Classica Sinica Medica

司化之常

sī huà zhī cháng

What is regular in the office · si hua zhi chang

Also rendered: What is regular in the office (this site; 司 as the charge a qi holds in a place) · The regularity of the office (closer to the grammar; it loses the sense that each qi holds one)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-10-14

At a glance

Pinyin
sī huà zhī cháng
Simplified
司化之常
Literal
What is regular in the office a qi holds. 司 sī — to have charge of; 化 huà — transformation; 之常 — what is regular. The second of the eight categories: not what a qi does to the body or the weather, but the office it occupies while it is there — 太陽所至爲寒府，爲歸藏.
Shuowen
**「司化之常」本篇1見，止在此段之末**；**其句曰「太陽所至爲寒府，爲歸藏，司化之常也」**；**「司」本篇15見，多作「司天」，作「司化」者止此**；**前段為時化之常，後段為氣化之常，三者相次**

In brief

The second of the eight categories. Its paragraph gives each qi a place, not a quality: 厥陰所至爲風府，爲璺啓；少陰所至爲火府，爲舒榮；太陰所至爲雨府，爲員盈；少陽所至爲熱府，爲行出；陽明所至爲司殺府，爲庚蒼；太陽所至爲寒府，爲歸藏，司化之常也. Six 府, six conditions that follow from the office — the wind’s place and its breaking open, the cold’s place and its storing away. The word 司 is the chapter’s own: it uses it of the year’s governing qi (司天) and of the 運 (司氣), and here of each qi’s charge over a place in the body’s weather.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The phrase 司化之常
六氣各有所司之位
司化之常也 — Suwen 71
2
Its six 府 風府、火府、雨府、熱府、司殺府、寒府
六氣各繫一府
爲寒府，爲歸藏 — Suwen 71
3
The second word 爲璺啓、爲舒榮、爲員盈
各以其府之動言
爲璺啓 — Suwen 71
4
Its place 十三段之第二段
承時化之常而列
司化之常也 — Suwen 71
5
司 in this chapter 司天、司氣、司化
一語三用，皆主其事
凡此厥陰司天之政 — Suwen 71
6
Its sum 凡此十二變者
八常俱在十二變之内
報化以化 — Suwen 71

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
Suwen 71 Suwen 71 · 六元正紀大論 Read in context →
厥陰所至爲風府，爲璺啓；少陰所至爲火府，爲舒榮；太陰所至爲雨府，爲員盈；少陽所至爲熱府，爲行出；陽明所至爲司殺府，爲庚蒼；太陽所至爲寒府，爲歸藏，司化之常也。 厥阴所至为风府，为璺启；少阴所至为火府，为舒荣；太阴所至为雨府，为员盈；少阳所至为热府，为行出；阳明所至为司杀府，为庚苍；太阳所至为寒府，为归藏，司化之常也。
Jué yīn suǒ zhì wéi fēng fǔ, wéi wèn qǐ; shào yīn suǒ zhì wéi huǒ fǔ, wéi shū róng; tài yīn suǒ zhì wéi yǔ fǔ, wéi yuán yíng; shào yáng suǒ zhì wéi rè fǔ, wéi xíng chū; yáng míng suǒ zhì wéi sī shā fǔ, wéi gēng cāng; tài yáng suǒ zhì wéi hán fǔ, wéi guī cáng, sī huà zhī cháng yě.
Where ceasing yin arrives it is the storehouse of wind and the opening of cracks; where lesser yin arrives, the storehouse of fire and the spreading of flourishing; where greater yin arrives, the storehouse of rain and round fullness; where lesser yang arrives, the storehouse of heat and the putting forth of movement; where yang brightness arrives, the storehouse of the office of killing and the changing to pale; where greater yang arrives, the storehouse of cold and the returning to storage — the constant of the government of transformation.
**「司化之常」本篇1見，即此段之末**；**此段以風府、火府、雨府、熱府、司殺府、寒府六者分繫六氣，而以司化之常總之**；**「風府」在此為六氣所司之位，與《熱論》督脉穴名之風府同名異實**

Compounds built on this term

時化之常
shí huà zhī cháng
what is regular in the season's transformation
本篇一見；十三段之首
氣化之常
qì huà zhī cháng
what is regular in the qi's transformation
本篇一見；十三段之第三
風府
fēng fǔ
the wind's palace
本篇一見；本站另有穴名「風府」，義別
歸藏
guī cáng
storing away
本篇一見；太陽所至，萬物歸藏

How it has been translated

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

This sitewhat is regular in the officethe second of the eight closing categories, kept distinct from 時化 and 氣化
Literaloffice transformation's regularityexact and unreadable
Glossthe place each qi occupies and what follows from itright, and long

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-14

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