五實五虚简体五实五虚

wǔ shí wǔ xū

The five repletions and five emptinesses · wu shi wu xu

Also rendered: the five repletions and five emptinesses (Literal, and the usual rendering) · the five excesses and five deficiencies (Common alternative) · the five fullnesses and five voids (Older English, reads too mystical) · wu shi wu xu (Bare transliteration)

Core vocabulary

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: wǔ shí wǔ xū
Simplified: 五实五虚
Literal: 實 full, wealthy within (《說文》: 富也 — a house with valuables in it); 虛 empty — 說文's 虛 is 大丘, a great mound, that is, an emptied place). Five states of repletion that kill, and five of emptiness that kill.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：實，富也（段玉裁注：引申之爲草木之實）；虛，大丘也（段注：虛者，空也，引申爲凡空之稱）。

In brief

The two lists with which the chapter ends, and the surprise it leaves on. Both lists are fatal: a surging pulse, hot skin, swollen abdomen, no passage front or back, oppression and dimmed vision are the five repletions; a fine pulse, cold skin, scant qi, draining front and back, and food and drink not entering are the five emptinesses. Yet the Emperor has noticed that people sometimes survive them, and the answer is a pair of small physical events rather than a treatment: if gruel reaches the stomach and the draining stops, the empty one lives; if the body sweats and the bowels move, the replete one lives. After a chapter that has counted months and days to the hour, the last word is about whether a mouthful of gruel goes down.

Senses in the classical corpus

Two fatal lists 五實死，五虚死

五實五虛皆死證

歧伯曰：五實死，五虚死 — Suwen 19

The five repletions 脉盛，皮熱，腹脹，前後不通，悶瞀

五者皆實而閉塞

脉盛，皮熱，腹脹，前後不通，悶瞀，此謂五實 — Suwen 19

The five emptinesses 脉細，皮寒，氣少，泄利前後，飲食不入

五者皆虛而脫

脉細，皮寒，氣少，泄利前後，飲食不入，此謂五虚 — Suwen 19

Why some live 漿粥入胃，泄注止

胃氣復則虛者活

漿粥入胃，泄注止，則虚者活 — Suwen 19

And the other way 身汗得後利

汗出而便通，則實者活

身汗得後利，則實者活。此其候也 — Suwen 19

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display

3 passages

素問·玉機真藏論 Suwen 19 · 玉機真藏論 Read in context →

帝曰：願聞五實五虚。歧伯曰：脉盛，皮熱，腹脹，前後不通，悶瞀，此謂五實；脉細，皮寒，氣少，泄利前後，飲食不入，此謂五虚。帝曰：愿闻五实五虚。歧伯曰：脉盛，皮热，腹胀，前后不通，闷瞀，此谓五实；脉细，皮寒，气少，泄利前后，饮食不入，此谓五虚。

Dì yuē: yuàn wén wǔ shí wǔ xū. Qí bó yuē: mài shèng, pí rè, fù zhàng, qián hòu bù tōng, mèn mào, cǐ wèi wǔ shí; mài xì, pí hán, qì shǎo, xiè lì qián hòu, yǐn shí bù rù, cǐ wèi wǔ xū.

A surging pulse, hot skin, swollen abdomen, no passage front or back, oppression and dimmed vision — these are the five repletions. A fine pulse, cold skin, scant qi, draining and discharge front and back, food and drink not entering — these are the five emptinesses.

篇末以虛實決死生：脉盛、皮熱、腹脹、前後不通、悶瞀為五實；脉細、皮寒、氣少、泄利前後、飲食不入為五虚。五實五虛皆死證，而其有生者，各有一線之機——虛者「漿粥入胃，泄注止」則活，實者「身汗得後利」則活。與第九篇「太過不及」（歲氣之太過不及）、本篇上文「太過不及」（四時之脈）同條而義別：彼以多少為論，本篇之實虛則以閉塞與脫泄為論，而其所以有生者，皆歸於胃氣——與本篇「五藏者，皆禀氣於胃」一節首尾相應。

素問·寶命全形論 Suwen 25 · 寶命全形論 Read in context →

可玩往來，乃施於人。人有虚實，五虚勿近，五實勿遠。可玩往来，乃施于人。人有虚实，五虚勿近，五实勿远。

Kě wán wǎng lái, nǎi shī yú rén. Rén yǒu xū shí, wǔ xū wù jìn, wǔ shí wù yuǎn.

One must be able to play over the comings and goings before applying it to a person. People have emptiness and repletion: do not go near the five emptinesses, do not keep far from the five repletions.

「人有虚實，五虚勿近，五實勿遠」：本篇之五虚五實，其義在「勿近」「勿遠」四字——不是說五虚不可治、五實不可緩，而是說五虚者不可率爾下針（近）、五實者不可遲疑不決（遠）。與第十九篇立五實五虚之目者同條而義別：彼列其目而定其死生，本篇則言其用針之進退。「勿」讀 wù；「遠」讀 yuǎn；「實」讀 shí。

素問·通評虚實論 Suwen 28 · 通評虚實論 Read in context →

黄帝問曰：何謂虚實？歧伯對曰：邪氣盛則實，精氣奪則虚。黄帝问曰：何谓虚实？歧伯对曰：邪气盛则实，精气夺则虚。

Huáng dì wèn yuē: hé wèi xū shí?Qí bó duì yuē: xié qì shèng zé shí, jīng qì duó zé xū.

The Yellow Emperor asks: what is meant by vacuity and repletion? Qibo answers: where evil qi is exuberant, that is repletion; where the essential qi has been taken away, that is vacuity.

本篇開卷八字即為虛實立訓：「邪氣盛則實，精氣奪則虚」——邪盛為實，精奪為虚，與本站此條「五實五虚」之目同一論虛實之大綱，而彼舉五藏之目，此揭一字之訓。**「盛」讀 shèng**；**「奪」讀 duó**，失也、劫奪而去之也，不作「脫」；「邪」讀 xié，本篇惟此一見；「精」讀 jīng；「則」讀 zé，本篇三十一見，為全篇最高頻之字。「奪」字最宜著眼：非自虛，乃被奪而去，故虛證責在損耗，治當補而非攻。

Compounds built on this term

實

shí

repletion

說文：富也

虚

xū

emptiness

說文：虛，大丘也；引申為空

悶瞀

mèn mào

oppression and dimmed vision

悶音 mèn，瞀音 mào

漿粥

jiāng zhōu

gruel

漿音 jiāng

後利

hòu lì

the bowels moving

利謂通利，與「前後不通」相對

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	the five repletions and the five vacuities	Their 實/虚 pair is repletion/vacuity.
Unschuld	the five states of repletion and the five states of depletion	Fuller phrasing, same distinction.
This site	the five repletions and five emptinesses	實 in 說文 is 富 — a house with goods stored in it — and 虛 is an emptied mound: the two words are about a room's contents, not about a body's strength. Excess and deficiency would import the vocabulary of the five circuits, where 太過不及 already means something countable by degrees, and would blur this pair into that one. Repletion and emptiness keep the domestic image and leave the clinical judgement — that both lists are fatal, and that survival turns on gruel and sweat — to stand as the surprise it is.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

Search the glossary

Reading path

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

See all reading paths