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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 81 · Explaining the Subtle Essentials
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor was in the Hall of Light. Lei Gong asked: “I receive instruction and transmit it, teaching through the classical discourses: unhurried examination of bodily form, yin and yang, needling and moxibustion, and what decoctions and medicinals nourish. Those practicing treatment differ in ability and cannot always achieve complete success. As for first discussing sorrow, joy and anger, dryness, Damp, cold and summer heat, yin and yang and women, I ask why they are so. I have carefully received instruction on high and low status, wealth and poverty, what bodily form follows, communication among subordinates and applying the Way and art as circumstances require. I now have a humble, clumsy and incomplete question about something outside the classics and wish to hear its nature.”
The awkward self-description is retained without inventing an additional topic.
The Emperor said: “It is a great matter.”
Lei Gong asked: “When people cry but tears do not come out, or tears come but nasal fluid is scant, why is this?”
The Emperor said: “It is in the classics.”
Lei Gong asked again: “I do not know where the water is produced or from where nasal fluid comes.”
The Emperor said: “A question like this gives no benefit to treatment. It is what practitioners know and what arises from the Way. The Heart is the concentrated essence of the five zang; the eyes are its opening and the complexion’s bloom its flourishing. When a person has virtue, qi is harmonious in the eyes. With loss, worry is known in the complexion.”
The supplied Heart-to-eye relation is retained rather than replaced by a different opening correspondence.
“Thus sorrow brings tears, and this is the course by which water arises. The root of water is accumulated water; accumulated water is utmost yin; utmost yin is Kidney essence. Water rooted in essence does not come out because essence holds it. What assists encloses it, so water does not move. Water’s essence is intention; Fire’s essence is spirit. Water and Fire affect each other; spirit and intention grieve together, and water forms in the eyes. Thus the saying goes: ‘When the heart grieves, it is called intention grieving.’ Intention and the Heart’s essence gather together at the eyes.”
The enclosing-helper phrase is obscure and is retained without assigning an unmentioned anatomical structure.
“When both grieve, spiritual qi transmits to the Heart. Essence above does not transmit to intention; intention grieves alone, and tears come out. Tears and nasal fluid concern the brain. The brain is yin; marrow fills the bones. Thus the brain seeps to become nasal fluid.”
The source’s shift from grieving together to intention grieving alone is retained without adding a causal correction.
“Intention governs the bones. Thus when water flows and nasal fluid follows, their courses are alike. Nasal fluid and tears are like brothers: in crisis they die together, in life they live together. Intention first grieves, so nasal fluid and tears both emerge and spread across. Their emergence together and mutual following come from belonging to the same kind.”
Lei Gong said: “How great! Why do people cry without tears, or with few tears, while nasal fluid does not follow?”
The Emperor said: “When tears do not come, the crying has no sorrow. Where there are no tears, spirit is not compassionate. If spirit is not compassionate, intention does not grieve. Yin and yang hold each other: how could tears come alone?”
“When intention grieves there is anguish. Anguish stirs yin; stirred yin makes intention leave the eyes. When intention leaves, spirit does not guard essence. Essence and spirit leave the eyes, and nasal fluid and tears come out. Have you not recited and considered the classic’s statement: ‘With counterflow, the eyes cannot see’?
“In counterflow, yang qi joins above and yin qi below. Yang joining above leaves Fire shining alone; yin joining below makes the feet cold, and cold feet bring distension. One Water cannot overcome five Fires, so the eye corners become blind.”
The Water-and-Fire numbers remain the text’s correspondence language, not measured physiological quantities.
“Thus on meeting Wind, tears flow without stopping. When Wind strikes the eyes, yang qi guards essence within: Fire qi scorches the eyes, so tears flow on encountering Wind. A comparison can be made: when Fire is fierce, Wind arises and rain can follow. These belong to the same kind.”
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