敦阜

dūn fù

Mounded Height · dun fu

Also rendered: Mounded Height (this site; 敦 is thickness and 阜 is a bank that rises with no rock in it, so the name is earth heaped above its own level) · Dun fu (transliteration; how the name appears in tables of the fifteen circuits)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-10-13

At a glance

Pinyin: dūn fù
Simplified: 敦阜
Literal: 敦 dūn — thick, heaped, generous in bulk (《說文》: 敦，怒也; 一曰誰何也; the received sense in these chapters is thickness); 阜 fù — a mound, a rising bank (《說文》: 阜，大陸也，山無石者). 敦阜 is earth in excess: not the low ground of a short earth but a ground heaped up, thick and rising. The chapter's 紀 name for it is 廣化, the widening transformation, answering 減化 which is what a short earth's 紀 is called.
Shuowen: **「敦阜」本篇2見：一在「土曰敦阜」，一在「敦阜之紀」**；**《說文》：阜，大陸也，山無石者；敦，厚也**；**「廣化」本篇1見，即敦阜之紀之名**；**「厚德清靜」本篇1見、「煙埃朦鬱」本篇1見，皆敦阜之文**；**「其藏脾、腎」本篇1見，土太過兼及所勝之水**

In brief

Earth going to excess. 土曰敦阜 — earth is called mounded height — and its 紀 is 廣化: 敦阜之紀，是謂廣化，厚德清靜，順長以盈，至陰内實，物化充成，煙埃朦鬱，見於厚土，大雨時行，濕氣乃用，燥政乃辟. Thick virtue at rest, growing followed to fullness, the utmost yin solid within, the world’s transformations brought to completion, mist and dust shrouding the thick earth, the great rain falling in its season, the damp qi employed and the dry governance pushed aside. Its attributes: 其化圓，其氣豐，其政靜，其令周備…其象長夏，其經足太陰、陽明，其藏脾、腎…其病腹滿，四支不舉，大風迅至，邪傷脾也. The excess of earth shows as fullness — a full belly, four limbs that will not lift — and it too is told as plenty before it is told as trouble. Its viscera are spleen and kidney, the earth and the water it overcomes.

Senses in the classical corpus

The graph 敦阜

敦者厚也，阜者大陸也

土曰敦阜 — Suwen 70

Its 紀 name 廣化

廣者大也，化者土之事，土盛則化廣

敦阜之紀，是謂廣化 — Suwen 70

Its opening 厚德清靜，順長以盈

德厚而靜，順長氣以至盈

厚德清靜，順長以盈 — Suwen 70

Its weather 煙埃朦鬱，見於厚土，大雨時行

塵霧蒙鬱，大雨以時

煙埃朦鬱，見於厚土 — Suwen 70

Its paired viscera 其藏脾、腎

土太過則兼及所勝之水

其藏脾、腎 — Suwen 70

What it brings 其病腹滿，四支不舉

土盛則滿，滿則四支不舉

其病腹滿，四支不舉 — 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 →

敦阜之紀，是謂廣化，厚德清靜，順長以盈，至陰内實，物化充成，煙埃朦鬱，見於厚土，大雨時行，濕氣乃用，燥政乃辟，其化圓，其氣豐，其政靜，其令周備，其動濡積并蓄，其德柔潤重淖，其變震驚、飄驟、崩潰，其榖稷、麻，其畜牛、犬，其果棗、李，其色黅、𤣥、蒼，其味甘、鹹、酸，其象長夏，其經足太陰、陽明，其藏脾、腎，其蟲倮毛，其物肌核，其病腹滿，四支不舉，大風迅至，邪傷脾也。敦阜之纪，是谓广化，厚德清静，顺长以盈，至阴内实，物化充成，烟埃朦郁，见于厚土，大雨时行，湿气乃用，燥政乃辟，其化圆，其气丰，其政静，其令周备，其动濡积并蓄，其德柔润重淖，其变震惊、飘骤、崩溃，其谷稷、麻，其畜牛、犬，其果枣、李，其色黅、𤣥、苍，其味甘、咸、酸，其象长夏，其经足太阴、阳明，其藏脾、肾，其虫倮毛，其物肌核，其病腹满，四支不举，大风迅至，邪伤脾也。

Dūn fù zhī jì, shì wèi guǎng huà, hòu dé qīng jìng, shùn zhǎng yǐ yíng, zhì yīn nèi shí, wù huà chōng chéng, yān āi méng yù, xiàn yú hòu tǔ, dà yǔ shí xíng, shī qì nǎi yòng, zào zhèng nǎi bì, qí huà yuán, qí qì fēng, qí zhèng jìng, qí lìng zhōu bèi, qí dòng rú jī bìng xù, qí dé róu rùn zhòng nào, qí biàn zhèn jīng, piāo zhòu, bēng kuì, qí gǔ jì, má, qí chù niú, quǎn, qí guǒ zǎo, lǐ, qí sè jīn, xuán, cāng, qí wèi gān, xián, suān, qí xiàng zhǎng xià, qí jīng zú tài yīn, yáng míng, qí zàng pí, shèn, qí chóng luǒ máo, qí wù jī hé, qí bìng fù mǎn, sì zhī bù jǔ, dà fēng xùn zhì, xié shāng pí yě.

The era of Mounded Height is called widened transformation: its thick virtue is clear and still, it follows growth and fills, the utmost yin is full within, and beings are transformed and brought to fullness; smoke and dust are murky and pent up and appear upon the thick earth; great rain moves in its season, the damp qi comes into use and the governance of dryness is turned aside. Its transformation round, its qi abundant, its governance still, its command complete all round, its movement dampness accumulating and gathering together, its virtue soft, moist, heavy and muddy, its change thunder-shaking, wind-driven rain and collapse, its grain panicled millet and hemp, its domestic animal the ox and the dog, its fruit the jujube and the plum, its colour yellow, black and blue-green, its flavour sweet, salty and sour, its image late summer, its channels the foot greater yin and yang brightness, its viscera the spleen and kidney, its creature the naked and the hairy, its thing flesh and pit, its illness abdominal fullness and limbs that cannot be raised. A great wind comes swiftly and evil injures the spleen.

**「敦阜」本篇2見：一在「土曰敦阜」，一在「敦阜之紀」**；**此段以「廣化」名其紀，「厚德清靜，順長以盈」為其開端**；**「煙埃朦鬱，見於厚土，大雨時行」為太陰濕土之象最備者**；**五太過之藏皆二，「其藏脾、腎」本篇1見；末「大風迅至，邪傷脾也」**

Compounds built on this term

備化

bèi huà

complete transformation

本篇2見；土之平氣，與敦阜對

卑監

bēi jiān

low confinement

本篇2見；土不及之名，其紀曰減化

廣化

guǎng huà

the widening transformation

本篇1見；敦阜之紀之名，與減化相對

其藏脾、腎

qí zàng pí shèn

its viscera the spleen and kidney

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	mounded height	earth heaped and rising; the rendering answers 卑監, which is the same earth sunk below its charge
Transliteration	dun fu	right about the referent, and it explains nothing about thickness or height
Descriptive	earth going to excess	exact, and it loses the figure of the mound that makes the name answer 卑

Entry status

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2026-10-13

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