逆四時简体逆四时

nì sì shí

Going against the four seasons · ni si shi

Also rendered: going against the four seasons (Literal, and keeps 逆 as a facing) · counter to the four seasons (Slightly more abstract) · reversal of the seasons (Reversal suggests the seasons changed, not the pulse) · ni si shi (Bare transliteration)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: nì sì shí
Simplified: 逆四时
Literal: 逆 to go to meet, and hence to go against (《說文》: 迎也 — to meet face-on, the same meeting that becomes opposition); 四時 the four seasons. A pulse that meets the season coming the other way.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：逆，迎也（段玉裁注：迎者，相逢也；引申爲逆順之逆）。

In brief

The name for a pulse that contradicts the season it is in. Getting a lung pulse in spring, a kidney pulse in summer, a heart pulse in autumn, a spleen pulse in winter — each the pulse of the quarter that this season’s viscus cannot conquer — and their arrival hanging, cut off, sunken and rough, is one kind. The other is having no seasonal form at all: sunken and rough in spring and summer, floating and large in autumn and winter. To this the chapter adds a short list of outright contradictions — heat disease with a calm pulse, diarrhoea with a large pulse, blood loss with a replete pulse — and says plainly that they are difficult to treat. Along with the four difficulties of form, qi, colour and pulse, these are what a physician is told to recognise and state out loud.

Senses in the classical corpus

The pulse of the unconquered quarter 春得肺脉，夏得腎脉

各得其所不勝之脈

春得肺脉，夏得腎脉，秋得心脉，冬得脾脉 — Suwen 19

How such pulses arrive 懸絶沈濇

懸絕而不續，沉濇而不流

其至皆懸絶沈濇者，命曰逆四時 — Suwen 19

Having no seasonal form at all 未有藏形

春夏而脈沉濇，秋冬而脈浮大

未有藏形，於春夏而脉沈濇，秋冬而脉浮大，名曰逆四時也 — Suwen 19

Outright contradictions 病熱脉靜，泄而脉大

熱而脈靜、泄而脈大者難治

病熱脉靜，泄而脉大，脱血而脉實 — Suwen 19

What the physician must do 必察四難而明告之

察此四難而明以告人

必察四難而明告之 — 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 →

所謂逆四時者，春得肺脉，夏得腎脉，秋得心脉，冬得脾脉，其至皆懸絶沈濇者，命曰逆四時未有藏形，於春夏而脉沈濇，秋冬而脉浮大，名曰逆四時也。所谓逆四时者，春得肺脉，夏得肾脉，秋得心脉，冬得脾脉，其至皆悬绝沉涩者，命曰逆四时未有藏形，于春夏而脉沉涩，秋冬而脉浮大，名曰逆四时也。

Suǒ wèi nì sì shí zhě, chūn dé fèi mài, xià dé shèn mài, qiū dé xīn mài, dōng dé pí mài, qí zhì jiē xuán jué chén sè zhě, mìng yuē nì sì shí wèi yǒu zàng xíng, yú chūn xià ér mài chén sè, qiū dōng ér mài fú dà, míng yuē nì sì shí yě.

Going against the four seasons means getting a lung pulse in spring, a kidney pulse in summer, a heart pulse in autumn, a spleen pulse in winter — and their arrival all hanging, cut off, sunken and rough. When the seasonal form of the viscus is absent — sunken and rough in spring and summer, floating and large in autumn and winter — this too is named going against the four seasons.

本篇逆四時有二義：一為得其所不勝之脈（春得肺脉、夏得腎脉、秋得心脉、冬得脾脉），其至皆懸絶沈濇；二為「未有藏形」——於春夏而脈沉濇，秋冬而脈浮大，皆名曰逆四時。與第十八篇「脉有逆從四時……命曰逆四時也」同條而義同：二篇同舉春夏脈瘦、秋冬脈浮大之例，本篇益以四季得所不勝之脈一目。下文「病熱脉靜，泄而脉大，脱血而脉實」之屬，則證與脈相反，亦皆難治；與上文「必察四難而明告之」相應。

素問·病能論 Suwen 46 · 病能論 Read in context →

帝曰：有病厥者，診右脉沈而緊，左脉浮而遟，不然，病主安在？歧伯曰：冬診之，右脉固當沈緊，此應四時；左脉浮而遟，此逆四時。帝曰：有病厥者，诊右脉沉而紧，左脉浮而迟，不然，病主安在？歧伯曰：冬诊之，右脉固当沉紧，此应四时；左脉浮而迟，此逆四时。

Dì yuē: yǒu bìng jué zhě, zhěn yòu mài chén ér jǐn, zuǒ mài fú ér chí, bù rán, bìng zhǔ ān zài? Qí bó yuē: dōng zhěn zhī, yòu mài gù dāng chén jǐn, cǐ yìng sì shí; zuǒ mài fú ér chí, cǐ nì sì shí.

The Emperor asks: here is one ill with inversion. On examination the right conduit is sunken and tight and the left is floating and slow. If that is not how it should be, where does the disease reside? Qi Bo says: examined in winter, the right conduit is naturally sunken and tight — this accords with the four seasons. The left conduit floating and slow runs counter to them.

「左脉浮而遟，此「逆」讀 nì四時」——**本篇「逆四時」1見，與上文「此應四時」為對**；「逆」讀 nì、**逆讀 nì**；**逆四時者，脉與時違；本篇以右應左逆，定其病之在腎**；**與本站第十九篇「春得肺脉，夏得腎脉」之逆四時同義**。

素問·四時刺逆從論 Suwen 64 · 四時刺逆從論 Read in context →

帝曰：逆四時而生亂氣，柰何？帝曰：逆四时而生乱气，奈何？

Dì yuē: nì sì shí ér shēng luàn qì, nài hé?

The Emperor asks: and if one goes against the four seasons so that disordered qi arises, what then?

「逆四時而生亂氣，柰何？」——**「逆四時」本篇1見，帝之再問，一篇之樞紐**；**上言邪隨四時之氣血而入客，此則問刺違四時者之害**；**歧伯以十二誤刺答之，末云「凡此四時刺者，大逆之病，不可不從也**」；**「柰」讀 nài**

Compounds built on this term

逆

nì

to go against

說文：迎也；相逢為迎，相違為逆

四時

sì shí

the four seasons

本篇四時各有其脈

懸絶

xuán jué

suspended and cut off

說文：縣（懸），繫也

沈濇

chén sè

sunken and rough

沈音 chén，濇同澀

未有藏形

wèi yǒu zàng xíng

having no seasonal form

不見本藏當令之脈形

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	counterflow of the four seasons	Their 逆 is consistently counterflow.
Unschuld	moving counter to the four seasons	Same construction, spelled out.
This site	going against the four seasons	逆 in 說文 is 迎 — to go out to meet — and the gloss matters: what is wrong here is not that the season has turned backwards but that the pulse has walked out to meet it and passed it going the other way. Counterflow is the correct technical term and is used elsewhere on this site for 逆 as a movement of qi, but in this phrase the object is the calendar, and a flow-image applied to a season reads oddly. Going against keeps the meeting in 逆 and leaves the seasons where they are.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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