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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 79 · The Categories of Yin and Yang
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
At the beginning of early spring, the Yellow Emperor sat at ease, surveying the eight extremities and setting right the qi of the eight Winds. He asked Lei Gong: “Among the kinds of yin and yang, the ways of the channel vessels and what governs the five centers, which zang is most honored?”
Lei Gong replied: “Spring, Jia and Yi, and blue-green govern the Liver within for seventy-two days. This is the pulse governing the season. I therefore take this zang to be most honored.”
The Emperor said: “Think again over the upper and lower classics and calmly discriminate yin and yang. What you call most honored is the lowest understanding.”
Lei Gong purified himself for seven days and again attended the Emperor at dawn.
The Emperor said: “Third Yang is the main thread; Second Yang the binding cord; First Yang the roaming division. Through these, the beginning and end of the five zang are known. Third Yin is the exterior; Second Yin the interior; First Yin reaches the limit and makes the moon’s beginning and darkness. Bring these together to set their principles right.”
The displayed text names Third Yin in the exterior clause; it is not silently changed to Third Yang. The lunar wording is retained without adding a calendrical calculation.
Lei Gong said: “Though I have received instruction, I still cannot make it clear.”
The Emperor said: “What is called Third Yang is Taiyang as the main thread. When the Third Yang pulse reaches Hand Taiyin, it is string-like and floating, not sinking. Decide by the measures, examine with the mind and join it with the discourse on yin and yang.
“What is called Second Yang is Yangming. At Hand Taiyin it is string-like, sinking and tense, without a forceful beat. When heat arrives with illness, all die.
“First Yang is Shaoyang. At Hand Taiyin it connects upward with Renying, string-like, tense, suspended and unceasing. This is Shaoyang illness. If yin alone remains, death follows.”
“Third Yin governs the six channels. Meeting at Taiyin, it beats hidden below without floating, leaving the heart empty above.
“Second Yin reaches the Lung; its qi returns to the Bladder and connects outward with Spleen and Stomach.
“When First Yin arrives alone, the channel is cut off and qi floats without a forceful beat, hooked and slippery.
“These six pulses are now yin, now yang, crossing in affiliation and joining one another. They connect across the five zang and accord with yin and yang. What arrives first is host; what arrives later is guest.”
Lei Gong said: “I have exhausted my attention in receiving transmission on the channel vessels. I recite the Way of unhurried discrimination and try to accord with it, yet do not know yin and yang or female and male.”
The Emperor said: “Third Yang is father; Second Yang is guard; First Yang is the ordering thread. Third Yin is mother; Second Yin is female; First Yin is the sole envoy.”
“With Second Yang and First Yin, Yangming governs illness. It cannot overcome First Yin; the pulse is soft and moving, and all nine openings sink.”
“With Third Yang and First Yin, the Taiyang pulse prevails and First Yin cannot stop it. Within, the five zang are disordered; outside, there is fright and alarm.”
“With Second Yin and Second Yang, illness is in the Lung. The Shaoyin pulse sinks, overcomes the Lung and injures the Spleen, also injuring the four limbs outside.”
“When Second Yin and Second Yang both arrive in crossing, illness is in the Kidney. There are cursing, reckless conduct and illness of the head becoming frenzy.”
“With Second Yin and First Yang, illness emerges from the Kidney. Yin qi lodges and roams at the heart cavity; the lower openings are dammed, closed and blocked. The four limbs become separated.”
The lower-opening phrase is compressed and uses an anomalous graph; the obstruction image is retained without adding a specific organ lesion.
“First Yin and First Yang alternately become cut off. This is yin qi reaching the Heart, with no constant position above or below and no known course of entry and exit. Throat and pharynx are dry. The illness lies in Earth, the Spleen.”
“With Second Yang and Third Yin, utmost yin is present throughout. Yin does not pass beyond yang, and yang qi cannot stop yin; yin and yang are both cut off. Floating, this forms blood masses; sinking, pus and swelling. Yin and yang are both strong, reaching yin and yang below. Above they join the bright; below they join the dark. Examination determines the time of life or death and thus accords with the year’s beginning.”
The source’s abrupt shift from being cut off to both being strong, and its repeated yin-and-yang location wording, are retained rather than reconciled by adding a missing clause.
Lei Gong asked: “May I ask about a shortened term of life?” The Yellow Emperor did not answer. Lei Gong asked again.
The Yellow Emperor said: “It is in the classical discourses.”
Lei Gong said: “Please let me hear about the shortened term.”
The Yellow Emperor said: “For illness in the three winter months that joins yang, if the pulse shows signs of death in spring’s first month, all reach their end as spring passes out.”
“For illness in the three winter months whose course is already exhausted, grasses and willow leaves are all killed. In spring, yin and yang are both cut off; the term lies in early spring.”
The plant and seasonal sequence is retained as displayed rather than rearranged into a different prognosis.
“Illness in the three spring months is called yang killing. If yin and yang are both cut off, the term lies when grass is dry.”
“For illness in the three summer months, utmost yin does not pass ten days. If yin and yang cross, the term lies in the time of lian-water.”
Lian-water is retained as an autumn water-cooling label in older commentary; no modern calendar date is supplied.
“For illness in the three autumn months, when Third Yang rises on both sides, it ceases by itself without treatment. When yin and yang cross and join, one standing cannot sit and one sitting cannot rise. If Third Yang arrives alone, the term lies in stone-water; if Second Yin arrives alone, in full Water.”
Stone-water names water hard as stone. The final Second Yin label is retained, as are the source’s seasonal water names, without replacing them with calculated dates.
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