Classica Sinica Medica

靜順 简体 静顺

jìng shùn

Still Compliance · jing shun

Also rendered: Still Compliance (this site; 靜 is stillness and 順 is following the grain, and the chapter's own words are 勿害 and 善下) · Jing shun (transliteration; how the name appears in tables of the fifteen circuits)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-10-13

At a glance

Pinyin
jìng shùn
Simplified
静顺
Literal
靜 jìng — still, at rest (《說文》: 靜，審也; the received sense in these chapters is stillness); 順 shùn — compliant, following the grain of a thing (《說文》: 順，理也). 靜順 is water at its even: it stores and does no harm, and it governs by keeping low — 藏而勿害，治而善下. Of the five even names it is the one that describes a manner rather than an act: not what water does, but how it does it.
Shuowen
**「靜順」本篇2見：一在「水曰靜順」，一在「靜順之紀」**；**《說文》：靜，審也；順，理也**；**「藏而勿害」本篇1見、「治而善下」本篇1見，皆靜順之紀之文**；**「五化咸整」本篇1見，唯此段有**；**「其藏腎」本篇3見，「其數六」本篇1見**

In brief

Water in its even state. 水曰靜順 — water is called still compliance — and its 紀 runs: 靜順之紀，藏而勿害，治而善下，五化咸整，其氣明，其性下，其用沃衍，其化凝堅，其類水，其政流演，其候凝肅，其令寒，其藏腎，腎其畏濕，其主二陰，其榖豆，其果栗，其實濡，其應冬，其蟲鱗，其畜彘，其色黑，其養骨髓，其病厥，其味鹹，其音羽，其物濡，其數六. Its two opening pairs are a manner and a policy: 藏而勿害, it stores and does no harm, and 治而善下, it governs and is good at keeping low. Neither is a restraint on water; both are what water even is, and the chapter’s five transformations come out 咸整, all of them ordered, the last word any of the five paragraphs uses. Water is also the phase the chapter ends on, and the one whose even state the closing sentence of the group gathers up: 故生而勿殺，長而勿罰，化而勿制，收而勿害，藏而勿抑，是謂平氣 — the five 勿 of that sentence are the five even circuits read one by one. Its viscus is the kidney, its number six; failing it is 涸流, the dried stream, and in excess 流衍, spreading flow.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The graph 靜順
靜者止也，順者理也
水曰靜順 — Suwen 70
2
Its phase 水之平氣
藏而勿害，治而善下
靜順之紀，藏而勿害 — Suwen 70
3
Its five transformations 五化咸整
五化皆整，五紀之末
五化咸整 — Suwen 70
4
Its nature and use 其氣明，其性下
水性下而氣明
其氣明，其性下 — Suwen 70
5
Its season and number 其應冬，其數六
冬為水，六為水之成數
其應冬 / 其數六 — Suwen 70
6
Its two failures 涸流、流衍
不及曰涸流，太過曰流衍
水曰涸流 / 水曰流衍 — Suwen 70

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 70 Suwen 70 · 五常政大論 Read in context →
靜順之紀，藏而勿害，治而善下，五化咸整。其氣明，其性下，其用沃衍，其化凝堅，其類水，其政流演，其候凝肅，其令寒，其藏腎，腎其畏濕，其主二陰，其榖豆，其果栗，其實濡，其應冬，其蟲鱗，其畜彘，其色黑，其養骨髓，其病厥，其味鹹，其音羽，其物濡，其數六。 静顺之纪，藏而勿害，治而善下，五化咸整。其气明，其性下，其用沃衍，其化凝坚，其类水，其政流演，其候凝肃，其令寒，其藏肾，肾其畏湿，其主二阴，其谷豆，其果栗，其实濡，其应冬，其虫鳞，其畜彘，其色黑，其养骨髓，其病厥，其味咸，其音羽，其物濡，其数六。
Jìng shùn zhī jì, cáng ér wù hài, zhì ér shàn xià, wǔ huà xián zhěng. Qí qì míng, qí xìng xià, qí yòng wò yǎn, qí huà níng jiān, qí lèi shuǐ, qí zhèng liú yǎn, qí hòu níng sù, qí lìng hán, qí zàng shèn, shèn qí wèi shī, qí zhǔ èr yīn, qí gǔ dòu, qí guǒ lì, qí shí rú, qí yìng dōng, qí chóng lín, qí chù zhì, qí sè hēi, qí yǎng gǔ suǐ, qí bìng jué, qí wèi xián, qí yīn yǔ, qí wù rú, qí shù liù.
In the era of Still Compliance it stores and harms nothing, governs and is good at keeping low, and the five transformations are all ordered. Its qi bright, its nature low, its use watering and spreading, its transformation congealing and hard, its class water, its governance flowing and spreading, its climate congealed and stern, its command cold, its viscus the kidney; the kidney fears dampness; it governs the two lower orifices; its grain beans, its fruit the chestnut, its kernel moist, its answering winter, its creature the scaly, its domestic animal the pig, its colour black, its nourishment bone and marrow, its illness counterflow, its flavour salty, its note yu, its thing moist, its number six.
**「靜順」本篇2見：一在「水曰靜順」，一在「靜順之紀」**；**此段以「藏而勿害，治而善下」立水之平，次段即以五「勿」總結五平**；**「五化咸整」本篇1見，唯此段有，為五「其化」之末**；**五平紀至此而畢，次段「故生而勿殺…是謂平氣」為五紀之總**

Compounds built on this term

涸流
hé liú
dried stream
本篇2見；水不及之名，其紀曰反陽
流衍
liú yǎn
spreading flow
本篇2見；水太過之名，其紀曰封藏
其藏腎
qí zàng shèn
its viscus the kidney
本篇3見
平氣
píng qì
balanced qi
本篇2見；五化咸整，五紀既畢，總之曰是謂平氣

How it has been translated

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

This sitestill compliancea manner rather than an act, which is what the name is; 善下 is kept by 'still', 勿害 by 'compliance'
Transliterationjing shunright about the referent, and it says nothing about stillness or following
Descriptivewater in its even stateexact, and it drops the two words the chapter closes the five circuits with — 勿害 and 善下

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-13

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