Classica Sinica Medica

五常

wǔ cháng

Five constants · wu chang

Also rendered: The five constants (this site; 常 as what stands, from the garment worn every day) · The five norms (closer to how 常 is used once it has become a rule; loses the word's origin in what is worn)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-10-06

At a glance

Pinyin
wǔ cháng
Simplified
五常
Literal
五 wǔ — five; 常 cháng — what is constant, the standing measure, from 裳 the lower garment and so the thing worn every day. 《說文》 has 常，下帬也. 考建五常: to examine and establish the five constants. One occurrence, in the chapter's first line, and the fourth of the four things done before the question is asked. The chapter never says what the five are; it takes them as already known.
Shuowen
**「五」讀 wǔ，本篇7見：五運、五行、五氣、五味之屬**；**「常」讀 cháng，本篇止此一見，是全站首見之字**；**《說文》：常，下帬也；引申為經常、常法**；**「五常」本篇1見，在第一段，與天綱同句**

In brief

The five standing measures — whatever five things the chapter takes as given and established before it begins. The text is unusual in naming them and then never saying what they are: 考建五常 is the fourth of four opening clauses and the chapter moves straight past it to the question. What the word does is set the register: the business in hand is the ordering of the year by fixed measures, not the treatment of a patient, and that is why the answer, when it comes, is about images rather than numbers.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The graphs 五常
五者之常法
考建五常 — Suwen 67
2
What is done to them 考建
考訂而建立之，非新創
臨觀八極，考建五常 — Suwen 67
3
Their place in the opening 始正天綱……考建五常
正綱而後建常，其次第如此
始正天綱，臨觀八極，考建五常 — Suwen 67
4
Left unnamed here 五常
本篇不列其目，直以為既知之事
考建五常，請天師而問之曰 — Suwen 67
5
What the chapter does name 五運、五行、五氣
本篇所立之五，各有其目
五氣更立，各有所先 — Suwen 67
6
The register it sets 以象之謂也
既言常法，則所問在象不在數
天地陰陽者，不以數推，以象之謂也。 — Suwen 67

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 67 Suwen 67 · 五運行大論 Read in context →
黄帝坐明堂，始正天綱，臨觀八極，考建五常，請天師而問之曰：論言天地之動靜，神明爲之紀；陰陽之升降，寒暑彰其兆。余聞五運之數於夫子，夫子之所言，正五氣之各主歲爾，首甲定運，余因論之。 黄帝坐明堂，始正天纲，临观八极，考建五常，请天师而问之曰：论言天地之动静，神明为之纪；阴阳之升降，寒暑彰其兆。余闻五运之数于夫子，夫子之所言，正五气之各主岁尔，首甲定运，余因论之。
Huáng dì zuò míng táng, shǐ zhèng tiān gāng, lín guān bā jí, kǎo jiàn wǔ cháng, qǐng tiān shī ér wèn zhī yuē: lùn yán tiān dì zhī dòng jìng, shén míng wéi zhī jì; yīn yáng zhī shēng jiàng, hán shǔ zhāng qí zhào. Yú wén wǔ yùn zhī shù yú fū zǐ, fū zǐ zhī suǒ yán, zhèng wǔ qì zhī gè zhǔ suì ěr, shǒu jiǎ dìng yùn, yú yīn lùn zhī.
Huang Di sat in the Bright Hall, set right the framework of heaven, looked out over the eight extremes, examined and established the five constants, and then called the heavenly teacher to ask: the treatises say that the movement and stillness of heaven and earth take spirit brightness as their framework, and that the rising and falling of yin and yang show their signs in cold and summer heat. I have heard the numbers of the five circuits from you, master, but what you spoke of was only that each of the five qi governs a year — that the first jia settles the circuit — and I have reasoned on from there.
**「五常」本篇1見，在第一段**；**「常」讀 cháng，是全站首見之字**；**《說文》：常，下帬也**；**「考」讀 kǎo，本篇1見**；**本篇不列五常之目，與下文五運、五行、五氣各有其目者不同**

Compounds built on this term

天綱
tiān gāng
the framework of heaven
本篇1見；與五常同在第一段
五運
wǔ yùn
the five circuits
本篇1見；帝所聞於夫子之數
五氣
wǔ qì
the five qi
本篇2見；五氣更立，各有所先
五行
wǔ xíng
the five phases
本篇2見；五行麗地，五行遷復

How it has been translated

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

This sitethe five constantsfrom 常, what is constant; the chapter never enumerates them, and a rendering that implies a known list would say more than the text does
Enumeratingthe five phases, the five circuits, …how the phrase gets filled in by later writing; each filling is a reading of the chapter, not a translation of it
Descriptivethe five standing measuresfaithful, and it reads like a gloss rather than a name

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-06

Search the glossary

Reading path

Guided routes through the corpus, each built on a handful of chapters and their key terms.

See all reading paths