In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Chapter 38 Discourse on Cough 38-214-5 Huang Di asked: “When the lung lets a person cough, how is that?”1 Qi Bo responded: “The five depots and six palaces, they all [may] let a person cough, not only the lung.”2 [Huang] Di: “I should like to hear about the appearances of these [coughs].” Qi Bo: “skin and body hair are the correlates of the lung. skin and body hair are the first to receive evil qi. This way, the evil qi [enters the lung] from its correlates.3 When cold beverages or food have entered the stomach and when [the cold] has followed the lung vessel to ascend to the lung, then the lung is cold. When the lung is cold, then both outside and inside [transmission] have come together. subsequently, the [two cold] evils settle in the [lung]. This, then, causes lung cough.4 1 Gao Jiwu/483: “Below the character for ‘lung’ the character for ‘disease’ was omitted: ‘a lung disease can cause one to cough. Why?’ ” 2 Zhang Zhicong:“The lung rules the qi and its location is the highest.It is where the hundred vessels meet. even though cough is a condition of the lung, the evil [qi] of all the five depots and six palaces are able to rise and turn to the lung and cause cough.” 3 Wang Bing: “‘evil’ is to say: cold qi.” Zhang Jiebin: “‘evil qi’ is wind cold. The skin and the body hair receive it first; then it enters the lung. Hence ‘it follows the association.’ ” 4 Wang Bing: “The lung vessel emerges from the central burner. It descends and encircles the large intestine, turns around and follows the opening of the stomach, rises [through] the diaphragm and touches the lung. Hence [the text] states: ‘it follows the lung vessel and rises to the lung.’ ” 576 Huang Di nei jing su wen 38-214-9 each of the five depots receives a disease [directly from the outside] when it is its season. When it is not its season, it is always such that it is through transmission that [the disease] is brought to a [depot].5 Man is one with heaven and earth. Hence each of the five depots receives the disease when it is affected by cold during the season its qi governs.6 [When the cold qi] is feeble, then it causes cough; when it is severe, it causes outflow and pain.7 5 Wang Bing: “‘season’ is to say: the months [a depot] rules. If it is not during the months it rules it cannot receive evil [qi]. Hence it transmits [any evil] further on and hands it over [to the depot whose season it is].” Zhang Jiebin: “for example, the liver should receive a disease in spring, because this is its season. now, if the liver has a disease even though it is not the season during which the wood is in command, this is because the lung receives the evil first and is able to transmit it [to the liver].The same applies to all the depots and palaces that receive evil [qi] even though it is not their season.”Zhang Zhicong:“In autumn,the lung is the first to receive an evil...If it is not in autumn, then the [remaining] five depots transmit their evil to the lung and cause coughing.” Wu Kun: “In spring the liver is in charge. Hence the liver is the first to receive evil [qi]. If it happens to be cold evil, then [the liver] transmits it to the lung.” Zhang Qi: “The three characters 非其時 are an erroneous insertion.”2030/55: “each of the five depots receives evil and develops a disease in that season during which its qi is supposed to govern. If it is not the season during which its qi is supposed to govern and it develops a disease nevertheless, then the disease evil of this depot has been transmitted there from another depot. for example, if in spring it is not the liver that falls ill but the heart, then this is a situation where it is not the season [of the heart] and yet it develops a disease. Hence the evil must have been transmitted to the heart from another depot.” 6 Zhang Jiebin: “治時 is the season during which its qi is in command. When the evil is feeble, [its penetration] is shallow and it remains in the outer section. Hence it causes cough. When it is serious, [its...

Share