tōng tiáo shuǐ dào
Also rendered: regulating the waterways (Keeps the road and keeps 調 as tuning) · opening the water passages (Right about 通, says less about 調) · governing water metabolism (Correct destination, no road at all) · tong tiao shui dao (Bare transliteration)
Reviewed · 2026-09
At a glance
The drink itinerary, and the sentence every later account of oedema goes back to. Drink enters the stomach, wanders and overflows into essence qi, and is conveyed up to the spleen; spleen qi disperses the essence, which goes up to the lung; the lung opens and regulates the waterways and sends fluid down to the bladder; water essence is spread everywhere and runs level with the five channels, harmonising with the seasons and the yin and yang of the five viscera. Note that nothing here is a metabolism: it is a road, and the lung’s job is to keep the road open.
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 | regulating the water passages | Their rendering keeps 通調 as regulate and opening, and passage for 道 where water travels. |
| Unschuld | to open and regulate the water paths | He renders both verbs, which the sentence supports. |
| This site | regulating the waterways | The sentence is built out of a road: 水 congregates at 脾, goes up, comes down, is discharged, and is said at the end to run in parallel with five channels. English water metabolism would give the destination of later theory and take away the road that this chapter is actually walking; waterways keeps 道 as a thing you travel, and regulating keeps 調 as tuning something that already exists rather than forcing it open. |
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