Classica Sinica Medica

十二盛

shí èr shèng

The twelve repletions · shi er sheng

Also rendered: The twelve repletions (keeps 盛 as fullness) · The twelve excesses (plainer, and it loses the note of height) · The twelve full conditions (clinical, and it is clumsy)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-10-25

At a glance

Pinyin
shí èr shèng
Simplified
十二盛
Literal
十二 shí èr — twelve; 盛 shèng — full, at its height, and here not a compliment but a diagnosis. The tally counts conditions of excess, not organs.
Shuowen
《說文》：盛，黍稷在器中以祀者也。引申為盈滿。「十二盛」本篇1見，合陰陽上下饑飽七條與五藏氣盛五條，適得十二之數。

In brief

The chapter’s first tally, and the one that turns dream imagery into a table. Seven of the twelve come from the general pairings: yin in excess dreams of crossing great water and is afraid, yang of great fire and burning, both together of killing; excess above dreams of flying, below of falling, great hunger of taking, great repletion of giving. Five more come from the viscera in excess — anger, terror and weeping, laughing and dread, song with a heavy body, a spine coming apart — and with them the list is closed. The rule that ends it is therapeutic: when the excess arrives, drain it and the dream stops at once. The dream is therefore not a message about the future but a report of which part is overfull, to be read with the pulse rather than instead of it.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The tally 凡此十二盛者
凡此十二盛者
These are the twelve repletions.
凡此十二盛者 — 靈樞·淫邪發夢
2
Yin in excess 陰氣盛，則夢涉大水而恐懼
阴气盛，就梦见涉大水而恐惧
When yin qi is in excess he dreams of crossing great water and is afraid.
陰氣盛，則夢涉大水而恐懼 — 靈樞·淫邪發夢
3
Yang in excess 陽氣盛，則夢大火而燔爇
阳气盛，就梦见大火燃烧
When yang qi is in excess he dreams of great fire burning.
陽氣盛，則夢大火而燔爇 — 靈樞·淫邪發夢
4
The treatment 至而寫之立已
邪至就泻之，立刻痊愈
When it arrives, drain it and it stops at once.
至而寫之立已 — 靈樞·淫邪發夢

Occurrences in the classics

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

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1 passages
靈樞·淫邪發夢 Read in context →
肝氣盛，則夢怒；肺氣盛，則夢恐懼哭泣飛揚；心氣盛，則夢善笑恐畏；脾氣盛，則夢歌樂，身體重不舉；腎氣盛，則夢腰脊兩解不屬。凡此十二盛者，至而寫之立已。 肝气盛，则梦怒；肺气盛，则梦恐惧哭泣飞扬；心气盛，则梦善笑恐畏；脾气盛，则梦歌乐，身体重不举；肾气盛，则梦腰脊两解不属。凡此十二盛者，至而写之立已。
gān qì shèng, zé mèng nù; fèi qì shèng, zé mèng kǒng jù kū qì fēi yáng; xīn qì shèng, zé mèng shàn xiào kǒng wèi; pí qì shèng, zé mèng gē yuè, shēn tǐ zhòng bù jǔ; shèn qì shèng, zé mèng yāo jǐ liǎng jiě bù shǔ. fán cǐ shí èr shèng zhě, zhì ér xiè zhī lì yǐ.
When liver qi is abundant, one dreams of anger; when lung qi is abundant, of fear, weeping and flying; when heart qi is abundant, of laughing, fear and dread; when spleen qi is abundant, of singing and music-making, with the body heavy and unable to lift; when kidney qi is abundant, of the loins and spine splitting apart and no longer joined. In these twelve abundances, when the condition arrives, drain it, and it stops at once.
「十二盛」本篇1見，合上段陰陽上下饑飽七條與此段五藏五條為十二，末以寫法收之。

Compounds built on this term

夢涉大水
mèng shè dà shuǐ
dreaming of crossing great water
陰盛之夢
五藏氣盛
wǔ zàng qì shèng
the five viscera in excess
十二盛之後五條

How it has been translated

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

This sitethe twelve repletionsthe text's own count
Literaltwelve fullnessesexact, and it reads oddly in English
Clinicalthe twelve excess patternsclear, and it is an interpretation

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-25

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Reading path

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