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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Lingshu 72 · Comprehending Heaven
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked Shao Shi: “I have heard that people have yin and yang. What is a yin person, and what is a yang person?”
Shao Shi said: “Between heaven and earth, within the six directions, nothing departs from five, and people correspond to this. It is not simply one yin and one yang. Those words are only a brief account; speech cannot explain it all exhaustively.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “I wish to hear its meaning briefly. Can worthy or sagely people fully grasp it in the heart and put it into practice?”
Shao Shi said: “There are Taiyin people, Shaoyin people, Taiyang people, Shaoyang people and people of harmonious yin and yang. These five have different bearings, and their sinews, bones, qi and blood are unequal.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “May I hear their differences?”
Shao Shi said: “The Taiyin person is greedy and lacking in benevolence, outwardly humble and deeply withdrawn, fond of taking in and averse to giving out. The heart keeps harmony without expression, neglects timely action and moves after others. This is the Taiyin person.
“The Shaoyin person is petty in greed and injurious in heart, treating another’s loss as a personal gain, liking injury and harm. Another’s honor instead brings anger. The heart is jealous and without kindness. This is the Shaoyin person.
“The Taiyang person lives expansively, likes talking of great affairs, speaks emptily without ability and sends ambition into the four fields. Actions disregard right and wrong; affairs are handled with habitual self-will. Even failure brings no regret. This is the Taiyang person.
“The Shaoyang person is calculating and self-important. Even a small office brings a high opinion of personal worth. There is fondness for outside connections without inward attachment. This is the Shaoyang person.
“The harmonious yin-and-yang person lives peacefully and quietly, neither needlessly fearful nor needlessly delighted, yielding to things without contending and changing with the times. In honor, such a person remains humble and speaks without imposing control: this is called the highest ordering. Ancient practitioners skilled in needles and moxa observed these five bearings before treatment, draining abundance and supplementing emptiness.”
The final speech-and-ordering phrase is compressed. These moral descriptions belong to the text’s historical typology and do not establish character from bodily appearance.
The Yellow Emperor said: “How are the five bearings treated?”
Shao Shi said: “The Taiyin person has much yin and no yang, turbid yin blood and rough defensive qi, with yin and yang disharmonious, relaxed sinews and thick skin. Without swift draining it cannot be shifted.
“The Shaoyin person has much yin and little yang, a small Stomach and large intestines, with the six fu unregulated. The Yangming vessel is small and Taiyang large. Regulate carefully: blood is easily lost and qi easily fails.
“The Taiyang person has much yang and little yin. Regulate cautiously, without depleting yin while draining yang. Repeated depletion of yang readily brings kuang; depletion of both yin and yang brings sudden death and loss of awareness.
“The Shaoyang person has much yang and little yin, small channels and large networks, blood within and qi outside. Make yin replete and yang empty. Draining the networks alone causes strong qi to escape and brings illness. With middle qi insufficient, recovery does not occur.
“In the harmonious yin-and-yang person, yin and yang qi harmonize and blood and vessels are regulated. Carefully examine yin and yang, harmful and proper conditions, with a settled bearing. Inspect excess and insufficiency. Drain abundance, supplement emptiness; if neither abundant nor empty, address the channels. These are the means of regulating yin and yang and distinguishing the five bearings.”
The supplied warning names repeated loss of yang, not a silently substituted yin reading. The Shaoyang instruction to make yin replete and yang empty remains beside its warning against draining networks alone.
The Yellow Emperor said: “When meeting people of the five bearings suddenly for the first time, with no previous acquaintance and no knowledge of their conduct, how can they be distinguished?”
Shao Shi replied: “Ordinary people do not resemble the five bearings. Thus five times five makes twenty-five types, excluding the five bearings. The five bearings especially differ from ordinary people.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “How are the five bearings distinguished?”
Shao Shi said: “The Taiyin person looks dark and black, with a downcast intention, a long, large form and a bent-kneed bearing not yet stooped. This is Taiyin. The Shaoyin person looks quiet and furtive, inwardly fixed in secret injury, standing restlessly and precariously and walking as if crouched or concealed. This is Shaoyin.
“The Taiyang person looks elevated and expansive, leaning the body back and bending the knees. This is Taiyang. The Shaoyang person likes looking upward when standing and swaying when walking; both arms and elbows habitually project behind the back. This is Shaoyang.
“The harmonious yin-and-yang person looks relaxed and compliant, dignified and cheerful, full and composed. Everyone calls such a person a gentleman. This is the harmonious yin-and-yang person.”
The Taiyin posture clause and several doubled expressions have uncertain graphs in this source. Their general bearing is translated without inventing a modern measurement or a validated personality classification.
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