Classica Sinica Medica

瘈瘲

chì zòng

Spasm and slackening · chi zong

Also rendered: spasm and slackening (Keeps both halves of the compound) · convulsion (Clinical; collapses the pair into one) · twitching (Too mild for a terminal sign)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
chì zòng
Simplified
瘈瘲
Literal
瘈 of a dog gone mad, and so of a body that will not hold still (《說文》 takes it as the mad-dog character; 瘛 is the childhood illness); 瘲 a jerking, failing gait (《說文》: 病也). Together the pair is the pulling and the letting go.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：瘈，狂犬也（段注：引申為瘈瘲、抽搐；醫籍音 chì）；瘲，病也（段注：瘈瘲，謂筋脈急縱相引）。

In brief

The chapter’s word for what the body does when the greater yang ends: 戴眼、反折、瘈瘲 — eyes up, spine arched, and this. The two characters are a pair and the pair is the point: 瘈 is the contraction, 瘲 the letting go, and the condition is the two alternating. It is the earliest occurrence of a word that Chinese medicine never stopped using.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
Spasm and slackening together 瘈瘲
筋脈急縱相引，手足抽掣
太陽之脉，其終也，戴眼、反折、瘈瘲 — Suwen 16
2
Two halves, contraction and release 瘈、瘲
瘈為急、為收引；瘲為縱、為弛縱
瘈瘲 — Suwen 16
3
Its company at the end of greater yang 戴眼、反折
目上視、身反折與之並見
戴眼、反折、瘈瘲 — Suwen 16

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
素問·診要經終論 Suwen 16 · 診要經終論 Read in context →
歧伯曰：太陽之脉，其終也，戴眼、反折、瘈瘲，其色白，絶汗乃出，出則死矣。 岐伯曰：太阳之脉，其终也，戴眼、反折、瘈瘲，其色白，绝汗乃出，出则死矣。
qí bó yuē: tài yáng zhī mài, qí zhōng yě, dài yǎn, fǎn zhé, chì zòng, qí sè bái, jué hàn nǎi chū, chū zé sǐ yǐ.
Qibo says: When the greater yang channel ends, the eyes are rolled up, the body arches backward, there is twitching and spasm, the colour is white, and the final sweat comes out; once it comes out, death follows.
本篇「太陽之脉，其終也，戴眼、反折、瘈瘲，其色白，絶汗乃出，出則死矣」。瘈音 chì，瘲音 zòng；瘈瘲謂筋脈急縱相引、手足抽掣。二字相對：瘈為急而收引，瘲為縱而弛縱。

Compounds built on this term

瘈
chì
contraction, spasm
說文作狂犬義；醫籍音 chì
瘲
zòng
slackening, jerking
說文：病也
戴眼
dài yǎn
the upturned eyes
本篇太陽終之候
反折
fǎn zhé
arched-back reversal
本篇太陽終之候
太陽
tài yáng
greater yang
本篇「太陽之脉，其終也」

How it has been translated

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

Common Englishconvulsion, or spasmMost renderings collapse the pair into a single word.
This sitespasm and slackeningThe compound is two characters describing two opposite movements, and 瘲 is the release, not the contraction — it is the same 縱 that means letting go. Convulsion loses the second half, and the second half is what makes the pair a description of a body that cannot settle rather than one that is merely tight.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

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