Classica Sinica Medica

卻老 简体 却老

què lǎo

Pushing back age · que lao

Also rendered: Pushing back age (this site; it keeps 卻 as a verb of refusing, and the chapter's claim is that age can be made to retreat) · Que lao (transliteration; used where the phrase is being read with the other 養生 vocabulary)

Cultivation

Reviewed · 2026-10-08

At a glance

Pinyin
què lǎo
Simplified
却老
Literal
卻 què — to step back, to refuse, to push back (《說文》: 卻，節欲也); 老 lǎo — old, aged (《說文》: 老，考也，七十曰老). 卻老 is pushing age back: not escaping it but refusing it, making it retreat. The chapter says it of the person who has the way, who can push back age and keep the body whole and so beget children at a hundred — the one case in which the bound set by the counts does not hold.
Shuowen
**「卻」讀 què，本篇1見**；**「老」讀 lǎo，本篇3見**；**「卻老」本篇1見**；**《說文》：卻，節欲也；老，考也，七十曰老**；**「全形」本篇1見，與卻老連言**

In brief

Pushing back age — what Suwen 1 says the person who has the way can do, and the one exception it allows to its own counts. Such a person can push back age and keep the body whole, and though his years be long he can still beget children. The chapter has just set a bound — a man does not pass sixty-four, a woman not forty-nine — and this is the answer to whether the bound is absolute: it holds for everyone except the one who has the way.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The graphs 卻老
卻者節欲而退也，老者七十之稱
能卻老而全形 — Suwen 1
2
Pushing age back 能卻老
使老卻退，不復進
夫道者，能卻老而全形 — Suwen 1
3
Keeping the body whole 而全形
卻老而形體俱全
能卻老而全形 — Suwen 1
4
Said of the one with the way 夫道者，能卻老而全形
惟得道者能之，非眾人之所能
夫道者，能卻老而全形 — Suwen 1
5
Why children are still possible 身年雖壽，能生子也
卻老全形，故雖壽而能生子
身年雖壽，能生子也 — Suwen 1
6
Against the bound 男不過盡八八，女不過盡七七
眾人不過其數，得道者卻老故能過之
男不過盡八八 — Suwen 1

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
素問·上古天真論 Suwen 1 · 上古天真論 Read in context →
帝曰：有其年已老而有子者，何也？歧伯曰：此其天壽過度，氣脉常通，而腎氣有餘也。此雖有子，男不過盡八八，女不過盡七七，而天地之精氣皆竭矣。帝曰：夫道者，年皆百數，能有子乎？歧伯曰：夫道者，能卻老而全形，身年雖壽，能生子也。 帝曰：有其年已老而有子者，何也？歧伯曰：此其天寿过度，气脉常通，而肾气有余也。此虽有子，男不过尽八八，女不过尽七七，而天地之精气皆竭矣。帝曰：夫道者，年皆百数，能有子乎？歧伯曰：夫道者，能却老而全形，身年虽寿，能生子也。
Dì yuē: yǒu qí nián yǐ lǎo ér yǒu zǐ zhě, hé yě? Qí Bó yuē: cǐ qí tiān shòu guò dù, qì mài cháng tōng, ér shèn qì yǒu yú yě. cǐ suī yǒu zǐ, nán bù guò jìn bā bā, nǚ bù guò jìn qī qī, ér tiān dì zhī jīng qì jiē jié yǐ. Dì yuē: fú dào zhě, nián jiē bǎi shù, néng yǒu zǐ hū? Qí Bó yuē: fú dào zhě, néng què lǎo ér quán xíng, shēn nián suī shòu, néng shēng zǐ yě.
Huang Di said: there are those already old in years who yet have children — how is that? Qi Bo said: the span allotted them by heaven has passed beyond the measure, the qi and the vessels stay open, and the kidney qi has something left over. Even so, for a man it does not go past sixty-four and for a woman not past forty-nine, for by then the essence qi of heaven and earth is spent. Huang Di said: as for one who has the way — he may be a hundred in years, can he still have children? Qi Bo said: one who has the way can push back age and keep the body whole; though his years be long, he can still beget children.
**「卻老」本篇1見**；**「夫道者」之夫讀 fú，發語詞；「丈夫」之夫讀 fū，本篇二讀**；**「身年雖壽，能生子也」是本篇答「年皆百數，能有子乎」之問**；**「百數」之數讀 shù**

Compounds built on this term

全形
quán xíng
keeping the body whole
本篇1見
天壽
tiān shòu
the span of heaven
本篇1見
真人
zhēn rén
the true person
本篇2見
道
dào
the way
本篇8見

How it has been translated

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

This sitePushing back ageliteral to 卻 as a verb, and it keeps the modesty of the claim: age is refused, not abolished
Transliterationque laoright about the referent, and it loses the gesture
Descriptiveage-reversalwhat later writing on the subject claims; more than this chapter says, which is that the body is kept whole

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-08

Search the glossary

Reading paths

This term is read in context on:

See all reading paths