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Sanming Tonghui · A Comprehensive Account of the Three Destinies
On Illness: Stem-Branch Affiliations of the Five Viscera and Six Bowels
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A mnemonic says: “Jia gallbladder, Yi liver, Bing small intestine; Ding heart, Wu stomach, Ji spleen. Geng large intestine, Xin lungs; Ren bladder, Gui kidneys. Triple Burner also lodges with Ren; the enclosing network also returns to Gui.” Another: “Jia head, Yi crown, Bing shoulders; Ding heart, Wu ribs, Ji abdomen. Geng navel wheel, Xin thighs, Ren shins, Gui feet: these encompass the body.” Another: “Zi bladder, waterways, and ears; Chou womb, belly, and spleen. Yin gallbladder, hair, vessels, and both hands; Mao ten fingers and inner liver. Chen Earth skin, shoulders, and chest; the printed Yi-shaped branch face, throat, teeth, an unclear lower-Bin expression, and anus. Wu Fire governs spirit and eyes; Wei Earth stomach, wrist, diaphragm, and spine. Shen Metal large intestine, channels, and lungs; You essence, blood, and small intestine. Xu Earth Life Gate, thighs, ankles, and feet; Hai Water head and kidney sac. Inferring illness thus would win Qibo and Leigong's praise.” Another: “Wu head, Si and Wei shoulders; Chen and Shen left and right arms. Mao and You ribs, Yin and Xu thighs; Chou and Hai feet, Zi genitals.” Another: “Qian head, Kun abdomen, Kan ears; Zhen feet, Xun thighs, Gen hands. Dui mouth, Li eyes: infer illness by these eight trigrams.” Illness, the author says, arises from disharmony among the phases and bodily organs. Phases connect with the five organs, six viscera with nine openings. Affliction of ten stems belongs to six viscera, of twelve branches to five organs. Bing, Ding, the printed Ji, and Wu Fire configuration, southern Li, govern illness above; Ren, Gui, Hai, and Zi Water, northern Kan, below; Jia, Yi, Yin, and Mao Zhen left; Geng, Xin, Shen, and You Dui right; Wu, Ji, Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei Kun/Gen spleen, stomach, and middle epigastrium. Wind dizziness and shaking, daily dimming sight, poorly flowing blood, early hair loss, and the damaged blue-green sinews/withered-gua phrase belong to deficient Jia/Yi/Yin/Mao Wood in the liver group. Pus, blood, sores, scabies, bitter tongue, and muteness belong to deficient Bing/Ding/Si/Wu Fire in the heart group. Edema, foot qi, yellow swelling, bad breath, stomach reversal, cold spleen, and hot diaphragm belong to deficient Wu/Ji/Chen/Xu/Chou/Wei Earth in the spleen group. Blocked nose, damaged jiu-gao wording, impeded speech, bound qi, cough, and shouting belong to deficient Geng/Xin/Shen/You lungs. White turbidity, white discharge, sudden vomiting and diarrhea, dysentery, hernia, and small-intestinal complaints belong to deficient Ren/Gui/Hai/Zi kidneys. Jia and Yi with much Geng, Xin, Shen, and You internally indicate liver/gallbladder fright and palpitations, wasting disease, numb limbs, and painful sinews and bones; externally dizziness, crooked mouth and eyes, paralysis on either side, falls, and injury. Much Bing/Ding Fire without balancing Water gives phlegm wheeze, coughing blood, wind-stroke with speech loss, dry skin, internal heat, and dry mouth. Women have disordered blood and qi or miscarriage in pregnancy; children acute or chronic fright-wind, night crying, cough, and blue-green dark faces. Bing and Ding with much Ren, Gui, Hai, and Zi internally indicate heart-qi pain, convulsions, stiff tongue, mouth pain, hoarse throat, acute/chronic fright-wind, and impeded speech; externally tidal heat, madness, dim or lost sight, small-intestinal hernia, sores, pus and blood, and painful or turbid urination. Women have dry blood and irregular channels; children pox, rashes, scabies, and red faces. Wu and Ji with much Jia, Yi, Yin, and Mao internally indicate disordered spleen and stomach, stomach reversal, obstructed food, qi choking, abdominal swelling, diarrhea, yellow swelling, selective eating, vomiting, and nausea; externally heavy right hand, damp toxin spreading, and blocked chest and abdomen. Women have poor appetite, sour swallowing, weakness, yawning, and fatigue; children the five wasting and five softness conditions, internal heat, sleepiness, and sallow faces. Geng and Xin with much Bing, Ding, Si, and Wu internally indicate intestinal wind, hemorrhoids and fistulas, blood after stool, phlegm-fire cough, wheezing and vomiting blood, a damaged spirit-loss expression, deficiency vexation and wasting; externally dry skin, lung-wind red nose, abscesses and back swellings, pus and blood, and weakness. Women have phlegm cough and blood-related childbirth problems; children pus, blood, dysentery, and yellow-white faces. Ren and Gui with much Wu, Ji, Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei internally indicate seminal loss, night sweat, dreams of intercourse with ghosts, turbid blood and depletion, chills, tooth grinding, deafness, blindness, cold-damage and common-cold complaints; externally wind/tooth-worm pain, one-sided prolapse and kidney qi, lower-back and knee pain, dribbling urine, vomiting and diarrhea, and fear of cold. Women have white discharge, ghost pregnancy, and irregular menses; children ear sores, small-intestinal pain, nighttime agitation in damaged wording, and dark faces. A rhapsody says: “Painful sinews and bones arise from Wood injured by Metal; dim eyes from Fire conquered by Water. Empty Earth in flourishing Wood gives spleen injury; weak Metal in blazing Fire blood disease.” Another: “Wood conquered by Metal gives lower-back and rib calamity; Fire injured by Water eye illness. Heart/lung wheezing and fullness also involve Metal/Fire punishment; spleen/stomach injury Earth/Water conflict. Water branch meeting Fire stem gives abdominal disease and confused heart; Fire branch meeting Water stem internal eye obstruction and blindness. Blazing Upward vexation steams Earth, balding head and dimming eyes; purely damp Moistening Downward without Earth gives deficient kidneys and blocked ears. Mars flourishing at Li/Xun brings wind-stroke and lost voice; sharp Venus combining Dui/Kun ruin before weapons.” Another says diseased heart cannot speak, liver cannot see, spleen cannot eat, lungs cannot smell, kidneys cannot hear, following each organ's domain to establish deficiency or excess. Alas, human illness has many forms but one principle. Looking, questioning, listening/smelling, and palpating are medicine's subtle uses; generation, conquest, restraint, and transformation are the diviner's mysterious signs. Exploring root, branch, origin, and manifestation does not leave these methods in the source's account. A discussion says health arises from harmony, illness from punishment and injury. Study phase strength to infer illnesses' interior and exterior, responding inwardly to organs and outwardly to limbs. Wood at Rest/Imprisonment thins temple hair; Fire at Death/Extinction dims pupils. Hidden Earth in Fire with little Water restraint confuses spirit; hidden Metal below Wood without Water's gathering injures legs and feet. Jia/Yi born in Dui encountering Ren/Gui die in drunkenness; Bing/Ding nurtured in Kan encountering Geng/Xin perish in ditches. Abundant Water floating Wood gives diarrhea; heavy Earth burying Metal labored raised breathing. Wind, shaking, and dizziness mean flourishing Yi and declining Xin; pain, itching, and sores abundant Ding and weak Gui; blockage, swelling, and fullness excessive Ji; depressed indignation and wasting insufficient Xin. Jia/Yi injuring Wu/Ji without rescue gives cleft lip; Bing/Ding conquering Geng/Xin with little restraint muteness. Earth in Fire gives neck scrofula; Earth in Water abdominal swelling. Useful Spirit restrained and punished dies under rods; Ghosts above and below without rescue by hanging. Repeated clashes give many harms and death abroad; deficient, declining phases death by epidemic. Defeated Water bends the lower back, beyond Xuanyuan and Qibo's method; punished Metal makes a turtle back, beyond Lu and Bian's prescriptions. Refined Geng/Xin seeing Wood in the west dies by weapons; defeated or Extinct Jia/Yi in southern Kun without Water has scattered bones and flesh. Xinsi and Bingshen punished give weak arms and six fingers; Jimao and Wuyin meeting enemies weak stomach and chronic sores; Yiwei and Jiawu meeting Metal often a turtle-head condition. Guimao and the printed Yi-shaped Chou punished give lower-back and knee illness. Jiashen and Yiyou often have childhood liver-channel disease; Xinmao and Gengyin late-life sinew/bone wasting. Bing Fire blazing upward threatens men's body and heart; Ding Fire damp below gives women deficiency wasting and blood-related childbirth problems. Declining/defeated day and hour make major illness difficult to treat; stems and branches punishing and harming leave minor illness untreated. Harmonious energies bring peace, opposed energies calamity and destruction. Symptoms do not leave the six pulses and death/life hardly surpass the phases; the author claims detailed study never errs. An old song says: “Wu and Ji born with incomplete energy, Hurting Office in both month and hour, must have head/face damage and pus-filled sores tormenting youth.” Another: “Bing and Ding day stems with declining phases, Seven Killings arriving with three harmonies, and a damaged rising/combining-day phrase give insufficient livelihood, deafness, disability, and dusty faces.” Another: “Ren and Gui repeated, with Heavenly Wealth in the hour, even without facial blotches or sores must give eye calamity.” Another account says people receive energy from father and form from mother. Peaceful organs have no illness; excess or deficient conflict and conquest produce illness. The Inner Canon says: “East full, west empty; drain south and supplement north.” Full east is excessive Wood, empty west insufficient Metal; draining south addresses excessive Fire, supplementing north insufficient Water. Thus both excess and deficiency indicate illness. Water rises, Fire descends, Metal clears, Wood balances, and Earth escapes conquest, giving each organ balanced energy: whence illness? The Yin-Yang Book says: “Hard Metal and strong Fire punish their own directions; falling Wood returns to root, flowing Water tends east.” Three punishments injure, meaning excess causing bodily illness. Taking only deficiency as illness is one-sided. Death/Extinction illnesses are: Water, kidney qi spreading through back and feet, slippery leakage and difficult excretion; Fire, blocked intestinal qi, fright/palpitations, forgetfulness and restless spirit; Wood, deficient wind, dry eyes, dizziness, contracted sinews, withered nails, inverted joy/anger and selective eating/drinking; Metal, deficient qi, rapid wheezing, cough, dry skin/hair, joint pain, running tears/mucus, large-intestinal diarrhea and bloody stool; Earth, yellow face, reduced appetite, obstructed swallowing, vomiting, lazy limbs, lying and sleeping, overthinking/anxiety, deafness, turbid forgetfulness and little desire to move. Illness through conquest: Metal/Fire at Birth/Flourishing gives sores and swollen paralysis, at Death/Extinction wasting and vomiting blood. Earth/Wood at Birth/Flourishing gives fatigue, oppression, dizziness, wind numbness and painful swollen small intestine; at Death/Extinction vomiting food, masses, abscess-like accumulations or wind-stroke. Metal/Wood at Birth/Flourishing damages limbs, joints and eyes; at Death/Extinction qi deficiency, exhausted essence, wasting and paralysis. Water/Earth gives damp spleen, diarrhea, central fullness and obstructed phlegm cough. Illness through generation: Fire/Wood at Birth/Flourishing gives upper excess, diaphragm obstruction, red eyes and head-wind; at Death/Extinction cold-damage madness and confused oppression. Fire/Earth at Birth/Flourishing gives full stomach; at Death/Extinction scorched lips, red qi, heat-bound constipation. Metal/Water at Birth/Flourishing gives qi stagnation, at Death/Extinction the damaged clear/slippery expression. Water/Wood at Birth/Flourishing gives vomiting and deficient stomach; at Death/Extinction spoiled essence and cold-damage sticky malaria. Metal/Earth at Birth/Flourishing gives much deficiency and little flesh; at Death/Extinction intestinal rumbling and a damaged cocoon-acting expression. Water, Earth, and Wood meeting without energy give abdominal distension and vomiting; Metal, Water, and Fire without energy give dysentery: Metal governs large intestine, Water and Fire guarding it are yin/yang disharmony. Water meeting Earth often gives stomach reversal; much Earth without Water opening it deafness. Kidney Water not flowing reverses stomach; qi unable to function gives deafness. Another account says to infer disability and illness, first inspect day stem, then monthly command, then year and hour together. Hurting Office indicates disability, as does heavy Killing. Qian is at Hai, Heaven's Gate. Six-Xin people obtaining this day/hour often have blindness and deafness: Hai belongs to kidneys, kidneys connect to ears, and Bing Fire is conquered by Water. Zi/Kan with heavy Hurting, Killing, and punishment gives lower-body illness. Yin/Gen Earth gives spleen/stomach and sallow-face illness. Chen belongs to Zhen; monthly Hurting Office gives childhood fright illness, since Zhen moves: mild cases fright and spleen/stomach illness, severe cases foot illness. Si/Xun with heavy Hurting and Killing gives women's disordered blood/qi and wasting. Wu/Li eyes with heavy Hurting and Killing gives blindness and head-wind. Shen/Kun, many yin energies, gives back, leg, sinew and bone illness; Complete Injury is excluded from this judgment. You/Dui gives incomplete mouth and teeth; Xu Fire Storehouse bloody stool and hemorrhoids/fistulas; Chou and Wei Hurting Office also spleen/stomach illness. Flourishing Hurting and Killing gives annual epidemic illness. Useful influences above and below in battle, phases without rescue, give bodily incompleteness and injured head/face. Other Killings also govern illness: Robbery small intestine, deafness and throat; Official Tally back and legs; Salty Pool wine/sex, wasting, pus, blood and excretory illness; Growth-and-Depletion obscurity or warts; Flying Lian, named Heavenly Blindness, with energy-less stems/branches gives lack of sight. Emolument causing illness through Food requires a Killing conquering Body. True clash or punishment dispersing energy mostly gives disabling illness. Jiachen, the printed Jia–Wu, Yichou, and Yiwei mix Earth/Wood and give paralysis; Bingshen and Dingyou Metal/Fire injure blood and sinews; Wuzi and Jihai Water/Earth give spleen/stomach illness; Gengyin and Xinmao Metal/Wood sinew/bone wasting cough. To infer disease and calamity, first examine Emolument, Fate, and Body and major/minor fortune. Even if these lack energy and Emolument/Horse are defeated or Extinct, vigorous Wealth of Emolument or Fate can prevent death. A father's illness is inferred from the child's chart: Solitary Star, Widowed Lodge, Mourning Gate, Funeral Guest, or White-Clothing Killing arriving at Fate means an incurable paternal illness in the source's claim. Husband and wife are inferred similarly.
Translator's note: All organ/body/trigram tables, five conquest groups with women/children distinctions, three poems, Birth/Flourishing versus Death/Extinction disease lists, symbolic-spirit correspondences and final relative-chart method are retained. Damaged graphs and phrases, including lower-Bin, withered-gua, jiu-gao, nighttime agitation, clear/slippery, cocoon-acting and Jia–Wu, are not silently rebuilt. Terms such as wind, qi, ghost pregnancy and turtle-head reflect historical categories, not modern diagnoses. The source's therapeutic quotation, predictions and claims of never erring are translated as historical assertions, not medical guidance or independently verified correlations.
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