Wake Forest University

Traditional:

big5:

問氣之伸屈。曰：「譬如將水放鍋里煮，水既乾，那泉水 依前又來，不到得將已乾之水去做它。」
夔孫。

Simplified:

问气之伸屈。曰：「譬如将水放锅里煮，水既乾，那泉水 依前又来，不到得将已乾之水去做它。」
夔孙。

big5:

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GB:

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Translation:

[Someone] asked about the extension and retraction of qi. [Zhu Xi] said: "It is like what happens when you put water in a pot to boil. When the water has dried out, then more well water is poured in as before. It has never come to pass that somebody uses the water that has already evaporated away to do that."
-- Kui Sun

Commentary:

Someone asks about qi, implying that it comes out from some entity and then can be drawn back in again, almost the way a turtle can stick its head out of its shell and then draw it back in. This analogy would seem to imply that humans can exhale a breath of qi and then inhale it all again. Zhu Xi only handles the implicit question of human qi by relating an experience from everyone's daily life. Once water boils away, you cannot go out and capture it with a butterfly net. Zhu Xi does not seem to understand that the water that boils away will eventually condense and fall as precipitation, soak through the land, and enter the water table as it has done for millions of years.

-- PEM