The Northern Palace (玄宮) and Black Tortoise
Both of the Xiu for the lung reside in The Northern Palace of the Black Tortoise which is associated with Winter and Water. The tortoise is thought to lead a celibate life, have extreme longevity, and had a reputation for keen discernment and sound judgment. The tortoise was considered to always turn towards the Sun, and people believed it to be a sun worshipper.
One interesting point listed in Derek Walter’s book is that even though turtles were an important element of the classical Chinese diet, they weren’t eaten in the eleventh month for fear of edema. The lung is tied to the eleventh hexagram, and the lung meridian has eleven points. It is a Taiyin organ, and edema can be considered a Taiyin pathology.
The NW position is where Qian is put in a pre-heaven arrangement. Heaven toils in the NW. All these ideas of battling that go with the 9th and 10th month and yin is totally dominant. That’s when Taiyin is opening and Yang is in storage.
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