Partial Draft Translation of *Huangdi Neijing · Suwen*
Editor's note: this entry preserves the institute's in-progress draft of the Suwen — Chapter 3, "Discourse on Living Qi Communing with Heaven" — under the Annotated-Vernacular Series. The original is a three-column scholarly edition with classical text, bracketed footnotes, and modern-Chinese paraphrase. A full English rendering of the Suwen belongs to the same scale of work that the institute is undertaking for the series itself (see cyl-71) and is not attempted here. What follows is a summary of the chapter's argument; for the full apparatus, consult the original at cuiyueli.com.
"Discourse on Living Qi Communing with Heaven" — Chapter 3 of the Suwen
The Yellow Emperor: Since antiquity, those who communed with Heaven held the root of life. The root is yin and yang. Between Heaven and Earth, in the six directions, the qi runs in nine regions. The nine openings, the five storehouses, the twelve channels — all commune with the qi of Heaven. The arising-is-five; the qi-is-three. To violate this is to be struck by evil qi. This is the root of life-span.
When the sky is clear and pure, the will is at peace. Following the principle of human-and-Heaven in correspondence, yang qi is firm; even sudden evil wind cannot harm. So the Sage transmits the essence and spirit, takes in Heaven's qi, and so reaches the bright spirit. To violate this principle: the nine openings close within, the muscles obstruct without, the defensive qi disperses — self-injury, weakening of qi.
Yang qi is to a person as the sun is to the sky; without its place, life is short and not realized. Hence Heaven's motion is upheld by the sun's brightness. The yang rises and defends without.
Six concrete classes of injury are then surveyed: cold-injury (will scattered, spirit floating); summer-heat injury (sweating, panting; fever like burning charcoal — sweat releases it); damp-injury (head heavy as wrapped; great sinews shrink, small sinews slacken — shrink becomes cramp, slacken becomes flaccidity); wind-injury (swelling; if the four limbs alternate, yang qi is exhausting); over-strain and sex (yang stretches and the essence falls; over time, summer brings jian-jue — burning collapse, blindness, deafness, sudden faint).
The integrative principle then named: yin stores essence and supports form; yang defends outside and is firm. If yin is weak and yang preponderates, the vessels rush and one may go mad; if yang is weak and yin preponderates, the five storehouses' qi contends and the nine openings stop. The Sage spreads yin and yang in measure — sinews and vessels run smooth, bones and marrow stand firm, qi-and-blood are in harmony — and evil cannot harm.
The capping principle is yin-yang's essence: when yang is tightly held, it is firm. If yin and yang are out of harmony, it is as if spring without autumn, winter without summer. Their harmonization is the Sage's measure. When yang is over-used and cannot be tightly held, yin qi falls; when yin and yang part and break, the essence and qi are spent. — Yin at peace, yang tightly held — the essence and spirit are in order.
Closing: the root of yin lies in the five flavors; the five palaces (the five storehouses) of yin are injured by the five flavors. Excess of each flavor injures a particular storehouse. So carefully harmonize the five flavors — bones straight, sinews pliant, qi-blood flowing, couli firm — carefully follow the Way, long hold the heavenly mandate.
For the full annotated text — with classical original, bracketed scholarly footnotes, and modern-Chinese paraphrase — see the original draft at cuiyueli.com (article 72).