits and nape, thick dark skin and drooping lips, the blood is dark and turbid and qi rough and slow. The text also characterizes such a person as grasping in taking and giving. Needle deeply, retain and increase the number.”
The link between appearance and character is retained as a historical assertion of the source, not an assessment of people by complexion.
The Yellow Emperor said: “How is a thin person needled?”
Qi Bo said: “A thin person has thin skin and little color, slight flesh, thin lips and light speech. Blood is clear and qi slippery; qi is easily lost and blood easily damaged. Needle superficially and act swiftly.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “How is an ordinary person needled?”
Qi Bo said: “Observe light or dark complexion and regulate each accordingly. In a person upright and substantial in form, blood and qi are harmonious. In needling such a person, do not depart from the ordinary measure.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “How is a strong person with firm bones needled?”
Qi Bo said: “A strong, firm-boned person has hard flesh, relaxed joints and a solid, imposing appearance. If heavy, qi is rough and blood turbid: needle deeply, retain and increase the number. If vigorous and agile, qi is slippery and blood clear: needle superficially and act swiftly.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “How is an infant needled?”
Qi Bo said: “An infant has delicate flesh, little blood and weak qi. Use the fine needle, insert superficially and withdraw swiftly. Twice a day is the frequency stated.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “What is meant by opening a deep pool to drain the water?”
Qi Bo said: “When blood is clear and qi turbid, swift draining exhausts qi.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “What is meant by following the excavated course and opening the obstruction?”
Qi Bo said: “When blood is turbid and qi rough, swift draining can open the channels.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “What are the contrary and favorable courses of the vessels?”
Qi Bo said: “The three yin of the hand run from the zang to the hands. The three yang of the hand run from hands to head. The three yang of the foot run from head to feet. The three yin of the foot run from feet to abdomen.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Why does the Shaoyin vessel alone travel downward?”
Qi Bo said: “It is not so. The Chong vessel is the sea of the five zang and six fu, and all receive from it. Its upper course emerges at the back of the nose and throat, seeps into the yang channels and irrigates the essences. Its lower course pours into Shaoyin’s great network, emerges at Qijie, follows the inner border of the yin thigh, enters the hollow behind the knee, travels hidden within the named lower-leg bone and descends behind the inner ankle, where it connects and branches.
“The descending branch runs alongside the Shaoyin channel and seeps into the three yin. The forward branch travels hidden to emerge at the foot’s upper surface, descends along it and enters between the great toes, seeping into the networks to warm the flesh. If the branching network binds, movement on the upper foot ceases. Lack of movement brings reversal, and reversal brings cold.”
The supplied lower-leg bone name contains an anomalous bird-related graph. Its route is retained without substituting a reconstructed modern bone name.
The Yellow Emperor said: “How can this be made clear?”
Qi Bo said: “Guide by explanation and verify by palpation. The other or unaffected site must move; then the contrary and favorable courses can be made clear.”
The short phrase “其非必動” is textually uncertain. The contrastive reading is preserved without inventing an omitted site or a particular provocative test.
The Yellow Emperor said: “Profound indeed is the sage’s Way: clearer than sun and moon, subtler than the smallest measures. Who but you could explain it?”
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