Classica Sinica Medica

帶脉 简体 带脉

dài mài

Belt vessel

Also rendered: Belt vessel (this site; 帶 translated by what it does) · Girdle vessel (the other common rendering, from the same image)

Vessels

Reviewed · 2026-09-29

At a glance

Pinyin
dài mài
Simplified
带脉
Literal
帶脉 dài mài — the vessel that binds the others, and the one the chapter blames when the legs give way. All the vessels belong to the belt vessel and connect to the governing vessel; when yang brightness is empty the ancestral sinews go lax and the belt vessel does not draw them up, and the legs are flaccid and unusable.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：帶，紳也，男子鞶帶，女子帶絲。「帶」讀 dài、**本篇2見**；「脉」、**本篇12見**；**「帶脉不引」之引讀 yǐn**；**「不」讀 bù**。

In brief

The vessel that girdles the waist and binds the others to it. The chapter’s interest in it is mechanical: it draws the sinews up, and when yang brightness fails it stops drawing, so the legs lose their use even though nothing else has changed.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The graphs 帶、脉
帶者紳也，束物之義；脉者血之府
皆屬於帶脉 — Suwen 44
2
What the vessels do 皆屬於帶脉，而絡於督脉
諸脉皆屬帶脉而絡督脉，故帶脉束之
皆屬於帶脉，而絡於督脉 — Suwen 44
3
What it does for the sinews 帶脉不引
帶脉主引，不引則宗筋縱而足痿
帶脉不引 — Suwen 44
4
When it fails 陽明虚則宗筋縱，帶脉不引
陽明虚則宗筋弛縱，帶脉無以收引
故陽明虚則宗筋縱 — Suwen 44
5
What follows 故足痿不用也
宗筋縱、帶脉不引，則足痿而不用
故足痿不用也 — Suwen 44
6
Its place among the vessels 衝脉、帶脉、督脉
本篇三脉並舉，共成宗筋之會
皆屬於帶脉，而絡於督脉 — Suwen 44

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 44 Suwen 44 · 痿論 Read in context →
故陽明虚則宗筋縱，帶脉不引，故足痿不用也。 故阳明虚则宗筋纵，带脉不引，故足痿不用也。
Gù yáng míng xū zé zōng jīn zòng, dài mài bù yǐn, gù zú wěi bù yòng yě.
So when yang brightness is empty the ancestral sinews go lax and the belt vessel does not draw them up — hence the legs are flaccid and unusable.
**「帶脉不引」——**「帶」讀 dài，**本篇2見**；**「不引」者，不能收引而上**，**「不用」之「不」讀 bù**；**上文言「宗筋縱」，此言「帶脉不引」，两句相因而足痿成**。

Compounds built on this term

帶脉
dài mài
belt vessel
本篇二見
帶脉不引
dài mài bù yǐn
the belt vessel does not draw up
足痿之由
皆屬於帶脉
jiē shǔ yú dài mài
all belong to the belt vessel
諸脉與帶脉之屬
足痿不用
zú wěi bù yòng
the legs are flaccid and unusable
帶脉不引之果

How it has been translated

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

This sitebelt vessel帶 is the belt: it girdles the waist and binds the vessels that run through it
Unschuldbelt vesselhe keeps the same image
Wisemanbelt vesselthe same name, and 帶脉 is the belt vessel in his system

Entry status

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2026-09-29

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