Question: "What is the condition of the pulse in a person who is terrified?" The master replied: "The pulse feels like following a thread, continuous and unbroken, and their face turns pale and loses color."

bubble_chart Note

In a person suffering from terror, the yang spirit is insufficient. Insufficiency of yang leads to fear, and insufficiency of spirit leads to terror. Fear causes the blood to follow the qi downward, hence the face turns pale and loses color, lacking luster. Terror causes the qi to follow the spirit into chaos, hence the pulse feels like following a thread, continuous and chaotic.

bubble_chart Collected Annotations

Fang You-zhi said: "Terror and fear are forms of panic. Following the principle is to treat it. The thread refers to fineness. Continuous and unbroken refers to the appearance of connection. Losing color is like saying losing one's complexion. For those whose internal qi is weak, the external color is stripped away, hence there are sudden changes."
• Cheng Yingmao said: "This demonstrates the method of observing the complexion and matching it with the pulse. Fear causing qi sinking, the spirit is seized, hence the pulse is fine and unstable, and the complexion is pale and stripped of color."