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Chapter 13 Discourse on Moving the essence and Changing the Qi 13-82-7 Huang Di asked: “I have heard that, when [the people] in antiquity treated a disease, they simply moved the essence and changed the qi.1 They were able to invoke the origin and [any disease] came to an end.2 1 Wang Bing: “移 is to say: 移易, ‘change.’ 變 is to say: 變改, ‘to alter.’ all [these activities ] caused the evil not to harm the proper, so that the essence spirit recovered to strength and guarded the interior. Su wen 03 has: ‘The sages transmitted the essence spirit and they ingested the qi of heaven.’ Su wen 01 states: ‘When the essence spirit guards the interior, where should a disease arrive from?’ ” Zhang Zhicong: “This is, they moved and increased the [patients’] essence and they transmitted and changed their qi.”Wu Kun: “They altered the essence spirit and they transformed the qi in the depots. for instance, [by generating] anxiety they overcame anger; [by generating] fear they overcame joy; [by generating] anger they overcame pondering; [by generating ] joy they overcame anxiety; [by generating] pondering they overcame fear and they guided the camp and the guard [qi through the organism] − all this was undertaken [in this context].” Gao shishi: “導引, ‘to guide,’ is called 移; 振作, ‘to stir up,’ is called 變.” 536/33: “其 has the meaning of 有, ‘to have.’ That is, ‘in ancient times, for the treatment of disease, there existed only [the methods of] moving the essence and changing the qi.’” 移精變氣, “to move essence and change the qi”, may be read as a refutation of macrobiotic practices in the treatment of illness. see also below, note 7. 2 Zhang Zhicong: “Words directed at the spirits are called 祝.” Zhang Jiebin: “由 is where the disease emerged from.”Ma shi: “祝由 is to pray to the origin of the disease by speaking to the spirits. In high antiquity, before the emergence of toxic drugs, needles, and [pointed] stones, it was only through moving the essence and changing the qi, one could exorcise the origin of a disease and heal it.” Wu Kun: “Whenever someone’s affects leave the middle way and if one of the five sentiments is unilaterally pronounced and causes harm, disease emerges. for instance, in case of anger, the qi rises; in case of fear, the qi moves downwards. .. That is, when the qi has a disease, this generates all kinds of diseases. When the ancients treated [a patient], they clearly perceived his feelings and they prayed to the origin of the disease.That is to say, when a patient had a unilaterally [pronounced emotion], this caused a disease in his qi.They treated [the unilaterally pronounced emotion] by that [emotion] which overcomes it; and they harmonized it by that which generates it.” 1033/259: “The term 祝由 has been interpreted by the majority of the commentators as a type of therapy whereby one prays to the spirits. Both in the Gong yang zhuan 公羊傳 and in the Gu liang zhuan 穀梁傳 , 祝 has the meaning of 斷, ‘to cut.’ 由 can be interpreted as 原因, ‘cause,’ ‘reason.’ 祝由, then, is to be interpreted as ‘to cut the cause of the disease.’ ”for 220 Huang Di nei jing su wen When the people of nowadays treat a disease, [they employ] toxic drugs to treat their interior and [they employ] needles and [pointed] stones to treat their exterior.3 some are healed; others are not healed. Why is this so?” 13-82-9 Qi Bo responded: “People in antiquity lived among their animals. They moved and were active and this way they avoided the cold. They resided in the shade and this way they avoided the summerheat.4 Internally, they knew no entanglements resulting from sentimental attachments;5 further details of this argument, see there. similarly, 536/33 rejects the intepretation of 祝由 as referring to an invocation of spirits and quotes the Guang ya 廣雅, shi gu yi 釋詁一,to support the interpretation of 祝 as 斷,“to cut.”for details see there.Gao Jiwu/238: “ ‘I have heard when the physicians in ancient times treated a disease, they merely changed the thoughts and the spirit of the patient,[thereby] cutting the root of the disease to cure the disease.’ ”137/13:“呼吸,‘to breathe,’ is 祝; 遷徙;‘to move,’ is 由. 祝由 is therefore an ancient method of ‘moving to another place to find cure and nourishment .’ Hence [the text] states 如日月光. 如 is 就,‘to approach.’ This is to say: face the light of sun and moon to improve one’s breathing.”2495/531: “from this it can be seen that by...

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