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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 60 · Jade Tablets
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor said: “I regard the small needle as a tiny object, yet you say it accords above with heaven, below with earth and between them with people. I think this goes beyond the meaning of a needle. I wish to hear why.”
Qi Bo said: “What thing is greater than heaven? Only the five weapons are greater than the needle. The five weapons are preparations for death, not instruments of life. People are the stabilizing treasure of heaven and earth: must they not be considered together? Caring for the people likewise depends on the needle. Between the needle and the five weapons, which is the lesser?”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Illness may arise from unpredictable joy and anger, irregular food and drink, insufficient yin qi, excessive yang qi and nutritive qi failing to move, producing abscesses and deep sores. Yin and yang do not communicate; two heats strike together and turn to pus. Can the small needle address this?”
Qi Bo said: “The sage cannot simply undo what has transformed; harmful influence must not remain. When two armies face each other, flags in sight and naked blades arrayed in the open field, this was not planned in one day. Making people obey commands and prohibitions so that soldiers avoid the danger of blades likewise is not one day’s teaching or a moment’s attainment.
“Allowing the body to suffer abscesses and deep sores, with pus and blood gathered, is far from the Way. Their birth and formation do not descend from heaven or emerge from earth: they arise from small things accumulating. Thus the sage regulates himself before form appears; the foolish encounter what is already complete.”
The opening transformation clause is compressed and uncertain. Its contrast between prevention and a formed accumulation is retained without inventing a missing treatment.
The Yellow Emperor said: “If its form developed without my encountering it and pus formed without my seeing it, what is to be done?”
Qi Bo said: “Once pus has formed, the account gives ten deaths for one survival. Thus the sage does not allow it to complete, but clearly sets out good methods on bamboo and silk so that capable people continue transmitting them to later generations without end. This is because one may not encounter the condition beforehand.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “If one encounters it only after pus and blood have formed, can it not be guided and treated with the small needle?”
Qi Bo said: “Treating the small with the small has a small effect; treating the great with the great brings much harm. Once pus and blood have formed, only stone lancets and the blade-edged instrument are said to address it.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “With so much harm, is complete recovery impossible?”
Qi Bo said: “It depends on contrary and favorable conditions.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear about contrary and favorable conditions.”
Qi Bo said: “In the injured condition, blue-green whites of the eyes and a small dark eye-center are the first contrary sign. Vomiting after medicine is taken is the second. Abdominal pain and extreme thirst are the third. Difficulty in shoulders and nape is the fourth. A hoarse voice and loss of color are the fifth. Absence of these five makes the condition favorable.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “All illnesses have contrary and favorable conditions. May I hear them?”
Qi Bo said: “Abdominal distension, bodily heat and a large pulse are the first contrary pattern. Rumbling, a full abdomen, cold limbs and diarrhea with a large pulse are the second. Unceasing nosebleed with a large pulse is the third. Cough, bloody urine and wasting form with a small, forceful pulse are the fourth. Cough, wasting form and bodily heat with a small, rapid pulse are the fifth. Such conditions are said to bring death within fifteen days.
“Great abdominal distension, cold extremities, wasting form and severe diarrhea are the first contrary pattern. Abdominal distension and bloody stools with a large pulse that sometimes stops are the second. Cough, bloody urine and wasting flesh with a pounding pulse are the third. Vomiting blood, chest fullness pulling into the back and a small, rapid pulse are the fourth. Cough and vomiting, abdominal distension and diarrhea with undigested food, with a severed pulse, are the fifth. Such conditions are said to bring death within one period. A practitioner who fails to observe these and needles is carrying out contrary treatment.”
Both full lists and their different prognostic intervals are retained. The source’s “one period” is not silently converted to a clock hour or a season. The intervals remain historical prognoses.
The Yellow Emperor said: “Your account makes the needle’s power very great: it is matched with heaven and earth, counts celestial patterns above, measures earthly ordering below, distinguishes the five zang within and arranges the six fu outside. The twenty-eight meetings of the channel vessels all have their circuits. It can kill a living person but cannot raise the dead. Can you reverse this?”
Qi Bo said: “It can kill a living person but cannot raise the dead.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Hearing this, I consider it inhumane. Yet I wish to hear the principle, without practicing it on people.”
Qi Bo said: “The principle is plain and the result certain, like blades being able to kill or wine making people drunk. Even without examining the pulse, one may know it.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear it to the end.”
Qi Bo said: “People receive qi from grain, and grain pours into the Stomach. The Stomach is the sea of water, grain, qi and blood. The sea sends cloud qi through all under heaven; the Stomach sends qi and blood through the channel pathways. These pathways are the great networks of the five zang and six fu. Meeting and taking away their qi is the matter at issue.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Are there numbers for above and below?”
Qi Bo said: “Meeting it at five li, stop midway. Five arrivals end it; with five goings the zang qi is exhausted. Thus five times five makes twenty-five, exhausting its transporting supply. This is what is called taking away heavenly qi; it is not being able to cut off its allotted life and overturn its lifespan.”
This is the source’s compressed account of a forbidden depletion, in the surrounding discussion of harmful needling. “Five li,” the stopping clause, arrivals and goings remain as supplied, without a reconstructed anatomical location, technique or dose. The final negation is retained even though it sits awkwardly beside the preceding warning; it is not silently changed to an affirmative.
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear it to the end.”
Qi Bo said: “One needled while peering through the gate dies within the home; one needled after entering the gate dies in the hall.”
The gate images and distinction are retained as a compressed warning, without supplying an unstated point, depth or mechanism.
The Yellow Emperor said: “Excellent are the methods, clear the Way! Let this be written on jade tablets as a weighty treasure, passed to later generations as prohibitions in needling, so that people dare not violate them.”
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