Classica Sinica Medica

失精

shī jīng

The loss of essence · shi jing

Also rendered: Essence spent (keeps the loss, and suggests a spending the chapter does not name) · Jing lost (precise for the term, and it leaves the sentence in Chinese)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-10-17

At a glance

Pinyin
shī jīng
Simplified
失精
Literal
失 shī — to lose what one had, and to lose it past recovering; 精 jīng — the stored, refined reserve. Where 脱營 is the camp slipping away, 失精 is the reserve itself gone.
Shuowen
《說文》：失，縱也，謂去而不可復；精，擇也，引申為精華。「失精」本篇1見；「精」字6見：「氣虚無精」「名曰失精」「皆傷精氣」「精氣竭絶」「精華日脱」「精神内傷」。王冰注「嘗富後貧，謂之失精」，與脱營對舉，一傷精，一傷營。

In brief

The second of the two ills that have no outside cause. A man was once rich and has since grown poor; no evil has struck him, and yet it is called 失精, the loss of essence. The pairing with 脱營 is exact: 脱營 takes the camp, 失精 takes the essence, and together they cover the two things a body keeps in reserve. What follows in the text is common to both — the five qi linger and stay, the illness finds something to join, the body dwindles, the qi is deficient and without essence, the illness runs deep and there is no qi, and the man is chilled and startled. The physician who does not ask this history will look for the illness in the viscera and find nothing there, which is the first of the five errors.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
Illness from lost wealth 名曰失精
嘗富後貧，雖不傷邪
Once rich and afterward poor, though no pathogen has struck.
嘗富後貧，名曰失精 — 素問·疏五過論
2
What is lost 精
精者身之本，富貴失之則精隨而耗
Essence is the root of the body; losing wealth and rank, the essence is spent with them.
名曰失精 — 素問·疏五過論
3
Its partner 名曰脱營
脱營傷營，失精傷精
Draining the camp harms the camp; losing essence harms the essence.
必問嘗貴後賤 — 素問·疏五過論
4
What follows it 五氣留連，病有所并
精失則五藏之氣留連而不行
When essence is lost, the qi of the five viscera stalls and does not move.
五氣留連 — 素問·疏五過論
5
Where it ends 氣虚無精，病深無氣
精竭則氣亦隨盡
When essence is exhausted, qi runs out with it.
氣虚無精 — 素問·疏五過論

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
素問·疏五過論 Read in context →
帝曰：凡未診病者，必問嘗貴後賤，雖不中邪，病從内生，名曰脱營。嘗富後貧，名曰失精。五氣留連，病有所并。醫工診之，不在藏府，不變軀形，診之而疑，不知病名。 帝曰：凡未诊病者，必问尝贵后贱，虽不中邪，病从内生，名曰脱营。尝富后贫，名曰失精。五气留连，病有所并。医工诊之，不在藏府，不变躯形，诊之而疑，不知病名。
Dì yuē: fán wèi zhěn bìng zhě, bì wèn cháng guì hòu jiàn, suī bù zhòng xié, bìng cóng nèi shēng, míng yuē tuō yíng. Cháng fù hòu pín, míng yuē shī jīng. Wǔ qì liú lián, bìng yǒu suǒ bìng. Yī gōng zhěn zhī, bù zài zàng fǔ, bù biàn qū xíng, zhěn zhī ér yí, bù zhī bìng míng.
Huang Di said: In every case, before the illness is diagnosed, one must ask whether a man was once honoured and has since fallen low; though no evil has struck him, the illness is born from within, and it is called the camp draining away. One who was once rich and has since grown poor: this is called the loss of essence. The five qi linger and stay, and the illness finds something to join. The physician examines him: the illness is not in the viscera and receptacles, nor has the bodily form changed; he examines and doubts, and does not know the name of the illness.
「失精」本篇1見，與「脱營」同段而對舉；「嘗貴後賤」與「嘗富後貧」二句，句式一律，是篇中對文之法；「精」字6見，此為第二見。

Compounds built on this term

失精
shī jīng
loss of essence
本篇一見
精氣
jīng qì
essence qi
精失則氣亦不足
脱營
tuō yíng
the camp draining away
二者對舉，另立一目
嘗富後貧
cháng fù hòu pín
once rich, later poor
失精之因

How it has been translated

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

This sitethe loss of essencekeeps the pair with the camp draining away
Literallosing the refinedexact, and clumsy
Clinicaldepletion after lost fortuneclear, and it turns a name into a cause

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-17

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