Classica Sinica Medica

食飲有節 简体 食饮有节

shí yǐn yǒu jié

Eating and drinking with measure

Cultivation

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
shí yǐn yǒu jié
Simplified
食饮有节
Literal
Eating and drinking having a measure — a limit, a rhythm.

In brief

The first of Suwen 1’s three ordinaries. 節 is a joint in bamboo, hence a measure and a limit: not abstinence but a bounded practice.

節 is a bamboo node — the places where a stem is divided. From that comes both “measure” and “restraint”, and the word is doing both jobs here: food has a portion and a time.

The chapter sets it against the very next clause in the modern counter-example: taking wine for water, entering the bedchamber drunk. Excess in drink is the first thing named.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
Measured intake 食飲有節
Eating and drinking by a limit and a rhythm
食飲有節 — Suwen 1

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
3 passages
Huangdi Neijing · Suwen Suwen 1 · On Innate Vitality in Antiquity Read in context →
食飲有節，起居有常，不妄作勞 食饮有节，起居有常，不妄作劳
shí yǐn yǒu jié, qǐ jū yǒu cháng, bù wàng zuò láo
They ate and drank with measure, rose and rested with regularity, and did not labour recklessly.
Diet comes first in the list.
Huangdi Neijing · Suwen Suwen 1 · On Innate Vitality in Antiquity Read in context →
以酒為漿，以妄為常，醉以入房 以酒为浆，以妄为常，醉以入房
yǐ jiǔ wéi jiāng, yǐ wàng wéi cháng, zuì yǐ rù fáng
They take wine for water, take recklessness for the norm, enter the bedchamber drunk.
The counter-picture: 常 has been replaced by 妄.
素問·上古天真論 Suwen 1 · 上古天真論 Read in context →
歧伯對曰：上古之人，其知道者，法於陰陽，和於術數，食飲有節，起居有常，不妄作勞，故能形與神俱，而盡終其天年，度百歲乃去。 歧伯对曰：上古之人，其知道者，法于阴阳，和于术数，食饮有节，起居有常，不妄作劳，故能形与神俱，而尽终其天年，度百岁乃去。
Qí Bó duì yuē: shàng gǔ zhī rén, qí zhī dào zhě, fǎ yú yīn yáng, hé yú shù shù, shí yǐn yǒu jié, qǐ jū yǒu cháng, bù wàng zuò láo, gù néng xíng yǔ shén jù, ér jìn zhōng qí tiān nián, dù bǎi suì nǎi qù.
Qi Bo answered: among the people of high antiquity, those who knew the way took yin and yang as their law and kept themselves in accord with the computed arts; they ate and drank with measure and rose and rested with regularity; they did not labour recklessly. So they were able to keep form and spirit together and come to the end of the years allotted them, passing their hundred before they went.
「食飲有節」——與下文起居有常一例，皆上古知道者之事；**「食飲」本篇1見**

Compounds built on this term

節
jié
node, measure, limit
The operative word
飲食
yǐn shí
food and drink
The reversed compound, more usual in modern Chinese

How it has been translated

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

This siteeating and drinking with measureKeeps 節 as measure, not abstinence.
Common Englishmoderate dietAccurate, and loses the rhythm sense.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

Search the glossary

Reading paths

This term is read in context on:

See all reading paths