Fingering clothes and groping the bed · xun yi mo chuang

Also rendered: Fingering clothes and groping the bed (This site) · Picking at clothes and feeling the bed (Clinical) · Plucking at the garments (Loose)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-10-31

At a glance

Pinyin: xún yī mō chuáng
Simplified: 循衣摸床
Literal: 循 xún is to go along with the hand, to run the fingers over a surface; 衣 yī is clothing; 摸 mō is to feel for something in the dark, to grope; 牀 chuáng is the bed, written 床 in the modern form. Four verbs of blind touch, strung together, describe not a deliberate act but an involuntary one: the hand travels over the coverlet and the bed frame because the spirit no longer knows where it is.
Shuowen: **《說文》：「循，行也。」「牀，安身之坐者。」** 摸爲後起字，以手捫索曰摸。**六至十篇二見，用字不同**：第六篇行258 作「捻衣摸牀」（火劫發黄條），第八篇行532 作「循衣摸牀」；依底本各存其字，不并轨。**《傷寒論》以此爲神昏之候**，與「惕而不安、微喘直視」並見，故下文以脉弦、脉濇分生死。

In brief

A sign, not an action: the hand keeps travelling over the clothes and groping at the bed, without purpose and without pause. It belongs to the deepest stage of yang brightness repletion, where dry stool has formed, the fever rises at late afternoon, and the patient talks to himself as if seeing ghosts; in the severe form he no longer recognises people, and the fingers go on moving while the breath is short and the eyes stare straight. The chapter weighs life and death by the pulse at that point — a string-like pulse lives, a rough one dies. The same gesture appears in the chapter on fire treatment, written 捻衣摸牀, where it follows delirium and precedes hiccough; the two are one sign under two graphs.

Senses in the classical corpus

燥屎神昏循衣摸牀

吐下後不解，潮熱獨語，劇則不識人而循衣摸牀、惕而不安、微喘直視；脉弦者生，濇者死

Unresolved after emesis and purging, with tide-like fever and solitary speech; in the severe form the patient does not know people, fingers his clothes and gropes the bed, is frightened and unsettled, short of breath and staring. A string-like pulse lives; a rough one dies.

若劇者，發則不識人，循衣摸牀，惕而不安，微喘直視，脉弦者生，濇者死，微者但發熱。 — 辨陽明病脉證并治第八

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

辨陽明病脉證并治第八·辨陽明病脉證并治第八 Read in context →

傷寒若吐若下後不解，不大便五六日，上至十餘日，日晡所發潮熱，不惡寒，獨語如見鬼狀。若劇者，發則不識人，循衣摸牀，惕而不安，微喘直視，脉弦者生，濇者死，微者但發熱。讝語者，大承氣湯主之。若一服利，止後服。伤寒若吐若下后不解，不大便五六日，上至十余日，日晡所发潮热，不恶寒，独语如见鬼状。若剧者，发则不识人，循衣摸床，惕而不安，微喘直视，脉弦者生，涩者死，微者但发热。讝语者，大承气汤主之。若一服利，止后服。

shāng hán ruò tǔ ruò xià hòu bù jiě bù dà biàn wǔ liù rì shàng zhì shí yú rì rì bū suǒ fā cháo rè bù wù hán dú yǔ rú jiàn guǐ zhuàng ruò jù zhě fā zé bù shí rén xún yī mō chuáng tì ér bù ān wēi chuǎn zhí shì mài xián zhě shēng sè zhě sǐ wēi zhě dàn fā rè zhān yǔ zhě dà chéng qì tāng zhǔ zhī ruò yī fú lì zhǐ hòu fú

When cold damage is not resolved after vomiting or purging, with no stool for five or six days up to more than ten, tidal fever at the hour of the late afternoon, no aversion to cold, and soliloquy as if seeing ghosts: in severe cases the attack brings loss of recognition, picking at clothes and feeling the bed, restless fear, slight panting, and fixed staring. A string-like pulse means life, a rough pulse death; in mild cases there is fever alone. With delirious speech, Major Qi-Ordering Decoction governs it; if one dose purges, the next is stopped.

循衣摸牀、惕而不安、微喘直視三候並見，已是神散之徵，故以脉之弦濇斷生死。

Compounds built on this term

循衣摸牀

xún yī mō chuáng

fingering clothes and groping the bed

辨陽明病脉證并治第八

捻衣摸牀

niǎn yī mō chuáng

plucking at clothes and groping the bed

辨太陽病脉證并治中第六

獨語如見鬼狀

dú yǔ rú jiàn guǐ zhuàng

talking alone as if seeing ghosts

辨陽明病脉證并治第八

微喘直視

wēi chuǎn zhí shì

slight panting and a fixed stare

辨陽明病脉證并治第八

How it has been translated

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

This site	fingering clothes and groping the bed	keeps all four movements
Literal	following the clothes, feeling the bed	exact, but 循 is not 'following'
Clinical	plucking at the bedclothes	idiomatic, drops the bed

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-31

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