jué shàn
Also rendered: reversal shan (Pinyin for 疝, kept) · reversal hernia (Modern anatomical reading) · inversion shan (Alternative for 厥) · rising qi shan (Explains 厥 at the cost of length)
Reviewed · 2026-09
At a glance
The yellow case, and the one that is not called an obstruction. The pulse comes large and empty; there is accumulated qi in the belly and reversal qi with it. Two details are worth keeping: the chapter says the rule is the same for women, and the cause is driving the four limbs hard and taking the wind while sweating. The word 疝 is left untranslated here — in the Inner Canon it is a painful drawing illness of the lower body, and the modern hernia is only part of it.
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 | reversal hernia / shan with counterflow qi | Splits between the modern anatomical reading and the classical one. |
| This site | reversal shan | 疝 is left untranslated, as 痺 is not: the Inner Canon's 疝 is a painful drawing illness of the lower body, of which the modern hernia is only one part, and 厥 is rendered reversal, as everywhere on this site. |
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