太淵简体太渊

tài yuān

Taiyuan · the great abyss

Also rendered: Taiyuan (this site; the pulse name as the tradition has it, and the one used wherever the lung channel's source is listed) · The great abyss (a rendering of the two graphs, used in the definition but not as a name)

Vessels

Reviewed · 2026-10-08

At a glance

Pinyin: tài yuān
Simplified: 太渊
Literal: 太 tài — the great; 淵 yuān — a deep pool, water turned round upon itself (《說文》: 淵，回水也). 太淵 is the great pool: the pulse at the wrist where the lung channel's qi gathers in the hollow on the radial side, the source of the lung channel. In Suwen 69 it is the pulse that decides death when fire is in surplus, because fire in surplus strikes metal, and metal's channel is the lung's.
Shuowen: **「太」讀 tài，本篇26見**；**「淵」讀 yuān，本篇1見，皆在「太淵」一詞內**；**《說文》：淵，回水也；回旋之水，引申為深**；**「太淵」本篇1見，止在此句**；**本篇五脈之文一式：「某脈絶者，死不治」**

In brief

The pulse at the wrist where the lung channel’s qi gathers, and the pulse this chapter takes when the fire circuit is in surplus: 歲火太過，炎暑流行，金肺受邪 — fire in surplus strikes the metal of the lung — and so it is 太淵, the lung’s pulse, whose stopping means death. The name is the place: a pool where water turns round upon itself, which is what a pulse feels like under the finger at that hollow. The chapter gives no anatomy; it names the pulse and gives its verdict, and the reader who knows which channel each pulse belongs to can reconstruct the rule.

Senses in the classical corpus

The graphs 太淵

太者大也，淵者回水；脈氣深聚之處

太淵絶者，死不治 — Suwen 69

The place 太淵

手腕橈側之陷中，肺脈之所注

歲火太過，炎暑流行，金肺受邪 — Suwen 69

The rule 金肺受邪，取肺之脈

所勝之藏受邪，即取該藏之脈

太淵絶者，死不治 — Suwen 69

What 絶 means 太淵絶者

絶者脈絶不至，非斷絶之義

太淵絶者 — Suwen 69

The verdict 死不治

五脈之絶，皆斷以死不治

死不治 — Suwen 69

With the star 上應熒惑星

火太過則熒惑應之，此段二見

上應熒惑星 — Suwen 69

Occurrences in the classics

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

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1 passages

Suwen 69 Suwen 69 · 氣交變大論 Read in context →

歲火太過，炎暑流行，金肺受邪。民病瘧，少氣欬喘，血溢，血泄，注下，嗌燥耳聾，中熱，肩背熱。上應熒惑星。甚則胸中痛，脅支滿，脅痛，膺背肩胛間痛，兩臂内痛，身熱骨痛，而爲浸淫。收氣不行，長氣獨明，雨水霜寒。上應辰星。上臨少陰少陽，火燔爇，冰泉涸，物焦槁。病反譫妄狂越，欬喘息鳴，下甚血溢，泄不已。太淵絶者，死不治。上應熒惑星。岁火太过，炎暑流行，金肺受邪。民病疟，少气欬喘，血溢，血泄，注下，嗌燥耳聋，中热，肩背热。上应荧惑星。甚则胸中痛，胁支满，胁痛，膺背肩胛间痛，两臂内痛，身热骨痛，而为浸淫。收气不行，长气独明，雨水霜寒。上应辰星。上临少阴少阳，火燔爇，冰泉涸，物焦槁。病反谵妄狂越，欬喘息鸣，下甚血溢，泄不已。太渊绝者，死不治。上应荧惑星。

Suì huǒ tài guò, yán shǔ liú xíng, jīn fèi shòu xié. Mín bìng nüè, shǎo qì kài chuǎn, xuè yì, xuè xiè, zhù xià, yì zào ěr lóng, zhōng rè, jiān bèi rè. Shàng yìng yíng huò xīng. Shèn zé xiōng zhōng tòng, xié zhī mǎn, xié tòng, yīng bèi jiān jiǎ jiān tòng, liǎng bì nèi tòng, shēn rè gǔ tòng, ér wéi jìn yín. Shōu qì bù xíng, zhǎng qì dú míng, yǔ shuǐ shuāng hán. Shàng yìng chén xīng. Shàng lín shào yīn shào yáng, huǒ fán ruò, bīng quán hé, wù jiāo gǎo. Bìng fǎn zhān wàng kuáng yuè, kài chuǎn xī míng, xià shèn xuè yì, xiè bù yǐ. Tài yuān jué zhě, sǐ bù zhì. Shàng yìng yíng huò xīng.

In a year of fire in surplus, blazing summer heat spreads and moves and the metal of the lung receives evil. The people are ill with malaria, scantness of qi, coughing and panting, blood escaping upward, blood discharged downward, pouring below, dryness of the throat and deafness, heat in the centre and heat in the shoulder and back; it answers above to Mars. If it is severe there is pain in the chest, propping fullness and pain in the flanks, pain between the breast, the back and the shoulder blades, pain on the inner side of both arms, heat of the body and pain in the bones, and the soaking spread of the illness. The qi of gathering does not move and the qi of growth shines alone; rain, water, frost and cold arrive; it answers above to Mercury. If lesser yin or lesser yang presides above, fire blazes and scorches, the icy springs dry up and things are burnt and withered; the illness turns to delirious speech and raving, coughing and panting with a noisy breath, and, below, severe bleeding and unending discharge. Where Taiyuan is cut off there is death and no cure; it answers above to Mars.

**「太淵」本篇1見，止此一句**；**「歲火太過」是十表之第二：火太過則炎暑行，金肺受邪，故取肺之太淵**；**「雨水霜寒」底本如此，新校正疑「水」當作「冰」，本篇从底本，不改**；**「爇」讀 ruò，本篇2見；「火燔爇」與「其災燔爇」**；**「上臨少陰少陽」是本篇六氣上臨之文，與太陽、陽明、太陰、厥陰同例**

Compounds built on this term

太谿

tài xī

Taixi

本篇1見；土太過則腎水受邪，取腎脈

絶

jué

cut off; ceased

本篇5見，五脈之絶皆此字，底本作「絶」

金肺

jīn fèi

the metal of the lung

本篇1見；金肺受邪

死不治

sǐ bù zhì

death and no cure

本篇5見，五脈之文皆以此四字收束

How it has been translated

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

This site	Taiyuan	the name this site uses for the pulse and the point; the chapter calls it 太淵 and means the pulse
Transliteration	tai yuan	how the name appears wherever the lung channel's source point is listed
Descriptive	the great pool at the wrist	exact about the image, and it invites reading the name as a description of depth rather than as the name of a place

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-08

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