[He who made woman] and created man,
Marduk, has ordained that he be encompassed with
sickness....
He said: “How long will he be in such great affl iction and
distress?
What is it that he saw in his vision of the night?”
In the dream Ur-Bau appeared
A mighty hero wearing his crown
A conjurer, too, clad in strength,
Marduk indeed sent me;
Unto Shubshi-meshri-Nergal he brought abundance;
In his pure hands he brought abundance.
By my guardian-spirit he stopped,”
By the seer he sent a message:
“A favorable omen I show to my people.”...
He sent a storm wind to the horizon;
To the breast of the earth it bore a blast
Into the depth of his ocean the disembodied spirit
vanished;
Unnumbered spirits he sent back to the underworld....
Th e sea-fl ood he spread with ice;
Th e roots of the disease he tore out like a plant.
Th e horrible slumber that settled on my rest
Like smoke fi lled the sky...
With the woe he had brought, unrepulsed and bitter, he
fi lled the earth like a storm.
Th e unrelieved headache which had overwhelmed the
heavens
He took away and sent down on me the evening dew.
My eyelids, which he had veiled with the veil of night
He blew upon with a rushing wind and made clear their
sight.
My ears, which were stopped, were deaf as a deaf man’s
He removed their deafness and restored their hearing.
My nose, whose nostril had been stopped from my
mother’s womb—
He eased its deformity so that I could breathe.
My lips, which were closed he had taken their strength—
He removed their trembling and loosed their bond.
My mouth which was closed so that I could not be
understood—
He cleansed it like a dish ; he healed its disease.
My eyes, which had been attacked so that they rolled
together—
He loosed their bond and their balls were set right.
Th e tongue, which had stiff ened so that it could not be
raised
He relieved its thickness, so its words could be understood.
Th e gullet which was compressed, stopped as with a
plug—
He healed its contraction, it worked like a fl ute.
My spittle which was stopped so that it was not secreted—
He removed its fetter, he opened its lock.From: George A. Barton, Archaeology and
the Bible, 3rd ed. (Philadelphia: American
Sunday School, 1920), pp. 392–395.To observe the TAO of Heaven, and grasp its method of
operation, is the limit of all achievement.
Th e root of Heaven is in TAO; and TAO being
fi xed, Heaven secures it and so brings about its
transmutations. Principles have their root in
circumstances, or facts; and facts being determined,
it is Principles by which they are modifi ed or varied.
Th us Principles have no unvarying course, and facts
no essential uniformity; both belong to the region
of the unlimited. It is only by observing the TAO
of Heaven, and grasping that, that the limit can be
reached.
Th us Heaven has Five Despoilers: and he who perceives them
will fl ourish.Th ere is no benefi t intended towards man when the
Five Atmospheric Infl uences are set in motion; how,
then, can there be any intentional injury to things?
Observing the nourishing and benefi cial results of these
Infl uences, men call it virtue; observing the injury and
ruin they cause, men call it spoliation. As soon as we see
a thing produced, it is destroyed; and having witnessed
its destruction, we see it come into being again. Th e
Affl atus of the East is antagonistic to the Centre; the
Affl atus of the Centre is antagonistic to the North; the Th e Yin Fu Ching, or Clue to the Unseen, excerpts
ca. 1200 b.c.e. Asia and the Pacifi c(cont inued)health and disease: primary source documents 557