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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 65 · Five Tones and Five Flavors
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For Right Zhi with Lesser Zhi, regulate upper right Hand Taiyang. For Left Shang with Left Zhi, regulate upper left Hand Yangming. For Lesser Zhi with Great Gong, regulate upper left Hand Yangming. For Right Jue with Great Jue, regulate lower right Foot Shaoyang. For Great Zhi with Lesser Zhi, regulate upper left Hand Taiyang. For Common Yu with Lesser Yu, regulate lower right Foot Taiyang.
For Lesser Shang with Right Shang, regulate lower right Hand Taiyang. For Constrained Yu with Common Yu, regulate lower right Foot Taiyang. For Lesser Gong with Great Gong, regulate lower right Foot Yangming. For Divided Jue with Lesser Jue, regulate lower right Foot Shaoyang. For Dai Shang with Upper Shang, regulate lower right Foot Yangming. For Dai Shang with Upper Jue, regulate lower left Foot Taiyang.
All twelve pairs and their upper/lower, left/right and channel assignments follow this source, including assignments that differ from the preceding chapter. No missing counterpart is inserted to regularize the scheme.
Upper Zhi agrees with Right Zhi: the grain is wheat, domestic animal sheep and fruit apricot. Its channel is Hand Shaoyin, zang Heart, color red, flavor bitter and season summer.
Upper Yu agrees with Great Yu: the grain is soybean, animal pig and fruit chestnut. Its channel is Foot Shaoyin, zang Kidney, color black, flavor salty and season winter.
Upper Gong agrees with Great Gong: the grain is ji millet, animal cattle and fruit jujube. Its channel is Foot Taiyin, zang Spleen, color yellow, flavor sweet and season late summer.
Upper Shang agrees with Right Shang: the grain is shu millet, animal chicken and fruit peach. Its channel is Hand Taiyin, zang Lung, color white, flavor acrid and season autumn.
Upper Jue agrees with Great Jue: the grain is hemp, animal dog and fruit plum. Its channel is Foot Jueyin, zang Liver, color blue-green, flavor sour and season spring.
Great Gong agrees with Upper Jue at upper right Foot Yangming. Left Jue agrees with Great Jue at upper left Foot Yangming. Lesser Yu agrees with Great Yu at lower right Foot Taiyang. Left Shang agrees with Right Shang at lower left Hand Yangming. Added Gong agrees with Great Gong at upper left Foot Shaoyang.
Solid-Divided agrees with Great Gong at lower left Hand Taiyang. Divided Jue agrees with Great Jue at lower left Foot Shaoyang. Great Yu agrees with Great Jue at upper right Foot Taiyang. Great Jue agrees with Great Gong at upper right Foot Shaoyang.
These nine supplied agreements are retained separately from the preceding twelve regulation rows; apparent inconsistencies are not silently harmonized.
Right Zhi, Lesser Zhi, Solid Zhi, Upper Zhi, Divided Zhi.
Right Jue, Dai Jue, Upper Jue, Great Jue, Divided Jue.
Right Shang, Lesser Shang, Dai Shang, Upper Shang, Left Shang.
Lesser Gong, Upper Gong, Great Gong, Added Gong, Left Gong.
Common Yu, Constrained Yu, Upper Yu, Great Yu, Lesser Yu.
The full five-by-five list follows this chapter’s names and order, rather than replacing them with the somewhat different names in the preceding chapter.
The Yellow Emperor said: “If women have no beard, do they lack blood and qi?”
Qi Bo said: “The Chong and Ren vessels both arise within the bao, ascend inside the back and form the sea of channels and networks. Their superficial, outward portions follow the right side of the abdomen, rise to meet at the throat and branch to network the lips and mouth. Abundant blood and qi fill the skin and warm the flesh. Blood abundant by itself spreads and seeps into the skin, producing fine hair. Women’s constitution has excess qi and insufficient blood because blood is repeatedly lost. Chong and Ren therefore do not nourish lips and mouth, so a beard does not grow.”
The bao is the source’s reproductive-region term. The supplied right-abdominal route and historical blood-and-qi explanation remain unchanged; they are not replaced by modern endocrine anatomy.
The Yellow Emperor said: “A man may suffer injury to the yin organs, with yin qi cut off, no erection and loss of genital function, yet his beard does not disappear. Why does it disappear in the eunuch alone? I wish to hear the reason.”
Qi Bo said: “The eunuch has the gathering sinew removed, injuring the Chong vessel. Blood drains and does not return; the skin binds within and lips and mouth are not nourished, so the beard does not grow.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Some are called eunuchs by nature, never injured and without loss of blood, yet their beard does not grow. Why?”
Qi Bo said: “This is an insufficiency received from heaven. Ren and Chong are not abundant and the gathering sinew does not form. There is qi but no blood; lips and mouth are not nourished, so the beard does not grow.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “Excellent is the sage’s understanding of all things! Like sun and moon with light and shadow, voice and sound with drum and echo, hearing the sound reveals the form. Who but you could make clear the essence of all things?”
Thus the sage observes the complexion. Yellow and red indicate much heat qi; blue-green and white little heat qi; black much blood and little qi. Fine brows indicate much Taiyang blood. A continuous, abundant beard indicates much Shaoyang blood. A fine beard indicates much Yangming blood. Such are the conditions at their proper time.
In a person’s ordinary reckoning, Taiyang usually has much blood and little qi; Shaoyang much qi and little blood; Yangming much blood and much qi; Jueyin much qi and little blood; Shaoyin much qi and little blood; Taiyin much blood and little qi. This is called heaven’s ordinary reckoning.
The supplied Taiyin row is retained even where other textual schemes give a different balance. The beard explanation and congenital categories remain historical claims rather than modern diagnoses.
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