神門简体神门

shén mén

Shenmen · the gate of the spirit

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

Vessels

Reviewed · 2026-10-08

At a glance

Pinyin: shén mén
Simplified: 神门
Literal: 神 shén — the spirit, the numen, what in a thing is not its matter (《說文》: 神，天神，引出萬物者也); 門 mén — a gate, a door (《說文》: 門，聞也；从二戶). 神門 is the gate of the spirit: the pulse at the wrist on the heart channel, at the ulnar end of the crease, in the hollow beside the small finger's tendon — the source of the heart channel, and the point whose name says that the spirit comes and goes by it. In Suwen 69 it is the pulse that decides death when water is in surplus, because water in surplus strikes fire, and fire's channel is the heart's.
Shuowen: **「神」讀 shén，本篇3見，皆在「神門」「神明」二詞內**；**「門」讀 mén，本篇1見，皆在「神門」一詞內**；**《說文》：神，天神，引出萬物者也；門，聞也，从二戶**；**「神門」本篇1見，止在此句**；**本篇五脈之末：木取衝陽、火取太淵、土取太谿、金取太衝、水取神門**

In brief

The pulse at the wrist on the heart channel, and the pulse this chapter takes when the water circuit is in surplus: 歲水太過，寒氣流行，邪害心火 — water in surplus strikes the fire of the heart — and so it is 神門, the heart’s pulse, whose stopping means death. Its name is the last of the five and completes the set: wood takes Chongyang, fire takes Taiyuan, earth takes Taixi, metal takes Taichong, water takes Shenmen, and in every case the pulse taken belongs to the phase that the circuit in surplus strikes. The chapter names the pulse and gives its verdict; it never says why that pulse, and the five together say it.

Senses in the classical corpus

The graphs 神門

神者心之所藏，門者出入之所

神門絶者，死不治 — Suwen 69

The place 神門

掌後鋭骨之端，心脈之所注

歲水太過，寒氣流行，邪害心火 — Suwen 69

The rule 邪害心火，取心之脈

所勝之藏受邪，即取該藏之脈

神門絶者，死不治 — Suwen 69

What 絶 means 神門絶者

絶者脈絶不至，非斷絶之義

神門絶者 — Suwen 69

The verdict 死不治

五脈之絶，皆斷以死不治

死不治 — Suwen 69

With the stars 上應熒惑、辰星

水太過則辰星應之，末舉熒惑、辰星二星

上應熒惑、辰星 — 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 →

歲水太過，寒氣流行，邪害心火。民病身熱煩心，躁悸，陰厥，上下中寒，譫妄心痛。寒氣早至。上應辰星。甚則腹大脛腫，喘欬，寖汗出，憎風。大雨至，埃霧朦鬱，上應鎮星。上臨太陽，雨冰雪，霜不時降，濕氣變物。病反腹滿腸鳴，溏泄食不化，渴而妄冒。神門絶者，死不治，上應熒惑、辰星。岁水太过，寒气流行，邪害心火。民病身热烦心，躁悸，阴厥，上下中寒，谵妄心痛。寒气早至。上应辰星。甚则腹大胫肿，喘欬，寖汗出，憎风。大雨至，埃雾朦郁，上应镇星。上临太阳，雨冰雪，霜不时降，湿气变物。病反腹满肠鸣，溏泄食不化，渴而妄冒。神门绝者，死不治，上应荧惑、辰星。

Suì shuǐ tài guò, hán qì liú xíng, xié hài xīn huǒ. Mín bìng shēn rè fán xīn, zào jì, yīn jué, shàng xià zhòng hán, zhān wàng xīn tòng. Hán qì zǎo zhì. Shàng yìng chén xīng. Shèn zé fù dà jìng zhǒng, chuǎn kài, qǐn hàn chū, zēng fēng. Dà yǔ zhì, āi wù méng yù, shàng yìng zhèn xīng. Shàng lín tài yáng, yǔ bīng xuě, shuāng bù shí jiàng, shī qì biàn wù. Bìng fǎn fù mǎn cháng míng, táng xiè shí bù huà, kě ér wàng mào. Shén mén jué zhě, sǐ bù zhì, shàng yìng yíng huò, chén xīng.

In a year of water in surplus, the qi of cold spreads and moves and the evil harms the fire of the heart. The people are ill with heat of the body and fretting of the heart, restlessness and palpitations, yin counterflow, cold struck through the upper and the lower, delirious speech and pain in the heart; the cold qi arrives early. It answers above to Mercury. If it is severe the abdomen is enlarged and the shins swell, there is panting and coughing, sweating in sleep and hatred of wind. Great rain comes, dust and mist are dim and pent; it answers above to Saturn. If greater yang presides above, there is rain, ice and snow, frost falls out of season, and the qi of dampness alters things. The illness turns to fullness of the abdomen and rumbling in the bowels, sloppy diarrhoea with food undigested, and thirst with a veiled and wandering mind. Where Shenmen is cut off there is death and no cure; it answers above to Mars and Mercury.

**「神門」本篇1見，止此一句**；**「歲水太過」是十表之末：水太過則寒氣行，邪害心火，故取心之神門**；**「寖汗出」之「寖」讀 qǐn，本篇1見，王冰注即寢汗，睡中汗出**；**「上下中寒」之「中」讀 zhòng，本篇「中」11見而二讀**；**「上應熒惑、辰星」是本篇唯一一處二星並舉，與第十五段「鎮星、辰星」同例**

Compounds built on this term

太衝

tài chōng

Taichong

本篇1見；金太過則肝木受邪，取肝脈

絶

jué

cut off; ceased

本篇5見，五脈之絶皆此字，底本作「絶」

心火

xīn huǒ

the fire of the heart

本篇1見；邪害心火

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	Shenmen	the name this site uses for the pulse and the point; the chapter calls it 神門 and means the pulse
Transliteration	shen men	how the name appears wherever the heart channel's source point is listed
Descriptive	the spirit gate	a common rendering, and it slides toward reading 神 as the mind rather than as what the heart houses

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-08

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