zhōng zhèng zhī guān
Also rendered: office of the arbiter (中正 as arbitration) · office of the upright judge (Keeps 正 as uprightness)
Reviewed · 2026-09
At a glance
The gallbladder’s office. What issues from it is 決斷 — the decision itself. 王冰：「剛正果決，故官為中正。」The impartiality here is not a moral virtue but the character of a verdict: the gallbladder is where weighing ends and something is settled. It is the smallest of the twelve in bulk and the one that decides.
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.
| Common English | office of the arbiter / the deciding official | Both are used; arbiter suggests two parties in dispute, which the body does not have. |
| This site | office of the impartial judge | 中正 in this chapter is a verdict and not a virtue. Judge names the act, impartial carries 中, and the gloss says plainly that what issues is the settling of something, not goodness. |
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