Chapter 8 of the Suwen: The Liver

肝 者 ， 將 軍 之 官 ， 謀 慮 出 焉 。

In reference to the Liver, it holds the office of Warrior and Escort. Resistance and Consideration stem from it.

The character jiang, 將, shows a picture of a person holding meat up, and a bamboo pole on the left. It can be seen as a representation of the warrior coming back from the hunt, productive. The character jun, 軍, is a picture of a carriage under a cover. This is translated as military or army, and could represent an army that is in waiting, as the carriage is covered. In older editions of this character, it is surrounded on all three sides, showing more of a carriage that is being escorted, possibly into battle.  In this way, the line may be able to be translated as, “The Liver holds the office of the Hunter.” The Hunter must plan and consider his or her moves, and then utilize the utmost courage in order to go after an animal that can be much faster and stronger than he or she is. Also, a hunting warrior is the best warrior to have surrounding the carriage of the King or Emperor.
The character Mou is a plum tree with words next to it, while the character for Lu is a tiger, with the character for “thinking” under it. Plums denote wisdom. longevity and beauty in Chinese mythology. The Mei plum, which grows in the Far East, is a symbol of resistance, because it’s flowers blossom under snow in February. Here it can be seen that there is some kind of wisdom or resistance in the speech.

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I'm a Chinese medicine student who uses this blog as a place to store my thoughts and occasionally rant and rave about things I trip over in life.

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