參伍简体参伍

cēn wǔ

Cross-checking · cen wu

Also rendered: cross-checking (Keeps the two-counts-over-each-other image) · comparing three with five (Literal for the numbers) · correlating the findings (Modern and clinical, loses the muster-roll) · cen wu (Bare transliteration)

Core vocabulary

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: cēn wǔ
Simplified: 参伍
Literal: 參 three, and to place side by side; 伍 five, and the five-man squad of the old muster-roll (《說文》: 伍，相什伯也 — 段注: 五人爲伍). To set three against five: to lay two counts over one another and see whether they agree.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：伍，相什伯也（段玉裁注：五人爲伍，十人爲什，百人爲伯）；參，曑之隸變（《說文》：曑，商星也），引申爲三、爲參互。

In brief

The word for comparing one reading against another until they either agree or betray a lie. In chapter seventeen it is what one does with the five things looked at — essence, colour, the five viscera, the six palaces, the shape of the body — 以此參伍，決死生之分. Here it is what the nine probes do for each other: form and qi in accord means life, but if the probes do not cross-check, that is disease. The art is not in any single probe; it is in the disagreement between them.

Senses in the classical corpus

The rule here 參伍不調者病

九候不相參合則病

形氣相得者生，參伍不調者病 — Suwen 20

What it is measured against 形氣相得者生

形與氣相得，是為生

形氣相得者生 — Suwen 20

The worst case 三部九候皆相失者死

九候無一相合者死

三部九候皆相失者死 — Suwen 20

The same art in chapter seventeen 以此參伍，決死生之分

合眾端而參伍之

切脉動靜，而視精明，察五色，觀五藏有餘不足，六府强弱，形之盛衰，以此參伍，決死生之分 — Suwen 17

Why one probe is not enough 上下若一，不得相失

九候須上下若一，故必相參

九候之相應也，上下若一，不得相失 — Suwen 20

Occurrences in the classics

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

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3 passages

素問·三部九候論 Suwen 20 · 三部九候論 Read in context →

形氣相得者生，參伍不調者病。三部九候皆相失者死。形气相得者生，参伍不调者病。三部九候皆相失者死。

Xíng qì xiāng dé zhě shēng, cēn wǔ bù tiáo zhě bìng. Sān bù jiǔ hòu jiē xiāng shī zhě sǐ.

Where form and qi are well matched, there is life; where they are jumbled and out of tune, disease. Where the three sectors and nine probes are all mutually lost, death.

參伍者，錯綜相參、彼此互驗之謂。本篇「形氣相得者生，參伍不調者病，三部九候皆相失者死」，是以九候自相參驗：九候當上下若一，有一不調即為病，皆相失則死。第十七篇「切脉動靜，而視精明，察五色，觀五藏有餘不足，六府强弱，形之盛衰，以此參伍，決死生之分」——則以脉、色、藏、府、形諸端相參，其義一也。舊說音 cēn wǔ（錯雜之義），一說讀 sān wǔ（三五相參），二說並存。

素問·八正神明論 Suwen 26 · 八正神明論 Read in context →

以日之寒温，月之虚盛，四時氣之浮沈，參伍相合而調之，工常先見之，然而不形於外，故曰觀於冥冥焉。以日之寒温，月之虚盛，四时气之浮沉，参伍相合而调之，工常先见之，然而不形于外，故曰观于冥冥焉。

Yǐ rì zhī hán wēn, yuè zhī xū shèng, sì shí qì zhī fú chén, cēn wǔ xiāng hé ér tiáo zhī, gōng cháng xiān jiàn zhī, rán ér bù xíng yú wài, gù yuē guān yú míng míng yān.

Taking the cold and warmth of the sun, the emptiness and abundance of the moon, and the floating and sinking of the qi in the four seasons, and cross-matching them before regulating — the physician constantly sees it first; and yet it does not appear outwardly, which is why it is called observing in the dark.

「以日之寒温，月之虚盛，四時氣之浮沈，參伍相合而調之」——**本篇「參伍」讀 cēn wǔ，與本條同音**；「參」、「伍」。一讀 cān wǔ，並存。「參伍相合」謂錯綜比類、交互參驗，非三五之數。本篇之用，是把日、月、四時三組變量交錯互校而後施治，正是本條「交互驗證」之義最為具體的一例。結果是「工常先見之，然而不形於外」——先見（「先」讀 xiān）是時間上的先，而其所見不形於外，故眾人俱不能見。

素問·脉要精微論 Suwen 17 · 脉要精微論 Read in context →

切脉動靜，而視精明，察五色，觀五藏有餘不足，六府强弱，形之盛衰，以此參伍，決死生之分。切脉动靜，而视精明，察五色，观五脏有余不足，六腑强弱，形之盛衰，以此参伍，决死生之分。

qiè mài dòng jìng, ér shì jīng míng, chá wǔ sè, guān wǔ zàng yǒu yú bù zú, liù fǔ qiáng ruò, xíng zhī shèng shuāi, yǐ cǐ cān wǔ, jué sǐ shēng zhī fēn.

Feel the pulse for its movement and stillness; observe the brightness of the eyes; examine the five colours; look at the excess and insufficiency of the five depots and the strength and weakness of the six palaces, and at the flourishing or decline of the body’s form. Cross-reference these with one another, and decide where life and death divide.

「以此參伍」，以脉、精明、五色、五藏六府、形之盛衰參伍相較而後決死生之分。本目義即「以三校五」，站內定義正引本篇此句。

Compounds built on this term

參

cēn

to set side by side

一說讀 sān，三五相參

伍

wǔ

a squad of five

說文：相什伯也

不調

bù tiáo

out of accord

九候不相應之謂

相失

xiāng shī

to lose one another

三部九候皆相失者死

決死生之分

jué sǐ shēng zhī fēn

to settle the division of life and death

第十七篇語

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	comparing and contrasting	They read 參伍 as a method of comparison rather than as numbers.
Unschuld	a comparison of three with five / comparing the findings	He keeps the arithmetic visible in the phrase.
This site	cross-checking	伍 is the five-man squad on a muster-roll, and the image is administrative: you call two lists against each other and see who is missing. That is exactly what the nine probes are for — one probe alone tells you nothing, and the chapter's own example is that a probe can be out of step with the other eight and that is the diagnosis. Correlating would make it statistical, which is the opposite of the point: the finding lives in the disagreement, not in the average.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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