The southern administration · nan zheng

In brief

One of the two ways a year may stand, to which the chapter sends the reader when asked where the yin is on the wrist: 陰之所在，寸口何如？歧伯曰：視歲南北，可知之矣. 南政 is the year that faces south and issues its commands, and the pulse it gives is stated in one line: 南政之歲，少陰司天，則寸口不應；厥陰司天，則右不應；太陰司天，則左不應，諸不應者，反其診則見矣 — the three yin, when they stand above in such a year, are not answered at the wrist, and a reversed reading finds them. A second line gives the rule by position rather than by name: 南政之歲，三陰在天，則寸不應；三陰在泉，則尺不應，左右同. The base text leaves it to the reckoning of the year to say which years these are, and the commentators divide: 王冰、張介賓、馬蒔 make the years of 甲己 earth the southern ones on the ground that earth is honoured among the five, 張志聰 makes 戊癸 fire the southern ones, and a third view reckons by the southern declination of the ecliptic.