Epidemics, Abnormal Seasons, and Mental Patients Who See Ghosts — Doctor Ni Haixia on Lecture 74 of the Huang Di Nei Jing: the Ci Fa Lun (On Acupuncture Methods): Epidemic Prevention and the Five-Spirit Treatment

What people search for: how to prevent epidemics / what to do when an infectious disease is spreading / how to protect yourself before entering an epidemic area / abnormal seasons / getting sick from strange weather / mental patients who say they see ghosts / sleep paralysis / seeing black shadows at night / talking nonsense / spirit not housed / emotional disorders / acupuncture for prevention / what to eat for liver disease / how to practice qi for weak kidneys / swallowing saliva for health / fetal breathing / abdominal breathing / how to live long / heavenly stems and earthly branches / five movements and six qi

Corresponding topic (medical terms): The Su Wen Yi Pian — Ci Fa Lun Pian Di Qi Shi Er (On Acupuncture Methods, chapter 72 of the left-over chapters): the five movements and six qi and seasonal excess; needling when five-element qi runs too long (qi congested in the chest, needle Lao Gong) and the great principle ‘the name does not overstep its position’ (ming bu guo wei); the six stem-branch years (ji-hai / zi-wu / chou-wei / yin-shen / mao-you / chen-xu) with excessive seasonal qi and their he-sea point treatments; stem-branch combination (jia-ji into earth, bing-xin into water) predicting epidemics three years ahead; the kidney practice of swallowing saliva facing south at the yin hour; fortifying the spleen first in liver disease; ‘those who wish for longevity must attend to their breath’; the five epidemics do not spread (upright qi stored within, avoid the poison qi, mugwort bathing); the five-qi visualization for entering an epidemic zone; the five-spirit acupuncture treatment for mental illness (Gan Shu Qiu Xu / Xin Shu Yang Chi / Pi Shu Chong Yang / Fei Shu He Gu / Shen Shu Shu Gu); source points and the spirit keeping its position (yin channels use shu-stream points in place of source points: Shen Men, Tai Yuan); returning to the center through fetal breathing, and the summing-up of the whole classic.

Opening: beyond the last chapter of the main text, one more treasure awaits

In the previous lecture, Doctor Ni Haixia finished the last chapter of the main text of the Huang Di Nei Jing, the Jie Jing Wei Lun. In this lecture he continues with the Ci Fa Lun — the Su Wen Yi Pian, the leftover chapter appended at the end. He begins by lifting up the outline of the five-element generating-and-controlling cycles and of needling: the Yellow Emperor asks about the discipline of the five movements of yin and yang, which generate and control one another, and about the corresponding needling methods.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Doctor Wang Bing said to take the source of its generation and transformation — when the source runs too far, we must immediately fold it back; when it is insufficient, we must nurture its source; only so can we support the upright. When the generation and transformation of the five elements goes wrong — too cold, or insufficient — you can see it all in the pulse.

Doctor Ni Haixia says this is a passage of the Huang Di Nei Jing that is rarely taught properly. What came before spoke of the rising and falling of the five movements and six qi; this passage speaks of epidemics.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: By epidemic I mean — in our medicinal methods, we will speak later of pestilence. When a plague spreads and the germs come, how do we protect ourselves? How does a physician enter the epidemic zone? Before entering, there are many methods of self-protection. Also, when the seasons of heaven shift and the seasonal nodes change, we can predict ahead of time — for example, what kind of epidemic will occur three years from now, and when. This passage is about all of these things.

Abnormal seasons: when it should be cold but is not, illness begins here

Doctor Ni Haixia asks everyone to turn to page 585 and explains a key concept — “the sun-cold water qi fails to move into its proper position” (tai yang han shui bu qian zheng). What does “not moving into position” mean?

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: It should be winter, but it is not winter — it is still very hot. The sun-cold water (the qi that should arrive) has not moved into position. That in fact means yang heat has run too long, or yin qi has run too long — neither is good. When we meet this situation, we needle the Xing Jian point (LR2) of the foot jue yin liver channel.

The four seasons: spring should be spring, summer summer, autumn autumn, winter winter — and the human body is the same. Doctor Ni Haixia gives an example: the liver channel’s qi is normally cool; if yang qi is insufficient and a tai yang pattern appears, winter will display summer’s excessive heat. Conversely, on page 586, if cold qi runs too long and the yin-cold qi persists, it makes the qi clear and congested in the chest.

Of the five-element qi, not one may “refuse to leave”

Next Doctor Ni Haixia explains the logic of the five-element cycle: wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water — these five qi circulate without stop, and not one of them may run too long. According to the seasons — spring, summer, long summer, autumn, winter — when one season runs long, that organ’s qi runs long, and we must find a way to restrain it.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Generally we needle it and let blood to release the qi, so it does not congest in the chest. So if qi is bound in the chest, we needle the Pericardium point Lao Gong (PC8); if qi is stuck in the Tai Yin, we needle a point on the Tai Yin channel, and so on down the line.

Afraid that no one will understand, he gives a very homely example: in winter, it is normal for people’s complexion to carry a slightly dark tint. But when Li Chun (the beginning of spring) arrives, and spring is here — ah, this qi is still lingering, lingering into spring — then the qi has gone too far.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Winter should have winter’s qi, summer should have summer’s qi, spring should have spring’s qi — it must not stretch on and on too far. When your qi is deficient, even if the qi is sufficient, the illness is still in this organ; it will not cross over into another organ. So epidemics of this kind — plague, avian influenza — are born precisely because a seasonal qi has run too long. If this year’s spring, summer, autumn and winter are clearly distinguished, and next year’s also, there will be no epidemic; when the seasonal qi runs long, then epidemics are born.

“The name does not overstep its position”: however long the qi runs, the disease stays in the original organ

On page 588, Doctor Ni Haixia explains that when the five movements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) are not in order, moxibustion (what he calls “steam moxa”) can be used to open the qi upward. Qi Bo’s passage here is the best of all — when qi is in excess, we can use acupuncture and moxibustion, but there is one great principle, called “the name does not overstep its position” (ming bu guo wei).

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: If autumn is autumn, and autumn’s qi is still there — it runs into winter still being autumn. This winter is not very cold, is it? It feels just like autumn. That is seasonal qi running long. But the name does not overstep its position — even though it is still autumn’s qi, it will not cross over into winter. The disease qi is excessive, but it still belongs to autumn, and the disease is still in the original organ.

The secret of the six stem-branch years: spring walking winter’s order, winter walking spring’s order… the points are all matched for you

Next Doctor Ni Haixia reads out the hardest core of the Ci Fa Lun — for the six stem-branch years that meet excessive seasonal qi, which point to needle in each case:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: If it is a ji-hai year, and the days are in excess, that is spring walking winter’s order — during spring the winter seasonal qi is still running. It should be warm and flowers should open, but it is still very cold; winter’s qi stretches on and on, refusing to yield its position. The name does not overstep its position, so we can only say the disease is still on the liver channel — only the qi is being prolonged. At that time the liver qi is in excess, so we needle the liver channel’s well point to release it.

Zi-wu years: winter walking spring’s order — winter should be bitterly cold; why has it warmed up? This is excess in the days, heat running above, fire transformation not completed — needle the he-sea point of the hand jue yin pericardium channel (Qu Ze, PC3);
Chou-wei years: the plum-rain season; when the days are in excess, dampness is too flourishing — damp qi above, rain transformation not completed — needle the he-sea point of the tai yin spleen channel (Yin Ling Quan, SP9);
Yin-shen years: spring walking summer’s order — spring should be warm with flowers opening, yet it is scorching hot; this mostly occurs in yin-shen years and is a problem of the shao yang qi — needle the he-sea point of the shao yang channel (Yang Ling Quan, GB34);
Mao-you years: autumn walking summer’s order — autumn is still very hot, like summer — needle the lung point Chi Ze (LU5);
Chen-xu years: winter walking autumn’s order — needle the he-sea point of the kidney channel (Yin Gu, KI10).

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: When the seasonal nodes run too far, we always use the he-sea points. When ji-hai, zi-wu, chou-wei, yin-shen, mao-you or chen-xu years appear, this is the phenomenon of excessive seasonal qi. In these stem-branch years the seasonal nodes are not quite right — there is a deviation — and we use he-sea points to fold away the excessive qi.

Heavenly stems and earthly branches: bing-xin combines into water, and three years later an epidemic will surely come

On page 591, the Yellow Emperor asks about the “rigid and soft stems” — when the qi of heaven’s movements is all vacuous, where does an epidemic originate? Can it be prevented? Before Qi Bo’s answer, Doctor Ni Haixia lays the groundwork: if you have never studied destiny calculation, that is fine, but hold one idea — the heavenly stems divide into yang stems and yin stems; yang stems are more rigid, yin stems more soft. The earthly branches are the twelve months; open any almanac and the stems are written on it. When we speak of the eight characters (ba zi), the year has stems and branches, the month has stems and branches, the day has stems and branches, and the hour has stems and branches; sixty make one full cycle, and everything in the Chinese calendar is calculated with stems and branches.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: For example, jia-ji combine into earth, yi-geng combine into metal, bing-xin combine into water — if you are in a bing-yin year and meet a xin month, bing and xin touch and combine into water; this is a water month, and that month should have the most rain. Clouds gather in the sky, the rain comes down, that month rains a great deal — that is normal. But instead, in the xin month, dark clouds fill the sky, plenty of rain is stored up yet it never falls, causing dryness — then the seasonal qi has been lost.

Combining the year stem and the month stem, Doctor Ni Haixia throws out a startling conclusion:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Counting from this year, in the third year an epidemic will certainly occur — whether fowl pest or swine fever, an epidemic will arise. This is calculated from the year’s stems and branches; as for extending it further, since the book does not explain it, I will not elaborate here.

Bonus: if your kidneys are weak, practice qi like this to strengthen them

Halfway through the stems and branches, page 592 suddenly carries a passage on practice, which Doctor Ni Haixia says “suddenly appears here” — the original text of the Nei Jing: “One with a long-standing kidney illness may, at the yin hour, face south, quiet the spirit and stop random thoughts, hold the breath without pause seven times, stretch the neck and swallow the qi, as if swallowing something very hard… and let the saliva under the tongue flow without number.” He immediately takes the method apart and teaches it:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: People with weak kidneys: get up at the yin hour in the morning and face south to practice qi. Concentrate the spirit. Hold the breath — neither the mouth nor the nose breathes — hold it about seven times; if you truly cannot hold it, then breathe. Do not stubbornly hold until you faint from lack of oxygen. While holding the breath, mouth and nose do not breathe; simply stretch the neck out and swallow the qi, swallowing downward continuously, as if something is stuck in the throat — this qi keeps going down, straight into the dantian.

As you practice, saliva wells up under the tongue — Doctor Ni Haixia says, when the saliva comes out under the tongue, kidney yang has returned; saliva keeps bubbling up on the tongue like a spring. Never spit this saliva out — you worked hard to produce it.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: In Daoist cultivation, we divide this saliva into three mouthfuls; do not swallow it all at once. Only when you swallow it in three mouthfuls can essence completely transform into qi, and qi transform into spirit. When the saliva is born, first swallow one third, and as you think of swallowing, the saliva reaches the dantian; then swallow the second, then the third — in three mouthfuls it reaches the dantian — then repeat several times. This is a very good method for practicing qigong and strengthening the kidneys.

Liver disease: fortify the spleen first — Doctor Ni Haixia teaches you what to eat

Page 594 carries an extremely practical dietary principle — when the liver is ill, fortify the spleen first. Why? Because liver wood controls spleen earth; if you do not secure the spleen when the liver is ill, the disease will transmit into the stomach and spleen.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The method of fortifying the spleen: ordinarily do not eat to fullness — do not eat too full, do not eat raw and cold things; make the spleen qi solid and free of damp stagnation. After a meal do not sit still — stand up and walk around, but do not run; you cannot take it. Do not eat things that are too sour — wood controls earth, and sour is the liver’s flavor; also avoid all raw and cold food. To fortify the spleen, eat things with a sweet note and a bland note — sweet-and-bland flavors all fortify the spleen. There are many such things in Chinese medicine too: whatever tastes a little sweet and a little plain is a spleen-fortifying substance.

The secret of longevity: breathing, not tonics

At the bottom of page 594 there is one more sentence Doctor Ni Haixia values especially — “Those who wish for longevity must attend to their breath.”

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: So if we want to be strong, if we want to live long, the best form of exercise, the best movement, is breath control and exhalation — not eating tonics.

Why doesn’t an epidemic infect you? Upright qi stored within; avoid the poison qi

On page 598 the Yellow Emperor asks a great question: when the five epidemics (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) arrive, they all infect one another — large or small illnesses, whether the illnesses resemble one another — if we use no acupuncture at all, is there any method by which the epidemics can be kept from spreading? Qi Bo’s answer begins with a sentence famous for a thousand years:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Generally, those who are not infected — that person’s upright qi is stored within, the physical strength is good, and they are often not infected. But ordinarily we must also know to avoid — avoid the poison qi! When the celestial nose (tian mu) opens and closes as it should, the qi exits through the brain, and the pathogen cannot invade.

Doctor Ni Haixia says: as soon as you feel your body beginning to be a little off, you can boil mugwort (ai cao) in water and bathe in it — gather some fresh mugwort, steep it in the bath water, soak until you sweat slightly, and it helps the body.

Before entering an epidemic zone: the five-qi protection, with the Big Dipper on your forehead

What follows is content Doctor Ni Haixia gets especially excited about — the earliest written record in Chinese medicine that epidemics spread through the respiratory tract.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Chinese medicine holds that epidemics spread through the nose and the respiratory system — this was written in the Huang Di Nei Jing long ago; it is not that Westerners said it first! So when you go into an epidemic zone, you are infected through the air you breathe — Chinese medicine knew this long ago.

So what does a physician do before entering an epidemic zone? The Ci Fa Lun teaches a special qi-practice protection method — visualization.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The qi exits through the brain — first imagine the heart as the sun. Then protect the organ qi of the five organs: first imagine the green qi leaving the liver, traveling left into the east, transforming into a forest; then imagine the white qi leaving the lungs, traveling right into the west, transforming into armor and weapons; then the red qi leaving the heart, the yellow qi leaving the spleen, the black qi leaving the kidneys — after imagining all five qi, the five qi generate one another. At this moment your head is as if crowned with the seven stars of the Big Dipper, yellow and glowing — the forehead shines. This is a method of self-protection that makes your upright qi and organ qi extremely strong. If you have brought no medicine, nothing at all, you can protect yourself with visualization alone, and then enter the epidemic zone.

Along the way he adds a small detail about drinking water: on page 599 — warm water in the morning is best; never iced water.

Mental patients who say “I see ghosts” — five colors of ghosts, five organs vacuous

The passage on page 601 is a treatment for mental illness that is rarely mentioned in the whole Nei Jing. The Yellow Emperor asks: once a person becomes vacuous, the spirit wanders and loses its position, and ghosts and spirits assail from outside — how is it treated? Qi Bo’s answer is very systematic — the color of the ghost the patient sees tells you which organ is vacuous:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: This person’s spirit-soul is not housed, and the speech is raving nonsense — in psychiatric hospitals, on the street, raving, the spirit-soul not housed. At this time we needle the shu-stream point of the liver channel and the liver’s back-shu point, Gan Shu (BL18); at the same time needle Qiu Xu (GB40) on the foot shao yang channel — this is a liver problem.

Heart: someone complains that every night they see a ghost — a black thing runs over and presses itself on my body — this is a psychiatric patient who often sees black ghosts. When heart fire is insufficient, the qi of black water (water controls fire) comes onto the body, and they see black. Needle the hand shao yang point Yang Chi (SJ4), and the back-shu point Xin Shu (BL15) behind;
Spleen: when the spleen is ill, what is seen is a green ghost — a green-faced, fanged ghost — wood controls earth; the spleen is vacuous and liver qi enters. Needle the source point of the foot yang ming stomach channel, Chong Yang (ST42), plus Pi Shu (BL20);
Lung: when the lung is vacuous, fire controls metal; fire pathogen comes and they see a red ghost — the face and whole body are red and hot. Needle He Gu (LI4), plus Fei Shu (BL13);
Kidney: mental problems caused by kidney vacuity — seeing a yellow ghost coming to attack — earth controls water; kidney water is vacuous. Needle the foot tai yang bladder point Shu Gu (BL65), plus Shen Shu (BL23).

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: According to the different ghostly appearances the patient describes, we use different needling methods, and in this way we can make the spirit return to its position and treat the mental disorder.

Why does the spirit lose its position? — the source points bring the spirit home

On page 603 the Yellow Emperor asks again about the mutual service of the twelve organs and how to treat the spirit losing its position. Doctor Ni Haixia first explains the cause:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Why does the spirit perish? Very simple — you suffer a fright, or excessive grief. When we speak of spirit, we mean the emotions. External diseases — wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness, fire — bring solid pathogens; there are also accidental injuries, and diseases of the internal organs. When the spirit is damaged, the spirit loses its position; and when the spirit loses its position, essence and qi are certainly no longer guarded.

How to treat it? Doctor Ni Haixia says, after all that, it is simple — the source points (yuan xue).

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Yang channels have independent source points; yin channels have no source points, so the shu-stream point of a yin channel stands in for the source point. So when we meet a yin channel, we needle its shu-stream point; when we meet a yang channel, we needle its own source point. The heart is the sovereign organ, from which the spirit issues; when the heart spirit is not housed, needle Shen Men (HT7) on the hand shao yin heart channel (the shu-stream point standing in for the source); the lung is the minister organ, from which regulation issues; when the lung spirit is not housed, needle Tai Yuan (LU9) on the hand tai yin lung channel. With the source points, we can keep a person’s spirit dwelling in the five organs, so it does not leak outward. When one loses the spirit, essence and qi will certainly leak outward — so a person must have spirit.

He adds a few words on nurturing the spirit: do not over-joy, do not over-anger — for fear of injuring the spirit; also do not over-worry — excessive worry injures your own spirit; wearing out the spirit injures the body.

Closing: gui zhong — fetal breathing anywhere, anytime; belly breathing is the healthiest

In the final passage of the Ci Fa Lun, Doctor Ni Haixia reads: “The spirit guards heaven, the qi returns again to the original origin; this is called gui zhong (returning to the center).” The Huang Di Nei Jing (main text and leftover chapters together) ends right here. What does gui zhong mean? He explains it very down to earth:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: According to Chinese medicine, at all times and in all places — today you came here by MRT, by plane, by train — keep fetal breathing at all times: belly breathing, the breath vibrating the dantian. If you use abdominal breathing twenty-four hours a day, fetal breathing is the longest-lived and healthiest.

So everyone, when you have nothing to do, practice abdominal breathing. It is unfamiliar at first, but after a while it becomes natural without effort. Doctor Ni Haixia also teaches a way to observe it in children:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: If your child is younger than twelve to fourteen, feel his belly and his chest — when he breathes, his belly (moves) — it is innate! Children have abundant yang qi; abdominal qi rises from below upward. You want to get back to that state, back to the origin, upright qi returning to the center. No matter the environment, always breathe with the belly — you must change this: breathe with the belly when walking, breathe with the belly when riding, habit becomes nature, breathe with the belly even when sleeping at night, natural and innate — this is gui zhong.

When the whole book is read to the end, it comes down to one sentence

At this point, lecture 74 nears its close. Doctor Ni Haixia sums up the entire Huang Di Nei Jing from beginning to end:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: After all this talking, if we can bring essence, qi and spirit down into the dantian (Guan Yuan, CV4) by our methods, a person is basically well. When he cannot guard it, when the spirit is not housed, we look for the source points and see where it is not housed. If the spirit is not housed, the qi will also scatter, and the essence will also lose its guard. So in a person’s spirit, in the body, and in diet and daily life, we ordinarily pay attention — only then can one be a normal person. The whole Huang Di Nei Jing — read from beginning to end, what does it talk about? It is about how to take good care of yourself, and when illness strikes, how to adjust it so that yin and yang are balanced.

Speaking of the five flavors, Doctor Ni Haixia previews the next book:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Ordinarily, the five grains, the five animals, the five fruits, the five vegetables, the five flavors — how are they to be regulated? To understand the five flavors more deeply, we will explain in detail when we lecture on the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. The Huang Di Nei Jing is only a theory — but it contains preventive medicine, therapeutic medicine, diagnosis, physiology and pathology, all of it. When we truly discuss form, color, qi and flavor, and their images and numbers — for example, san qi and ba jiao, these medicines all have numbers in them; ginseng grows shaped like a man, opens five leaves, the number five… all of this must wait for the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing for deeper discussion.

Compiled from Doctor Ni Haixia’s Ren Ji (Human Records) lecture series on the Huang Di Nei Jing (Lecture 74)