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Chapter 44. Discourse On Limpness
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Chapter 44 Discourse on limpness1 44-246-7 Huang Di asked: “When the five depots let a person [suffer from] limpness, how is that?”2 Qi Bo responded: “The lung rules the body’s skin and body hair. The heart rules the body’s blood and vessels. The liver rules the body’s sinews and membranes. The spleen rules the body’s muscles and flesh.3 The kidneys rule the body’s bones and marrow.4 Hence, when the lung is hot and when the lobes burn, then the skin and the body hair are depleted and weak. [The skin is] tense [and the body hair is] thin. When [the heat] is stuck,5 1 Wang Bing: “痿 is to say: 痿弱無力以運動, ‘weak, without strength to move.’ ” Cheng shide et al.: “痿 is identical with 萎, ‘to dry.’ That is, the four limbs dry and lose their motility.” SWJZ: “痿 is 痺, ‘block.’ ”Yu pian: “痿 is inability to walk; 痺 is dampness disease.”Zhang yizhi et al.: “痿 and 痺 refer to different [diseases]. Generally speaking, what is associated with pain, that is 痺; those without pain, but going along with numbness and weakness, these are 痿 [diseases].” 2 Gao Jiwu/483: “五藏 should be 五藏熱邪, ‘heat evil in the five depots.’ ” 3 SWJZ and Guang ya: “肌 is 肉.” 4 Wang Bing: “[The body parts] ruled [by the depots] differ. Hence, when [the depots] generate limpness, [these states] are associated with the [different body parts] each of them rules.” 5 Zhang Jiebin: “If the heat qi stays and does not leave and proceeds to the sinews, vessels, bones, and flesh, then the disease of limpness and inability to walk develops.” Cheng shide et al.: “著 means 留著不去, ‘to stay and not to leave.’ ” 393/370: “The Jia yi jing has: 故肺氣熱則葉焦. 焦則皮虛弱. 急薄著. 著則生痿躄矣. The Tai su has: 故肺氣熱葉焦. 則皮毛膚弱急薄著. 則生痿辟. yao shaoyu has: 故肺熱葉焦則 皮毛虛, 弱急薄著, 則生痿躄也. Ma shi has interpreted this as ‘Hence, when the lung is hot and the lobes burn, then the skin and the body hair are depleted, weak, tense, and thinned out. When [the heat] stays, then this causes limpness and an inability to walk.’ Most later commentators have adopted this interpretation, including some of our own time. as far as I know, today it is only Wang Qi who reads 薄著 as a sequence of separate meanings, and he comments on 急薄著 as follows: ‘急 is 急 654 Huang Di nei jing su wen then [this] causes limpness with an inability to walk.6 When the heart qi is hot, then the [qi in the] lower vessels recedes and turns upwards. When it turns upwards, then the vessels below are depleted. When they are depleted, then [this] generates vessel limpness. 8 迫 (“urgent,” “pressing”); 薄 is 薄弱 (“weak”); and 著 refers to an evil that stays and does not leave.’ My own opinion is that [the two characters] 薄著 should not be read separately. except for the Su wen, this phrase also appears in Ling shu 5 where it is clearly a disyllabic expression. also, it appears in [ancient] dictionaries, such as liu Xi’s 劉熙 Shi ming 釋名, shi yan yu 釋言語,where it is stated: 縛,薄也,使相薄著也. from this it can be seen that this was a rather popular phrase at the time of the Han. It was only in later times that it became obsolete.Wang Xianqian 王先謙 of the Qing dynasty has stated in his Shi ming shu zheng bu 釋名疏証補: 薄著 is to say 附著, (‘to adhere to.’) The Shuo wen states: 急 is 褊 (‘narrow’). Hence, 急 is 皺急 (‘wrinkled’) and has the same meaning as 薄著.” yan Hongchen & Gao Guangzhen/184: “急薄 refers to a dry skin.” 6 SWJZGL vol. 11, p. 1203: 躄 does not occur in the Shuo wen but has the same meaning as which, according to the Shuo wen , is: “a person cannot walk.” Wang Bing: “躄 is to say 攣躄; the feet cannot be stretched to walk.” Zhang Jiebin: “‘lung limpness’ is limpness of the skin and the body hair. When heat occupies the lung, [i.e. the agent] metal, then the lobes burn internally, while the skin and the body hair are depleted and weakened and turn tense and thin externally. When the heat stays and does not leave and when it proceeds to the sinews,the vessels,the bones,and the flesh, then the disease generates ‘limpness and loss of motility.’ ” Ma shi: “When the heat stays and does not leave, the lung is the mother, the kidneys are the son. The kidneys receive heat qi and the feet are bent and cannot be stretched.This results in the condition of ‘limpness and loss of motility.’ ”Cheng shide et al.: “When the four limbs are paralyzed and weak, this is called 痿; when the two...