Long worms · chang chong

At a glance

Pinyin

cháng chóng

Simplified

长虫

Literal

長蟲 cháng chóng — long worms. 長 is read cháng here, long, not zhǎng, to grow: these are the long round worms that severe retching brings up. Chapter 38 mentions them once, at the end of the first of its six palace coughs: when spleen cough does not end the stomach takes it, in stomach cough the person coughs and retches, and when the retching is severe the long worms come out. It is one of the Suwen's few glimpses of intestinal parasites, and it is told in the same shape as every other entry in the chapter — a palace, a cough, and what the cough brings up.

Shuowen

《說文解字》：長，久遠也——**本義為長短之長**，**引申為生長（zhǎng）**；**《說文解字》：蟲，有足謂之蟲，無足謂之豸**——**本義為蟲豸之總名**。「長」讀 cháng，**本篇惟此一見**——**「長蟲」之長讀 cháng（長也，狀其形），不讀 zhǎng（生長）**；**與本站「長夏」之長（zhǎng）、「不能生長」之長（zhǎng）讀別**。「蟲」讀 chóng，**本篇惟此一見**——**不作「虫」（「虫」）**；**底本从虫从䖵，簡體一列作「虫」**。「嘔」讀 ǒu，**本篇3見**——**不作「呕」（「呕」）**；「嘔」者，吐也，讀 ǒu。