The span allotted at birth: a hundred, in this chapter. It functions as a measure rather than a promise — the chapter’s question is why people fall short of it, and the…
The interior state in which the chapter’s protection works: quiet, unstirred, free of appetite. The transmitted text varies between 惔 and 淡; the variant is recorded in the collation notes rather than…
Not a second kind of qi, but the same qi unobstructed. 真 is doing the work of ‘genuine’: when craving and agitation subside, what follows of itself is the real thing rather…
The pair the texts treat as the inner treasury: essence is what is stored, spirit is what is alert. ‘Keeping them within’ (內守) is this chapter’s plainest statement of what health consists…
Regimen governed by number — measured breathing, diet and practice rather than indulgence. The phrase is deliberately technical: what is recommended is a discipline that can be kept or broken, not an…