chóng yán
Also rendered: Stammering (the later sense, and it is clear) · Repeated speech (literal, and it keeps 重言) · Doubled words (vivid, and it describes the sound)
Reviewed · 2026-10-25
At a glance
Speech that doubles on itself. The chapter’s cause is mechanical: the epiglottis is large and thick, so it opens and closes with difficulty and the air comes out late, and therefore the words repeat. The contrary case is given first — a small and thin epiglottis lets the air out fast and the opening is smooth — so that the two together make the point: fluency is a matter of the valve, not of the tongue. Later practice took 重言 as the word for stammering, and its account of the cause is this passage.
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 | stammering | the condition, plainly |
| Literal | heavy speech | wrong sense of 重 |
| Clinical | stammering from a thick epiglottis | clear, and it states the cause |
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