Study companion

The Modern Nèi Jīng

Study Companion

Twelve study units taking you through all 81 chapters of the Sù Wèn: what to read, the ideas that matter, the terms to hold onto, and questions to test yourself with.

Reads alongside

The Modern Nèi Jīng

Sù Wèn — all 81 chapters

Free with the book

How to use this companion

1Read the chapters named at the top of the unit first, straight through, without stopping to take notes. The Sù Wèn rewards a second pass far more than a slow first one.
2Come back to the unit and work the key ideas against what you remember. Anything that does not connect is worth re-reading.
3Do the self-test questions from memory before you look at the answers. Writing a wrong answer down is more useful than reading a right one.
4Each unit names the textbook chapters it sits beside. Reading the pair together is the point — the textbook gives you the system, the classic gives you where it came from.

The Modern Nèi Jīng

How to use this companion

12 study units

1How the medicine begins上古天真論Sù Wèn chapters 1–2

2Yīn and Yáng as a working instrument陰陽應象大論Sù Wèn chapters 3–7

3The Five Phases and the great treatises五運行大論Sù Wèn chapters 8–11 and the five-movement treatises

4The substances a life is built fromSù Wèn chapters 12–18 on Qì, Blood, fluids and Essence

5Causes of disease: wind, cold, damp and the emotionsSù Wèn chapters 19–24 and the aetiology treatises

6The channels as the Sù Wèn has themSù Wèn chapters 25–32 and the channel passages

7Looking, listening, asking, palpatingSù Wèn chapters 33–40 on examination

8Complexion and tongueSù Wèn chapters 41–48

9The pulse treatisesSù Wèn chapters 17–20 read again, plus 49–55

10Needling, timing and restraintSù Wèn chapters 56–65

11Treatment strategy and the rootSù Wèn chapters 66–74

12Cosmology, cycles and the limits of the modelSù Wèn chapters 75–81 and the five-movement six-Qì treatises