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(The shape of the pulse, I inform future generations of the actual situation. If one acts against conscience to pretend to be a deity and loses their moral integrity, their comments will surely suffer heavenly punishment.)

The Qi Mansion (Qi Fu) stores Qi, and the Blood Mansion (Xue Fu) stores Blood. The Wei General Manager (Wei Zongguan) is responsible for circulating Qi throughout the body, hence its name. The Rong General Manager (Rong Zongguan) is responsible for circulating Blood throughout the body, which constitutes the systemic blood vessels. The Rong General Manager has thin walls and a slender form, located anterior to the Wei General Manager, connected to it, and distributed across the head, face, and limbs. It grows close to the skin and flesh, representing the systemic blood vessels. Qi resides in the Qi Mansion, with egress and ingress; this process of entering and exiting is respiration. Vision, hearing, head turning, body swaying, hand grasping, and foot walking are all movements driven by the spiritual mechanism (Ling Ji) acting upon Qi. Blood enters the Rong General Manager from the Blood Mansion, is infused into the systemic blood vessels by the Rong General Manager, and渗uates outside the vessel walls to nourish muscles. The Qi vessels grow near the sinews and bones, hidden internally and difficult to see. The blood vessels grow near the skin and flesh, exposed externally and easy to see. The Qi vessels transport Qi, and when Qi moves, there is motion; the blood vessels hold Blood, remaining static and motionless. The pulsations felt upon pressing the head, face, and limbs are all Qi vessels, not blood vessels. For example, the concave area behind the supraorbital ridge, commonly known as the temporal region, where flesh is scant and skin adheres to bone, exhibits pulsation upon pressure; this is the Qi vessel connecting to the head and face. At the tips of the great toe and second toe of both feet, where flesh is scant and skin adheres to bone, pulsation upon pressure indicates the Qi vessels connecting to both legs. Above the transverse crease and high bone of both wrists, where flesh is scant and skin adheres to bone, pulsation upon pressure indicates the Qi vessels connecting to both hands. These vessels vary in thickness (coarse or fine) and curvature (straight or curved), differing according to individual constitution. Where the flesh is thick near the wrist below the elbow, the exposed Qi vessel is short. Where the flesh is thin near the wrist below the elbow, the exposed Qi vessel is long. In cases of external contraction, if Wind pathogen enters the Qi vessel, the vessel must become coarse and protrude from the skin upon pressure. If Cold pathogen enters the Qi vessel, the fluids within the vessel must coagulate; coagulation obstructs Qi flow, causing the pulsation upon pressure to be slow. If Fire pathogen enters the Qi vessel, the fiery Qi scorches upward, causing the pulsation upon pressure to be rapid. In robust individuals with excess pathogenic factors, there is abundant Qi in the vessel, resulting in a firm, large, and forceful pulse upon pressure. In weak individuals with deficient healthy Qi, there is scarce Qi in the vessel, resulting in a deficient, small, and powerless pulse upon pressure. In patients with chronic illness lacking vital energy, Yuan Qi is scarce, capable only of ascending to the head and hands, with no Qi descending, thus the dorsum of the foot shows no movement upon pressure. If at the Qi vessels on both wrists, the sensation upon pressure is faintly present or absent, or fine as a thread, or slightly chaotic under the finger, or unresponsive with a sudden jump, these are signs that Qi is about to perish. This section discusses human Qi vessels, noting differences in thickness, curvature, length, and pressure response due to constitutional variations in flesh thickness, deficiency/excess states, and cold/heat conditions. What was previously described as the pulse is actually the Qi vessel. The reason it is not called the pulse is that predecessors were unaware of structures such as the Left Qi Valve, Right Qi Valve, Blood Mansion, Qi Mansion, Wei General Manager, Rong General Manager, Jin Gate, Jin Tube, Zong Ti, Zhe Shi, Long Tube, and Chu Shui Dao, and did not understand their anatomical nature or function in the abdomen. Discussions on Zang-Fu organs and Pericardium failed to identify what these entities truly were. Discussions on Meridians and San Jiao also failed to clarify their nature. They could not explicitly state that meridians consist of Qi vessels and blood vessels. In discussions on pulse theory, the opening statement claims the pulse is the Blood Mansion, penetrating all bones. Claiming the pulse is a blood vessel implies Qi and Blood circulate internally in a cycle. If viewed as circulation, if blood flows from here to there, there should be empty space left behind; empty space implies Blood Deficiency. If there is no empty space, where does the flowing blood go? Ancients did not know the pulse was actually the Qi vessel, yet they compiled many *Mai Jue* (Pulse Rhymes). Although their statements were numerous, the described locations varied from person to person, with no consistency.

My reluctance to deeply expound on the ancients' twenty-seven characters regarding the pulse is not to deny them any validity, but to warn future generations against diagnosing Zang-Fu organs based solely on pulse reading while ignoring symptoms, failing to recognize that pathology affects neither sinews/bones nor skin/flesh directly, but rather Qi and Blood. Qi has Deficiency and Excess patterns: Excess refers to Pathogenic Qi Excess, while Deficiency refers to Healthy Qi Deficiency. Healthy Qi Deficiency should be cross-referenced with the forty types of Qi Deficiency symptoms in the "Hemiplegia Chapter" and the twenty types in the "Pediatric Convulsion Chapter." Blood has Deficiency and Stasis patterns. Blood Deficiency must have a cause, such as hematemesis, epistaxis, hematuria, melena, excessive bleeding from trauma, metrorrhagia/metrostaxis, or postpartum blood loss. Blood Stasis has observable symptoms; refer to the fifty types of Blood Stasis symptoms listed later. However, Blood Stasis within the Blood Mansion is the most difficult to distinguish. Fever occurring in the latter half of the day, worsening in the first half of the night, improving in the second half, and absent in the first half of the day, indicates Blood Stasis in the Blood Mansion. Mild Blood Stasis presents as fever for two hours around sunset, without division into four periods. Even milder cases may involve fever for only one hour; this internal heat accompanies general body heat. If the body is cool in the afternoon with only brief fever episodes, it indicates a Syndrome requiring Ginseng (Shen). If the body is not hot at dawn, with fever lasting only one episode, it indicates a Syndrome requiring Ginseng and Aconite (Shen Fu). One must not treat these ambiguously.