The Ferris-Wheel Mechanism of Sitian and Zaiquan in the Rotation of the Six Qi

After fully understanding the temporal and spatial models of the five flavors, the next step is to place them into the highest-level arena of the spacetime section of Chinese medicine: the Five Movements and Six Qi treatment matrix in the Huangdi Neijing: Suwen, “Great Treatise on the Utmost Truth.” To deconstruct this extremely complex circulation of the Six Qi, which often leaves readers dizzy, we propose a vivid geometric metaphor: the spacetime Ferris-wheel mechanism. Through it, one can see at a glance the macroscopic trajectories of Sitian, Zaiquan, “transforming in Heaven,” and “governing on Earth.”

Sitian, Zaiquan, transformation in Heaven, and governance on Earth can be grasped through an upper-and-lower Ferris-wheel rotation; the role of each qi changes with its position.

Within the three-dimensional geometric coordinates of the Five Movements and Six Qi:

Sitian (Heavenly Governor): occupies the top of the Ferris wheel—the qi of Heaven above the head—like a king’s crown, governing the character of celestial timing in the first half of the year.

Zaiquan (Earthly Ruler): occupies the bottom of the Ferris wheel—the qi of Earth beneath the feet—like a queen’s crown, governing the character of earthly qi in the second half of the year.

Intervening-qi transition: as the Ferris wheel rotates clockwise, the intervening-qi phase moving toward Sitian is called “transforming in Heaven,” while the phase moving toward Zaiquan is called “governing on Earth.”

The Three Yin and Three Yang—from Jueyin to Taiyang—take turns over a six-year cycle that repeats continuously.

Each of these six major qi-transformation positions has an equal opportunity each year to occupy the top of the wheel as Sitian or the bottom as Zaiquan. When a qi such as Jueyin Wind-Wood takes the Sitian position, the macroscopic climate of the first half of the year is said to develop a strong bias toward excessive wind. In this reading, the forty-two enormous treatment passages in the “Great Treatise on the Utmost Truth” are, at heart, the ancestors’ customized equations for energetic opposition and harmonization for each year and each period, constructed from this geometric viewpoint of the spacetime Ferris wheel.