tóng zǐ gāo
Also rendered: the raised pupil (Literal) · the upturned pupil (Slightly stronger than 高 warrants) · sunken-fontanel stare (Not what the word says) · tong zi gao (Bare transliteration)
Reviewed · 2026-09
At a glance
The first of the two eye-signs with which the chapter closes, and the lesser of them. A raised pupil means the greater yang is insufficient; the upturned eyes — 戴眼 — mean the greater yang is finished. The chapter has already said that when the qi of foot greater yang is cut off, the feet cannot bend or straighten and death comes with the eyes turned up. Then it gives the last line of all: these are the essentials for deciding life and death, and they must not go unexamined.
Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.
Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.
| Wiseman & Feng | the pupil is raised | They keep the construction as a clause, as the text does. |
| Unschuld | the pupils are raised | Same, with the plural of the two eyes. |
| This site | the raised pupil | 高 is simply high, and the restraint is the point: the chapter is grading two signs that differ in degree, not in kind — the same eyes, one raised and one fixed upward, one meaning insufficient and the other meaning finished. Upturned would use up the stronger word on the weaker sign and leave nothing for 戴眼, which is the one that kills. In English the pupil is what is seen, so the pupil is what is named. |
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