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Chapter 75 of the *Nan Jing* (Classic of Difficult Issues) states: The classic says, "The East is excess, the West is deficiency; drain the South, tonify the North." What does this mean? The answer is: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth should mutually regulate and balance each other. The East corresponds to Wood, and the West to Metal. If Wood qi tends to become excessive, Metal should regulate it; if Fire qi tends to become excessive, Water should regulate it; if Earth qi tends to become excessive, Wood should regulate it; if Metal qi tends to become excessive, Fire should regulate it; if Water qi tends to become excessive, Earth should regulate it. The East corresponds to the Liver (*Gan*), so knowing the East is excess implies Liver excess. The West corresponds to the Lung (*Fei*), so knowing the West is deficiency implies Lung deficiency. The treatment should be to drain the Fire of the South (Heart) and tonify the Water of the North (Kidney). The South corresponds to Fire, which is the "son" element of Wood. The North corresponds to Water, which is the "mother" element of Wood. Water overcomes Fire. The son can make the mother full, and the mother can make the son empty. Therefore, by draining Fire and tonifying Water, the intention is to prevent Metal from regulating Wood (specifically, to prevent Metal from being weakened by Fire's attack, thereby allowing Metal to regain its ability to control Wood). The classic says, "If one cannot treat the deficiency, what need is there to ask about anything else?" This refers to this principle.

Whenever I read this passage, I cannot help but sigh at Yue Ren (Qin Yueren)'s profound understanding of the classic's intent, while also lamenting that later generations have misunderstood it. An ancient sage said: When studying books, do not look at the annotations first. Instead, repeatedly recite the original text and savor its meaning carefully. Only after you have formed your own new insights should you use the annotations for reference and verification. In this way, the true meaning of the classic will become clear, and you will not be obscured by others' theories. If you look at the annotations first, their arguments will dominate your mind, and you will never generate new insights yourself. I have admired this advice throughout my life and have benefited greatly from it. Take this chapter of the *Nan Jing* as an example: its discussion is comprehensive and pure, sufficient to serve as a model for all generations. How reliable are the numerous debates of later scholars? Generally speaking, "excess conditions are treated with draining methods, and deficiency conditions are treated with tonifying methods"; this is the constant path. "Drain the son in excess conditions, tonify the mother in deficiency conditions"; this is also a constant path. Everyone knows this. Now, given Liver excess and Lung deficiency, one does not drain the Liver but drains the Heart. This point is known to people. However, regarding not tonifying the Lung or the Spleen, but instead tonifying the Kidney, most people cannot understand this; only Yue Ren knows.

The phrase "the son can make the mother full, and the mother can make the son empty," viewed from common sense, might be interpreted as: Heart Fire excess causes Liver Wood to become excess; this is "the son makes the mother full." Spleen Earth deficiency causes Lung Metal to become deficient; this is "the mother makes the son empty." Heart Fire excess is indeed due to its own flourishing. Spleen Earth deficiency is caused by Liver Wood overcoming it. According to standard methods, one should drain Heart Fire and tonify Spleen Earth, so that both Liver and Lung would be balanced. But Yue Ren did not think so. When he said "the son makes the mother full," the son refers to Fire and the mother to Wood, which aligns with common sense. However, when he said "the mother makes the son empty," the mother refers to Water and the son to Wood, which differs from common sense. Thus, "Water is the mother of Wood." The sentence "the son makes the mother full" explains the etiology (cause of disease), while "the mother makes the son empty" explains the therapeutic method. The implication is: Fire is the son of Wood. The son assists the mother, causing her to become excessive and pathological. So how should we handle this? There is only the treatment of tonifying Water and draining Fire.

What does tonifying Water mean? Since Water is the mother of Wood, if we tonify the deficiency of Water, enabling its strength to overcome Fire, the Fire qi will retreat, and consequently, the Water qi will also stabilize (meaning Water is no longer consumed by Fire and can thus function to restrain Wood). This is the meaning of "the mother makes the son empty," also known as "treating without treating" (here, the character "empty/deficient" differs from the "deficiency" in *Nei Jing*'s "when essence and qi are depleted, it is deficiency." That deficiency refers to depletion of true Yin leading to weakness; this deficiency refers to suppressing excessiveness to restore balance). If one argues otherwise, then to which organs should "the mother makes the son empty" be attributed? To the Spleen and Lung? If attributed to them, why not tonify the Spleen now? In the Dao of the Five Elements, what is feared is being overcome. Now, Fire is excessively strong, and Water is severely depleted. Who does Fire fear? Precisely because it fears nothing, it becomes more vigorous and uncontrolled. Unless we nourish Water to seek victory over it, who can prevail? The three characters "Water overcomes Fire" contain Yue Ren's key寓意 (implied meaning) and should be observed carefully, not taken lightly. Although both draining Fire and tonifying Water are mentioned, the crux lies in tonifying Water. Later scholars claimed that only Fire should be drained, without tonifying Water; or they argued that draining Fire is equivalent to tonifying Water. Does this not greatly deviate from the intentions of Yue Ren and the classic? If tonifying Water were truly unnecessary, the classic would not say "tonify the North," nor would Yue Ren mention tonifying Water.

That said, if Water is not deficient and Fire alone is violently excessive, it is indeed possible to proceed without tonifying Water. But if the Fire excess was caused initially by Water deficiency, can we avoid tonifying Water? If Water is deficient and Fire is excessive, and we do not tonify Water, symptoms may temporarily subside when medicine arrives, but will recur once the medicinal effect wears off. This will continue indefinitely year after year. How can the root cause be eradicated? Even bitter-cold herbs, generally used to suppress Yang and support Yin, merely drain Fire pathogenic factors. They are ultimately not the specific herbs for the Kidney and cannot nourish the True Yin of the North. To nourish True Yin, there is no alternative but herbs like *Rehmanniae Radix* (Dihuang) and *Phellodendri Cortex* (Huangbai).

Furthermore, there are two reasons for Liver excess: First, Heart aids Liver, causing one aspect of Liver excess. Second, Lung fails to control Liver, causing the second aspect. There are also two reasons for Lung deficiency: First, Heart overcomes Lung, causing one aspect of Lung deficiency. Second, Spleen is overcome by Liver and thus fails to generate Lung, causing the second aspect. Now, by tonifying Water and draining Fire, Fire retreats, and Wood qi is diminished. Then, Metal is not overcome by Fire and can control Wood, so the East (Liver) will not be excessive. With Metal qi balanced, Earth is not overcome by Wood and can generate Metal, so the West (Lung) will not be deficient. If we spoke according to "tonify the mother in deficiency," Lung deficiency should be treated by tonifying the Spleen. But isn't it known that Liver qi is currently very strong and deeply overcomes Earth? Even if the Spleen were tonified daily, how could it resist the strong force of Liver? Even if Earth could generate Metal, Metal is still overcome by Fire, so the gain would not compensate for the loss. This is why we do not tonify Earth but instead tonify Water.

Some doubt: Tonifying Water when Wood is already excessive might cause Water to generate Wood, making Wood even more excessive. Hence, they happily accept the theory of "draining Fire only, without tonifying Water." Little do they know that Wood is already excessive; why wait for generation? Moreover, Water itself is deficient; even with potent tonification, it may struggle to restore its original qi, let alone have surplus energy to generate Wood. If it could generate Wood, it would be able to overcome Fire. Others argue: Tonifying Water is intended to prevent Water from consuming its mother (Metal). If Water does not consume Metal, Metal qi will return. But don't they realize that Fire overcomes Metal, and Earth fails to generate Metal, leaving Metal extremely deficient and unable to sustain itself? Even if Water wanted to "consume" (in the context of resource allocation or interaction), where would it get resources? If this were the case, Metal's deficiency would not be due to Fire's overcoming or Earth's failure to generate, but due to Water's consumption. Is this logical? Even if Water does not consume Metal, Metal may not necessarily recover to normal.

Regarding the phrase "Metal cannot regulate Wood," the character "not" (bu) seems superfluous or misplaced in interpretation. The reason for draining Fire and tonifying Water is precisely to enable Metal to regulate Wood. The "not" should be understood differently or removed in this specific logical context to affirm that Metal *can* regulate Wood. "If one cannot treat the deficiency, what need is there to ask about anything else?" Here, "deficiency" refers to Lung deficiency. Draining Fire and tonifying Water enables Metal to regulate Wood, which is exactly what is meant by "being able to treat the deficiency." Not tonifying Earth or Metal, but rather draining Fire and tonifying Water to allow Metal to naturally balance, is a clever and subtle method. If one cannot comprehend this method, one cannot treat this deficiency, and thus there is no need to ask about other matters; such a person must be incompetent. Hence, "If one cannot treat the deficiency, what need is there to ask about anything else?" As for the meaning of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth mutually regulating each other mentioned earlier, it is self-evident and requires no explanation, so it is not detailed here. Yue Ren is akin to a Second Sage. His discourse reaches such a level; how dare I not show reverence? I only regret that commentators have distorted the meaning, which is why I have written this clarification.