九氣简体九气

jiǔ qì

The nine qi

Also rendered: The nine qi (this site; qi is left untranslated and the number is kept) · The nine affects (possible, but 'affect' is a later category the text does not use)

Core vocabulary

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: jiǔ qì
Simplified: 九气
Literal: 九氣 jiǔ qì — the nine qi. The chapter spends forty-one paragraphs on pain and then, in its last movement, generalises: 百病生於氣也, all illness is born of qi. The nine that follow are not nine diseases but nine directions qi can be pushed — up by anger, slackened by joy, dispersed by grief, driven down by fear, drawn in by cold, let out by heat, disordered by fright, spent by labour, knotted by thought. Each is stated twice, once in the Emperor's summary and once in Qibo's expansion, and each expansion is an anatomy: what closes, what opens, what rises, what cannot get past. It is the most quoted sentence in the whole Suwen, and it is the reason the chapter has a second half at all.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：九，陽之變也——**本義為數之極，凡數之終多以九言之**。「九」讀 jiǔ，**本篇1見**；「九」「氣」，**本篇1見**，**皆在篇末「九氣不同，何病之生」一問之後**。**九氣之目**：怒、喜、悲、恐、寒、炅、驚、勞、思——**上者一（怒）、緩者一（喜）、消者一（悲）、下者一（恐）、收者一（寒）、泄者一（炅）、亂者一（驚）、耗者一（勞）、結者一（思）**。**本篇「氣」（「氣」讀 qì）57見，為全篇之冠**——**篇末「百病生於氣」一句，即以此57見為據**。

In brief

Anger, joy, grief, fear, cold, heat, fright, labour and thought — the nine things chapter 39 says move qi, and therefore the nine things it says produce illness. Each is given a direction: up, slack, dispersed, down, drawn in, let out, disordered, spent, knotted.

Senses in the classical corpus

What the number counts 九氣

怒、喜、悲、恐、寒、炅、驚、勞、思，凡九

九氣不同，何病之生 — Suwen 39

The claim it rests on 百病生於氣

一篇言痛，末乃總之曰百病生於氣

余知百病生於氣也 — Suwen 39

Upward 怒則氣上

怒則氣逆，甚則嘔血及飱泄

怒則氣上 — Suwen 39

Downward 恐則氣下

恐則精却，上焦閉而氣還，下焦脹，故氣不行

恐則氣下 — Suwen 39

Let out 炅則氣泄

炅則腠理開，榮衛通，汗大泄，故氣泄

炅則氣泄 — Suwen 39

Knotted 思則氣結

思則心有所存，神有所歸，正氣留而不行

思則氣結 — Suwen 39

Occurrences in the classics

Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.

Display

1 passages

Suwen 39 Suwen 39 · 舉痛論 Read in context →

余知百病生於氣也，怒則氣上，喜則氣緩，悲則氣消，恐則氣下，寒則氣收，炅則氣泄，驚則氣亂，勞則氣耗，思則氣結。九氣不同，何病之生？余知百病生于气也，怒则气上，喜则气缓，悲则气消，恐则气下，寒则气收，炅则气泄，惊则气乱，劳则气耗，思则气结。九气不同，何病之生？

Yú zhī bǎi bìng shēng yú qì yě, nù zé qì shàng, xǐ zé qì huǎn, bēi zé qì xiāo, kǒng zé qì xià, hán zé qì shōu, jiǒng zé qì xiè, jīng zé qì luàn, láo zé qì hào, sī zé qì jié.Jiǔ qì bù tóng, hé bìng zhī shēng?

I understand that the hundred illnesses are born of qi: anger makes qi rise, joy slackens it, sorrow dissolves it, fear sinks it, cold draws it in, heat lets it leak, fright disorders it, labour consumes it, thought knots it. These nine qi differ — what illness does each bring forth?

**「余知百病生於氣也」以下三十九字，是全篇之總括**：**前四十一節言痛之部位，此一節言痛之由來**——**部位者，寒氣之所客；由來者，九氣之所使**。**「九」（「九」讀 jiǔ）本篇1見**，**「九氣」1見**；**「氣」（「氣」讀 qì）57見，為全篇之冠**。**九氣之「寒」「炅」二字與前半篇之「寒氣」「炅氣」相接**：**前半寒氣客於某處而痛，後半寒則氣收、炅則氣泄**——**一在部位，一在氣機，讀者當合觀**。**「飱泄」之「飱」（「飱」讀 sūn）讀 sūn**，**本篇不作「飧」（「飧」）**。

Compounds built on this term

百病生於氣

bǎi bìng shēng yú qì

all illness is born of qi

《素問》傳誦最廣之一句

九氣不同

jiǔ qì bù tóng

the nine qi differ

篇末設問之詞

怒則氣上

nù zé qì shàng

anger sends the qi up

九氣之首

思則氣結

sī zé qì jié

thought knots the qi

九氣之末

How it has been translated

Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.

This site	the nine qi	the list is translated item by item; qi stays untranslated, as everywhere on this site
Unschuld	the nine qi	the same enumeration, with the nine verbs rendered as rising, slackening, dissolving, descending, contracting, draining, disordering, consuming and knotting
Wiseman	the nine qi	Wiseman keeps the same nine verbs and notes that the passage is the source of the later doctrine of the nine affects

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2026-09

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