Zhuan, Sheng, Jian, Bing, Tong, He: A Six-State Model Across Nature and the Human Body

When discussing the Eight She in the fourth series, we already encountered the terms Zhuan, Sheng, Jian, Bing, and He. In “Tongtian,” they are no longer merely markers for channel pairings but are raised to a more general set of qi-transformational relations.

The text says:

The Five Transformations of qi—Zhuan, Sheng, Jian, Bing, Tong, and He—are the measures of qi transformation.

Again, a textual detail deserves preservation: the text calls them “Five Transformations” but actually lists six terms. This should be retained rather than forcibly edited for numerical symmetry.

These six terms are not six substances

They describe the relations that arise after two or more qi-transformational states meet.

An earlier passage gives a set of explanations:

When in excess, qi is Zhuan; when surplus, qi is Sheng; when insufficient, qi is Jian; when not reaching, qi is Bing; when mutually connected, qi meets; when qi is harmonious, the seasonal command is harmonious.

They can therefore be provisionally understood as:

• Zhuan (專): one qi is highly concentrated and dominant;
• Sheng (勝): one qi holds a relative advantage;
• Jian (兼): the primary qi is insufficient and concomitantly receives another qi;
• Bing (並): when qi does not reach sufficiently, it proceeds alongside other qi;
• Tong (通): different systems form a communicative meeting;
• He (和): the relation reaches a coordinated state.

These are not formal terms of modern physics. They belong to the Mirror Classic’s own relational grammar.

Why can one grammar cross Heaven, Earth, and Human?

“Tongtian” has just listed Heavenly qi, Earthly tastes, and human emotions, and then immediately discusses Zhuan, Sheng, Jian, Bing, Tong, and He. The order implies that inputs from different sources can be described by the same relational vocabulary after entering the body.

For example, one taste does not always exert one fixed effect. Entering different bodies, at different times, and against different pre-existing states, it may strengthen, override, combine with, coexist with, or restore communication among qi processes.

The Mirror Classic therefore does not reason as “A always equals B.” Its logic is closer to: after A enters a particular state-field, what relation does it form with the state already present?

This is also why the Sixty Shou and Eight She can connect with Tongtian

The Sixty Shou record starting states and change; the Eight She record qi interaction among channels; “Tongtian” adds external input. What truly links all three is not terminology but the question of how states interact.

Once this layer is understood, the later fifteen taste transformations and fifteen transformations of the Five Intentions no longer need to be memorized as dead tables. They demonstrate that when two inputs meet, a new relational state can arise.

The next article first examines the pairwise combinations of the Earthly tastes.