zhōu bì
Also rendered: Circulating bi (keeps the name and the sense) · All-round obstruction (literal, and it is clumsy) · Migratory bi (clinical, and it is the later term)
Reviewed · 2026-10-25
At a glance
The obstruction that travels. The chapter opens by describing a pain that shifts up and down with the vessels, left answering right, and Qibo answers that this is 衆痺, not 周痺; the true 周痺 lies in the blood vessels, goes up and down with them, and cannot cross from side to side, each attack keeping to its place. The naming is given at the close: it is not in the depots, it has not come out to the skin, it sits alone between the flesh and the sinews, and true qi cannot go all round — therefore it is called circulating. Needling follows the direction of the pain: below first if it travels down, above first if it travels up.
Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.
Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.
| This site | circulating bi | the text's own gloss |
| Literal | all-round obstruction | exact, and it is heavy |
| Clinical | migratory vessel bi | clear, and it is an interpretation |
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