赫曦

hè xī

Blazing Sunlight · he xi

Also rendered: Blazing Sunlight (this site; 赫 is the red of fire and 曦 is the sun's colour, so the name is heat at the strength of light) · He xi (transliteration; how the name appears in tables of the fifteen circuits)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-10-13

At a glance

Pinyin: hè xī
Simplified: 赫曦
Literal: 赫 hè — blazing, red and bright (《說文》: 赫，火赤貌); 曦 xī — the light of the sun (从日羲聲，日色也). 赫曦 is fire in excess: not warmth but blaze, the sun at a strength that dries rather than ripens. It answers 升明, the even fire that rises and lights, and the chapter's 紀 name for it is 蕃茂 — luxuriance, the growth that comes of too much heat.
Shuowen: **「赫曦」本篇2見：一在「火曰赫曦」，一在「赫曦之紀」**；**《說文》：赫，火赤貌；曦从日羲聲，日色也**；**「是謂蕃茂」本篇1見，即赫曦之紀之名**；**「陰氣内化，陽氣外榮」本篇1見，赫曦之文**；**「其藏心、肺」本篇1見，火太過兼及所勝之金**

In brief

Fire going to excess. 火曰赫曦 — fire is called blazing sunlight — and its 紀 is 蕃茂: 赫曦之紀，是謂蕃茂。陰氣内化，陽氣外榮，炎暑施化，物得以昌. The yin transforms within, the yang blooms without, the scorching heat spreads its transformations, and the things of the world come up thick — the excess of fire is told as a prosperity, because that is what it looks like from outside. Its attributes: 其化長，其氣高，其政動，其令鳴顯，其動炎灼妄擾…其象夏，其經手少陰、太陽，手厥陰、少陽，其藏心、肺…其病笑瘧、瘡瘍，血流，狂妄，目赤. Its viscera are the heart and the lung, the phase it overcomes with the phase it is; the illnesses are the blaze turned inward — laughing, malaria, sores, blood running, madness, red eyes. And where the short fire hides, this one ends by touching even the note it answers: 上羽與正徴同，其收齊，其病痓, and the reaping qi comes back late against it.

Senses in the classical corpus

The graph 赫曦

赫者火赤，曦者日色

火曰赫曦 — Suwen 70

Its 紀 name 蕃茂

蕃者滋，茂者盛，火盛則物蕃

赫曦之紀，是謂蕃茂 — Suwen 70

Its opening 陰氣内化，陽氣外榮

陰化於内，陽榮於外

陰氣内化，陽氣外榮 — Suwen 70

Its nature and use 其化長，其政動

化主長，政主動，火之性也

其化長，其政動 — Suwen 70

Its paired viscera 其藏心、肺

火太過則兼及所勝之金

其藏心、肺 — Suwen 70

Its excess undone 上羽與正徴同，其收齊

火太過則水氣來復，收令反齊

其收齊，其病痓 — 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 →

赫曦之紀，是謂蕃茂。陰氣内化，陽氣外榮，炎暑施化，物得以昌。其化長，其氣高，其政動，其令鳴顯，其動炎灼妄擾，其色赤、白、𤣥，其味苦、辛、鹹，其象夏，其經手少陰、太陽，手厥陰、少陽，其藏心、肺，其蟲羽鱗，其物脉濡，其病笑瘧、瘡瘍，血流，狂妄，目赤。上羽與正徴同，其收齊，其病痓，上徴而收氣後也。暴烈其政，藏氣乃復，時見凝慘，甚則雨水、霜雹切寒，邪傷心也。赫曦之纪，是谓蕃茂。阴气内化，阳气外荣，炎暑施化，物得以昌。其化长，其气高，其政动，其令鸣显，其动炎灼妄扰，其色赤、白、𤣥，其味苦、辛、咸，其象夏，其经手少阴、太阳，手厥阴、少阳，其藏心、肺，其虫羽鳞，其物脉濡，其病笑疟、疮疡，血流，狂妄，目赤。上羽与正徵同，其收齐，其病痓，上徵而收气后也。暴烈其政，藏气乃复，时见凝惨，甚则雨水、霜雹切寒，邪伤心也。

Hè xī zhī jì, shì wèi fán mào. Yīn qì nèi huà, yáng qì wài róng, yán shǔ shī huà, wù dé yǐ chāng. Qí huà zhǎng, qí qì gāo, qí zhèng dòng, qí lìng míng xiǎn, qí dòng yán zhuó wàng rǎo, qí sè chì, bái, xuán, qí wèi kǔ, xīn, xián, qí xiàng xià, qí jīng shǒu shào yīn, tài yáng, shǒu jué yīn, shào yáng, qí zàng xīn, fèi, qí chóng yǔ lín, qí wù mài rú, qí bìng xiào nüè, chuāng yáng, xuè liú, kuáng wàng, mù chì. Shàng yǔ yǔ zhèng zhǐ tóng, qí shōu qí, qí bìng chì, shàng zhǐ ér shōu qì hòu yě. Bào liè qí zhèng, zàng qì nǎi fù, shí xiàn níng cǎn, shèn zé yǔ shuǐ, shuāng báo qiè hán, xié shāng xīn yě.

The era of Blazing Sunlight is called luxuriant growth: the yin qi transforms within, the yang qi flourishes without, blazing heat spreads its transformation, and beings are thereby made abundant. Its transformation growth, its qi high, its governance movement, its command clamour and display, its movement blazing and scorching, reckless and disturbing, its colour red, white and black, its flavour bitter, acrid and salty, its image summer, its channels the hand lesser yin and greater yang, the hand ceasing yin and lesser yang, its viscera the heart and lung, its creature the feathered and the scaly, its thing the vessels, moist. Its illness laughter, malaria, boils and sores, blood flowing out, madness and raving, red eyes. Where the upper is yu it is one with the upright zhi, its harvest is even and its illness convulsion; where the upper is zhi the qi of harvest comes late. If its governance is violent the qi of storage takes its revenge, and now and again bleak congealing appears; in the extreme, rain, frost, hail and biting cold, and evil injures the heart.

**「赫曦」本篇2見：一在「火曰赫曦」，一在「赫曦之紀」**；**此段以「蕃茂」名其紀，「陰氣内化，陽氣外榮」為其開端**；**此段兼出「其收齊」「其病痓」「上徴而收氣後也」：火太過則水復而收令反後**；**五太過之藏皆二，「其藏心、肺」本篇1見**

Compounds built on this term

升明

shēng míng

rising brightness

本篇2見；火之平氣，與赫曦對

伏明

fú míng

hidden brightness

本篇2見；火不及之名

蕃茂

fán mào

luxuriance

本篇1見；赫曦之紀之名

其藏心、肺

qí zàng xīn fèi

its viscera the heart and lung

本篇1見；五太過之藏皆二

How it has been translated

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

This site	blazing sunlight	fire at a strength that dries; the rendering keeps the light in the name, which 蕃茂 does not give
Transliteration	he xi	right about the referent, and it says nothing about blazing
Descriptive	fire going to excess	exact, and it loses the name the sentence 火曰赫曦 uses as a subject

Entry status

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2026-10-13

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