by Guan Zi
[239] The word “使 directives” in line 170 means, literally, to send messages and instructions. This suggests a more perfect mental process than in chapter eight of the Ling Shu Jing which frames the more basic junctures that may or may not lead to a pathology. Regardless, there seems to be a common thread of metaphors between “envoy, messenger, directive (使 )” in NY170 and the Ling Shu Jing ’s “When thought travels a great distance (as though in search of it’s) beloved, this is called contemplation (lu). When contemplation arrives at its location, this is called wisdom (zhi).” More of this excerpt from the Ling Shu Jing can be read in my commentary on lines 1-22 of the Nei Ye .
[240] See XSX48-64 in comparison to NY159-173
[241] Legge, James, translator. The Life and Works of Mencius: With Essays and Notes . London. Trubner and Co. 1875. pp. 165-6.
I have edited Legge’s term “passion nature” to restore the Chinese word “qi.”
[242] XSX lines 109-126 for more on the valley in DDJ6.
[243] The word translated here as “absorb” means more literally to make empty or exhaust ( 窮 qiong), and was used to rhyme with and allude to orifices ( 竅 qiao). Both characters take their meaning from the shared radical for cave (穴 ) that sits above them.
[244] Lines 192-204 of the Nei Ye reflect lines 70-79 of the Xin Shu Xia
[245] For more of this excerpt, please see my comments on lines 1-20 of the Xin Shu Xia .
[246] The character for 明 illumination / enlightenment is composed of the radicals for sun and moon, also meaning “clear vision.”
[247] “ 澤 Swamp, fertilize” is usually replaced here with “ 釋 release”
[248] See lines 80-99 of the Xin Shu Xia for comparison with lines 216-230 of the Nei Ye
[249] “ 和 harmony” is usually replaced here with “ 知 knowledge, known by,” as it appears in Xin Shu Xia line 82.
[250] In a similar passage of the XSX, line 87 reads “ 不言之 言 unspoken words.” That the Nei Ye refers again to “tone,” this time with a character bearing no resemblance to intent (using 聲 rather than 音 ), suggests that resonance and tone were not typos but rather used to refer to something less formed than thoughts, such as “sentiment.” It may be that intent (意 ) was still being defined at this point, and so notions of inner tone and resonance were used to describe it.
[251] Reading line 231 as such follows the many references to inner unification throughout the text. The term “energy of intent ( 意 氣 )” can be found in line 12 of Xin Shu Xia , where the syntax suggests it.
[252] Confucian teachings also stressed the importance of rectifying oneself internally, and not just in behaviour; however, Confucian formality was sometimes gratuitous, according to Daoists like Zhuang Zi.
[253] Please note that NY216-217 appear in XSX80 as “A golden heart within cannot be hidden.”
[254] See NY205
[255] Translated by Dan G. Reid
[256] Literally, “roll up into a ball” like dough or clay, often translated as “concentrate.”
[257] Lines 235-253 can be further understood by studying the three chapters from Guigu Zi , provided in the introduction.
[258] Similar to chapter 10 of the Dao De Jing , “Guarding the fortress of your bodily spirits, embrace Oneness. Can you do this without letting it flee? Gather together the energy-breath and become soft. This is the power of an infant.”
[259] See Huainan Zi, chapter one.
[260] Translated by Dan G. Reid
[261] You (憂 ) appears elsewhere in the Nei Ye with the meaning “sorrow” in common groupings of emotions, but appears here with its meaning as “anxiety” as evidenced by the context.
[262] This could be read as a cause and effect progression from over thinking through to death, and should be considered alongside the general Daoist attitude towards superfluous knowledge. Thus, “thinking and searching lead to knowledge” and a downward spiral, rather than aiding in fluid adaptation to change “without being displaced.” It also leads to overwhelming the mind and body to a perilous degree, perhaps explaining how one predicts the future without divining (NY235-253). part of the course for “changing fortune” mentioned in the passage above.
[263] 蚤 means “early” in ancient texts
[264] 將 and 巽 both suggest “proceeding; later”
[265] Rossi, Elisa. Shen: Psycho-Emotional Aspects of Chinese Medicine . London: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, 2002, p. 77
[266] From Zhuang Zi , chapter 15. Translated by Dan G. Reid. See commentary on NY1-22 for more of this excerpt.
[267] Tilopa (988–1069). Translation, from Tibetan, by Ken McLeod (source publication unknown). On attempting my own translation with an online Tibetan dictionary, I see that McLeod’s elaborate translation is faithful to the meaning of the original six imperative words (five with a negative prefix) that make up this entire list.
[268] In his article Psychology and Self-Cultivation in Early Taoistic Thought, Harold Roth suggests that “chest” in line 276 refers to the lungs, and thus evening out and aligning the breath.
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
Vol. 51, No. 2 (Dec., 1991), p. 619
[269] “Fury” is usually changed here to “euphoria,” in other translations, so as to reflect the fourth line down; however, “ 忿怒 fury and anger” often appear together in ancient texts as a compound word meaning “rage,” and may have been intended. Anger was discussed in lines 254-258, above, as a turning point towards illness. The “strategy” mentioned here, to quell rage, is to forgo both anger and pleasure. Though it seems common sense to quell rage through pleasure, rage is often the result of not attaining what one wants; so by forgoing the desire, the anger and rage resulting from it are uprooted. Removing one to quell the other makes this a plan (see line 280).
[270] Euphoria and anger. See line 283.
[271] See Ling Shu Jing, chapter eight.
[272] Likely written after 200 BC, based on variances in medical theory found in the Mawangdui tombs that were sealed in 186 BC (Wikipedia).
[273] I would speculate that the five qi refer to the innate qi of the organs, or otherwise to cold, heat, dryness, dampness and wind.
[274] The Nei Jing’s ensuing discussion on this statement shows that grief (悲 ) was a typo for thought (思 ). Perhaps grief was a substitution for you (憂 ), which can mean either sorrow or anxiety .
[275] Translated by Dan G. Reid.
[276] For comparison with the Huang Di Nei Jing , see Ling Shu Jing , chapter 8, in my commentary on Nei Ye lines 1-22.
[277] See excerpt from chapter eight of the Nei Jing, Su Wen in Introduction: Xin Shu Shang and Xin Shu Xia .
[278] “ M usic” can also mean “happiness, and pleasure.” The pairing of “music and courtesy,” ie. “music and rites” along with “respect” suggests Confucian terminology, but the context suggests a broader usage.
[279] Nivison, David S., and Shaughnessy, Edward L. The Jin Hou Su Bells Inscription and its implications for the Chronology of Early China . (Early China 25). 2000.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~earlychina/publications/early_china_journal/early-china-25-2000.html
[280] The Sacred Books of the East: The texts of Confucianism . Translated by James Legge. Vol. 4. Clarendon Press, 1885. pp. 96-97
[281] 不臧 bu cang is often read here as “not storing,” however it commonly appears in ancient texts to mean “wrong; not good.”
[282] See also line 126 of the Nei Ye .
[283] Journal of Neuroscience 12 November 2014, 34 (46) 15139-15149
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/46/15139
[284] “ 敢 bold; brave” is often replaced here with “ 敞 spacious; wide”
[285] May refer to unification of the heart-mind (xin), intention (yi), and energy-breath (qi) as mentioned in lines 235-253.
[286] DDJ20 can be found in my comments on Xin Shu Shang , lines 49-59.
[287] “ 遇 meeting” is normally replaced here with its
homonym “yu, 愚 , stupidity.” The proceeding line “do not pull, do not push” might suggest that “encountering” was intended here as a wu wei approach, given that the text earlier discouraged thinking too much and making “premature determinations.”
[288] See also “shen ling” in technique #1 of Guigu Zi , found in the Introduction.
[289] ”Tun, 屯 , village, station” is normally replaced with “mao, 屯 , hair” to say “flows through to the tips of their hair.” In The Complete I Ching, Alfred Huang comments on hexagram three, which is entitled “Tun, 屯 ”: “The character for the name of the gua has two meanings and is pronounced in two different ways. In most cases, it is pronounced tun, carrying the meaning of gathering, assembling, and filling up with abundance. In ancient China, a warehouse was called tun. In the I Ching, and only in the I Ching, this character bears the meaning of beginning. In this case, it is pronounced zhun.”
[290] See above NY279-284:
乃為之圖 Enact this plan:
節其五欲 Restrain the desires of the five senses
去其二凶 And forgo the two calamities
不喜不怒 (Accepting) neither pleasure, nor anger
平正擅匈 Then peace and alignment will reclaim the breast
[291] Referred to as “sympathetic resonance” and “acoustic resonance,” this is the ultimate predicament of acoustic engineers who must ensure that structures do not resonate with various tones. It is also the basis of ultra-sound therapy.
[292] Translated by Dan G. Reid
[293] In chapter 15 of his book “ Discourse on Chuang Tzu: Expounding on the Dream of a Butterfly ,” Hu Xuezhi, a Daoist adept and teacher of Daoist meditation on Wudang Mountain, explains jing-shen as the convergence of jing, qi, and shen into a unity, saying that jing-shen reverts to its original nature when thoughts remain in voidness, thereby building in brilliance and “unimpeded power.” It may be that jing-shen is the dormant potential of ling.
[294] See my commentary on lines 1-22 of the Nei Ye for a translation of excerpts from these chapters.
[295] See chapter one of the Su Wen.
[296] See Zhuang Zi , chapter 15, quoted under NY lines 1-22.
[297] Rochat, Elizabeth. Elation and Joy .
http://www.elisabeth-rochat.com/docs/26_xi_le.pdf
[298] See Nei Ye , lines 327-340.
[299] See Zhuang Zi , chapter 15 in my comments on Nei Ye 1-22.
[300] See jing-shen in Huang Di Nei Jing, Su Wen , chapter one, in my comments on Nei Ye 1-22.
[301] See Su Wen , chapter eight, a translated excerpt of which appears in The Thread of Dao ’s “Introduction: Internal Cultivation in the Guan Zi , Xin Shu Shang and Xin Shu Xia”
[302] See Michael Rinaldini’s A Daoist Practice Journal: Come Laugh With Me for more on using “not two” as a focus for Daoist meditation.
[303] DDJ11 states: “But it is where there is nothing that the room is used. So, substance is gained, and emptiness is used.”
