Oppression · yi yi

At a glance

Pinyin

yì yì

Simplified

悒悒

Literal

悒悒 yì yì — 悒 is the heart radical over 邑, a city, and the word means a closed-in, brooding discomfort. It is not grief exactly and not pain exactly; it is the feeling of something shut up inside. The chapter puts it at the end of the ceasing yin malaria, after the fearfulness and the shortness of qi, as the last and most inward of the signs: the belly is oppressed. Doubling the word — 悒悒 — makes it a state rather than a moment, as the double does throughout this text.

Shuowen

《說文解字》：悒，不安也，从心邑聲——**「不安」二字是悒之本義，謂心之鬱而不舒**。「悒」讀 yì，本篇2見，**皆在「悒悒」一詞**；**从心从邑，邑者城也，心如有城之閉其中**。「腹」讀 fù；「中」讀 zhōng；「氣」讀 qì；「不」讀 bù；「足」讀 zú；「意」讀 yì；「恐」讀 kǒng；「懼」讀 jù。**「意恐懼，氣不足，腹中悒悒」十二字，寫厥陰之瘧最為層遞**——**恐懼者肝之志，氣不足者肝之用，腹中悒悒者肝之部**，**志、用、部三者俱見，而後為厥陰之瘧**。**「悒悒」與上文「太息」對照**：**太息者氣之欲舒而不得，悒悒者氣之閉而不舒**——**一在肝瘧，一在足厥陰之瘧，同經而二態**。