dà mèn
Also rendered: The great congestion (keeps the sense of a stopped chest) · Great oppression (plainer, and it suggests the spirits) · Great confusion (follows 亂, and it loses the chest)
Reviewed · 2026-10-25
At a glance
The name the chapter gives the master disorder. Clear qi belongs in the yin and turbid qi in the yang, the nutrient qi follows the vessels and the defensive runs counter to them; when clear and turbid interfere and the confusion gathers in the chest, that is the great congestion. It is not one of the five disorders but their common root — the five that follow, in heart, lung, intestine and stomach, arms and legs, and head, are the places where the confusion comes out. The patient is fretful, silent, head bowed and still, and the treatment is neither supplement nor drain but guidance, because nothing here is in excess or deficit.
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 | the great congestion | the chest is what is stopped |
| Literal | great men | exact, and the graph must be glossed |
| Clinical | acute chest qi congestion | clear, and it is an interpretation |
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