下晡

xià bū

Late afternoon · xia bu

Also rendered: late afternoon (The ordinary English for the hour named) · the later bu hour (Keeps the technical word with a gloss) · 3 to 5 in the afternoon (Converts it; useful once, unusable everywhere else) · xia bu (Bare transliteration)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: xià bū
Simplified: 下晡
Literal: 晡 does not appear in the 說文; it is a later graph grown out of 餔, which the dictionary defines 日加申時食也 — the meal taken in the shen hour. The word therefore began as supper and came to name the hour it belongs to. 下 puts it later still: after the shen hour, moving toward dusk.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：餔，日加申時食也。从食甫聲（晡為後起字，《說文》無）。本篇作「下晡」，謂申時之後、日入之前一段。

In brief

The chapter uses six named divisions of the day — dawn, sunrise, midday, the declining sun, late afternoon, midnight — and gives each viscus its own three-hour pattern among them. Late afternoon is the hour the liver does worst, the hour the lung does best, and the hour the kidney falls quiet. A patient whose complaints keep this schedule is being read as a clock, and once read, the clock can be used: the chapter’s whole argument is that these hours are predictable from the phases.

Senses in the classical corpus

The last stretch before dusk 下晡

申時之後、日入之前

肝病者，平旦慧，下晡甚，夜半靜 — Suwen 22

The liver's worst hour 肝病者，下晡甚

金旺於酉，乘木故甚

肝病者，平旦慧，下晡甚，夜半靜 — Suwen 22

The lung's best hour 肺病者，下晡慧

肺屬金，得其時故慧

肺病者，下晡慧，日中甚，夜半靜 — Suwen 22

The kidney's quiet hour 腎病者，下晡靜

病勢至此而安

腎病者，夜半慧，四季甚，下晡靜 — Suwen 22

Death timed by the same clock elsewhere 日昃而死

以一日之段落定死時

日乘四季而死 — 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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2 passages

素問·藏氣法時論 Suwen 22 · 藏氣法時論 Read in context →

肝病者，平旦慧，下晡甚，夜半靜。肝病者，平旦慧，下晡甚，夜半静。

Gān bìng zhě, píng dàn huì, xià bū shèn, yè bàn jìng.

In liver illness the patient is clear at dawn, worse in the late afternoon, and quiet at midnight.

本篇以一日分六段（平旦、日出、日中、日昳、下晡、夜半）而配以五臟之慧、甚、靜：肝則下晡甚，肺則下晡慧，脾則下晡靜，同一時辰而三臟各異者，以其臟氣與時氣之生剋不同故也。「晡」本於「餔」（《說文》：日加申時食也），由晚食之名轉為時辰之名，下晡則申時之後。與第二十篇「日乘四季而死」之以一日之段落定死期者，所用之鐘相同而所指之候各別。

素問·標本病傳論 Suwen 65 · 標本病傳論 Read in context →

膀胱病，小便閉，五日少腹脹，腰脊痛，䯒痠。一日腹脹，一日身體痛，二日不已，死，冬雞鳴，夏下晡。膀胱病，小便闭，五日少腹胀，腰脊痛，䯒酸。一日腹胀，一日身体痛，二日不已，死，冬鸡鸣，夏下晡。

Páng guāng bìng, xiǎo biàn bì, wǔ rì shào fù zhàng, yāo jǐ tòng, héng suān. Yī rì fù zhàng, yī rì shēn tǐ tòng, èr rì bù yǐ, sǐ, dōng jī míng, xià xià bū.

In illness of the bladder there is stoppage of urine; after five days, distension of the lower abdomen, pain in the back and spine, and aching in the shank; after one day, distension of the abdomen; after one day, pain in the body. Should it not abate after two days, the person dies: in winter, at cockcrow; in summer, at the falling afternoon.

「冬雞鳴，夏下晡」——**「下晡」讀 xià bū：晡為申時，下晡則晡之末**；**本篇記死期之時名，冬夏各一，此為膀胱病之候**；**「晡」讀 bū，本篇2見：「夏晏晡」一見，「夏下晡」一見**；**「晏」讀 yàn，本篇2見**；**「雞」讀 jī、「鳴」讀 míng、「冬」讀 dōng、「夏」讀 xià**

Compounds built on this term

晡

bū

the late-afternoon hour

本作「餔」，申時之食也

下晡

xià bū

after the shen hour

本篇三見，肝肺腎各一

平旦

píng dàn

dawn

第十七篇「平旦」條已立目

日昳

rì dié

the declining sun

本篇另有其目，見下條

夜半

yè bàn

midnight

本篇五臟諸候分時之一定點

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	(rendered by the double hour)	They tie words of this kind to their watch rather than to an English time of day.
Unschuld	the time of the afternoon meal / late afternoon	He keeps the connection with eating, since that is where the word comes from.
This site	late afternoon	The graph grew out of the evening meal, and this is English's own way of naming the stretch before dusk. Giving minutes would imply a precision this medicine never claimed.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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