Classica Sinica Medica

十二官

shí èr guān

The twelve offices

Also rendered: twelve organs (Smooths the metaphor away) · twelve officials (Keeps 官 literal)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
shí èr guān
Simplified
十二官
Literal
十二 twelve; 官 office, the holder of a post. The twelve that hold office in the body — what a later age would simply call the organs.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：官，吏事君也（引申為職司、職守）。篇首作「十二藏」，「藏」讀 zàng，藏、臟古今字。

In brief

The eighth chapter’s answer to the question of rank. Asked which of the body’s parts is honourable and which humble, Qibo answers with an administration: twelve offices, each defined not by what it is made of but by what issues from it. Naming them 官 rather than 藏 is the point — they are posts, and the chapter’s closing argument is about whether the ruler among them is clear. Note that 脾胃 are named together as one office while counted as two organs: eleven designations, twelve offices.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The twelve offices 十二官
The twelve organs spoken of as holders of a post, each defined by what issues from it
凡此十二官者，不得相失也 — Suwen 8
2
The twelve stores 十二藏
The same twelve, named in the opening question by what they store, before the answer renames them by office
願聞十二藏之相使，貴賤何如 — Suwen 8

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
2 passages
素問·靈蘭秘典論 Suwen 8 · 靈蘭秘典論 Read in context →
凡此十二官者，不得相失也。 凡此十二官者，不得相失也。
fán cǐ shí èr guān zhě, bù dé xiāng shī yě.
These twelve offices must not lose one another.
全篇十二官之總綱。「相失」謂各失其職守、互不應援，非謂彼此分離。下句「主明則下安」即由此生出。
素問·奇病論 Suwen 47 · 奇病論 Read in context →
治之以膽募俞，治在陰陽十二官相使中。 治之以胆募俞，治在阴阳十二官相使中。
Zhì zhī yǐ dǎn mù shù, zhì zài yīn yáng shí èr guān xiāng shǐ zhōng.
Treat it by means of the gallbladder’s alarm point and transport point; the treatment is set out in the Yin Yang Twelve Officials Serving One Another.
「治在陰陽「十」讀 shí「二」讀 èr「官」讀 guān相使中」——**本篇「十二官」1見，此在古書名《陰陽十二官相使》之內**；**本書之十二官見第八篇靈蘭秘典論，為藏府十二職之目，本篇引其書為治膽癉之據**；「使」讀 shǐ、**使讀 shǐ；相使者，十二官相為役使之義**。

Compounds built on this term

十二藏
shí èr zàng
the twelve stores
The opening form of the same list
相使
xiāng shǐ
serving one another
How the twelve stand to each other: mutually employed, not merely connected
使道
shǐ dào
the roads of service
The passages by which the offices reach one another; blocked when the ruler is not clear

How it has been translated

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

Common Englishthe twelve organsAlmost universal, and loses what the chapter is doing: the list is a hierarchy, and the argument that closes it is about rule.
This sitethe twelve offices官 kept as office keeps the metaphor visible, so that 主明則下安 reads as a claim about government and not a claim about tissue.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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