三焦

sān jiāo

The triple burner

Also rendered: the triple burner (The established rendering) · the three burners (Plural; loses the sense of one thing with three parts) · triple heater (Older alternative, now rare)

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
sān jiāo
Simplified
三焦
Literal
三 three; 焦 the burnt, the scorched, also the part of the body that does the cooking. Suwen 8 names it by what it does — the office that opens the channels, and the waterways come out of it — and Suwen 11 places it among the five that discharge and do not store.
Shuowen
《說文解字》:三,天地人之道也;焦,火所傷也(醫書中借為人身布氣化水之部)。第八篇王冰注:「決瀆,謂開決水道也。」

In brief

Named twice in the Suwen and described the same way both times: it belongs to whatever passes through. In chapter 8 it is the office that opens the channels and from which the waterways emerge; in chapter 11 it is one of the five born of heaven, discharging and not storing. Later writers argued for centuries about whether it has a shape. This chapter takes no position, because it sorts by behaviour and needs only that verdict.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
One of the five that discharge 三焦
Listed between the small intestine and the bladder
夫胃、大腸、小腸、三焦、膀胱,此五者,天氣之所生也 — Suwen 11
2
The office that opens the channels 決瀆之官
Suwen 8's name for it; 王冰:決瀆,謂開決水道
三焦者,決瀆之官,水道出焉 — Suwen 8
3
Born of heaven 其氣象天
Its qi images heaven — it does not stop
此五者,天氣之所生也,其氣象天,故冩而不藏 — Suwen 11
4
The shape it does not have 有形無形之爭
Later controversy; this chapter needs only the verdict on storing and discharging
— — later controversy

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
4 passages
素問·五藏别論 Suwen 11 · 五藏别論 Read in context →
夫胃、大腸、小腸、三焦、膀胱,此五者,天氣之所生也,其氣象天,故冩而不藏。此受五藏濁氣,名曰傳化之府。 夫胃、大肠、小肠、三焦、膀胱,此五者,天气之所生也,其气象天,故写而不藏。此受五藏浊气,名曰传化之府。
fú wèi, dà cháng, xiǎo cháng, sān jiāo, páng guāng, cǐ wǔ zhě, tiān qì zhī suǒ shēng yě, qí qì xiàng tiān, gù xiě ér bù cáng. cǐ shòu wǔ zàng zhuó qì, míng yuē chuán huà zhī fǔ.
Now stomach, large intestine, small intestine, triple burner and bladder — these five are born of the qi of heaven; their qi images heaven, and therefore they discharge and do not store. They receive the turbid qi of the five storing organs. They are named the palaces of transmission and transformation.
本篇列三焦於胃、大腸、小腸、膀胱之間,同屬天氣所生、寫而不藏者。第八篇「三焦者,決瀆之官,水道出焉」,王冰注「決瀆,謂開決水道也」,與本篇之義相發。
素問·宣明五氣 Suwen 23 · 宣明五氣 Read in context →
五氣所病:心爲噫,肺爲欬,肝爲語,脾爲吞,腎爲欠,爲嚏,胃爲氣逆,爲噦、爲恐,大腸小腸爲泄,下焦溢爲水,膀胱不利爲癃,不約爲遺溺,膽爲怒,是謂五病。 五气所病:心为噫,肺为欬,肝为语,脾为吞,肾为欠,为嚏,胃为气逆,为哕、为恐,大肠小肠为泄,下焦溢为水,膀胱不利为癃,不约为遗溺,胆为怒,是谓五病。
Wǔ qì suǒ bìng: xīn wéi ài, fèi wéi kài, gān wéi yǔ, pí wéi tūn, shèn wéi qiàn, wéi tì, wèi wéi qì nì, wéi yuě, wéi kǒng, dà cháng xiǎo cháng wéi xiè, xià jiāo yì wéi shuǐ, bǎng guāng bù lì wéi lóng, bù yuē wéi yí niào, dǎn wéi nù, shì wèi wǔ bìng.
The disorders proper to the five qi: in the heart, belching; in the lung, coughing; in the liver, talking; in the spleen, swallowing; in the kidney, yawning and sneezing; in the stomach, counterflow qi, retching and fear; in the large and small intestine, diarrhoea; when the lower burner overflows, water; when the bladder is impeded, dribbling obstruction; when it is no longer held, urine passed unawares; in the gallbladder, anger. This is called the five disorders.
「下焦溢爲水」:本篇三焦之義,止見「下焦」一目,而與胃、大小腸、膀胱、膽同列於「五氣所病」之中——下焦為水道之出路,溢則為水腫。與第八篇「決瀆之官,水道出焉」、第十一篇六府之論、第二十一篇「通調水道,下輸膀胱」者同條而義別:彼論三焦之職與水道之行,本篇則徑以其病為目:溢則為水,不利則為癃——一論其用,一言其病。
素問·欬論 Suwen 38 · 欬論 Read in context →
久欬不已,則三焦受之,三焦欬狀,欬而腹滿,不欲食飲。 久咳不已,则三焦受之,三焦咳状,咳而腹满,不欲食饮。
Jiǔ kài bù yǐ, zé sān jiāo shòu zhī, sān jiāo kài zhuàng, kài ér fù mǎn, bù yù shí yǐn.
When a long cough does not end, the triple burner takes it; in triple burner cough he coughs with a full belly and no wish for food or drink.
「三焦」之目於本站已立(id 437),所收二條:第十一篇「夫胃、大腸、小腸、三焦、膀胱,此五者,天氣之所生也」、第二十三篇「下焦溢為水」。**本篇「三焦」2見,在六府之欬的第六目「久欬不已,則三焦受之,三焦欬狀,欬而腹滿,不欲食飲」**——**是本站此目之第三條,亦《素問》言「三焦欬」之唯一一處**。「三」讀 sān,本篇2見;「焦」讀 jiāo,本篇2見;「久」讀 jiǔ;「欬」讀 kài;「不」讀 bù;「已」讀 yǐ,**本篇6見**——**不作「己」(「己」),亦不作「巳」(「巳」)**;「則」讀 zé;「受」讀 shòu,本篇15見;「腹」讀 fù,本篇惟此一見;「滿」讀 mǎn,本篇2見;「欲」讀 yù,本篇惟此一見;「食」讀 shí;「飲」讀 yǐn。**三焦之欬不同於前五府**:**前五府皆由五藏之欬移來,各有其相合之藏**;**三焦無所配,故不曰「某欬不已」而曰「久欬不已」**——**欬之最久者乃入三焦,此六府之欬之殿**。**「欬而腹滿,不欲食飲」二句已伏下文「此皆聚於胃」之義**:**三焦欬而腹滿不欲食,與諸欬之聚於胃,其歸一也**。
素問·金匱真言論 Suwen 4 · 金匱真言論 Read in context →
肝、心、脾、肺、腎五藏皆爲陰,膽、胃、大腸、小腸、膀胱、三焦六府皆爲陽。 肝、心、脾、肺、肾五藏皆为阴,胆、胃、大肠、小肠、膀胱、三焦六府皆为阳。
gān, xīn, pí, fèi, shèn wǔ zàng jiē wéi yīn, dǎn, wèi, dà cháng, xiǎo cháng, páng guāng, sān jiāo liù fǔ jiē wéi yáng.
The five viscera — liver, heart, spleen, lung and kidney — are all yin. The six hollow organs — gallbladder, stomach, large intestine, small intestine, bladder and triple burner — are all yang.
「三焦六府皆爲陽」——六府之末,與第八篇「決瀆之官,水道出焉」之說相承;**「三焦」本篇1見**

Compounds built on this term

焦
jiāo
scorched; the cooking region
說文:火所傷也
決瀆之官
jué dú zhī guān
the office that opens the channels
Suwen 8's name for it
水道
shuǐ dào
the waterways
What comes out of it, per Suwen 8
上中下三焦
shàng zhōng xià sān jiāo
the three burners
Later division of the one name

How it has been translated

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

Common Englishtriple burner / sanjiaoBoth are standard; burner is the older established form and heater has largely dropped away.
This sitetriple burnerKept the established form. It is a strange rendering for a thing that does not burn, but it is the one readers will meet everywhere else, and the alternative — leaving it as sanjiao — would put an untranslated term in the middle of a sentence that is otherwise plain English.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

Guided routes through the corpus, each built on a handful of chapters and their key terms.

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