五氣所病简体五气所病

wǔ qì suǒ bìng

The five qi in disorder · wu qi suo bing

Also rendered: the five qi in disorder (Keeps the heading and the verb of going wrong) · the disorders of the five qi (The nominal form; suggests named diseases) · what afflicts the five qi (Closer to 所病 as a relative clause) · wu qi suo bing (Bare transliteration)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: wǔ qì suǒ bìng
Simplified: 五气所病
Literal: 病 is the graph of a person lying down — 說文 glosses it 疾加也, an illness that has grown — and 所病 is what belongs to it, what it suffers. The entry is worth reading closely because the word 'five' does not hold: after the five viscera the chapter goes on to the stomach, the intestines, the lower burner, the bladder and the gallbladder, because the qi of the five cannot be told without the hollow organs they work through.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：病，疾加也。从疒丙聲；氣，饋客芻米也。从米气聲。本篇「五氣」謂五臟之氣，而所列之目實兼胃、大小腸、下焦、膀胱、膽。

In brief

The longest entry in the chapter and the one the clinic has used most: for each viscus, the symptom that is properly its own. The heart gives belching, the lung coughing, the liver talking, the spleen swallowing, the kidney yawning and sneezing — and then the list runs past its own heading, because what the five qi do cannot be said without the organs they pass through. Read it as a set of signs an organ puts out, not as a set of named diseases: the chapter is telling you what each one looks like when it is disordered.

Senses in the classical corpus

The symptom proper to each viscus 心爲噫，肺爲欬

五臟之氣失調，各現其一症

五氣所病：心爲噫，肺爲欬，肝爲語，脾爲吞，腎爲欠，爲嚏 — Suwen 23

The hollow organs drawn in 胃爲氣逆，爲噦、爲恐

五氣之病，必及於腑

胃爲氣逆，爲噦、爲恐，大腸小腸爲泄 — Suwen 23

Water and urine at the end 下焦溢爲水，膀胱不利爲癃

水液之病亦氣病之一端

下焦溢爲水，膀胱不利爲癃，不約爲遺溺 — Suwen 23

Coughing as the lung's own 肺爲欬

第三十八篇專論欬，與此相發

肺爲欬 — Suwen 23

Anger as the gallbladder's 膽爲怒

膽主決斷，病則善怒

膽爲怒 — Suwen 23

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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1 passages

素問·宣明五氣 Suwen 23 · 宣明五氣 Read in context →

五氣所病：心爲噫，肺爲欬，肝爲語，脾爲吞，腎爲欠，爲嚏，胃爲氣逆，爲噦、爲恐，大腸小腸爲泄，下焦溢爲水，膀胱不利爲癃，不約爲遺溺，膽爲怒，是謂五病。五气所病：心为噫，肺为欬，肝为语，脾为吞，肾为欠，为嚏，胃为气逆，为哕、为恐，大肠小肠为泄，下焦溢为水，膀胱不利为癃，不约为遗溺，胆为怒，是谓五病。

Wǔ qì suǒ bìng: xīn wéi ài, fèi wéi kài, gān wéi yǔ, pí wéi tūn, shèn wéi qiàn, wéi tì, wèi wéi qì nì, wéi yuě, wéi kǒng, dà cháng xiǎo cháng wéi xiè, xià jiāo yì wéi shuǐ, bǎng guāng bù lì wéi lóng, bù yuē wéi yí niào, dǎn wéi nù, shì wèi wǔ bìng.

The disorders proper to the five qi: in the heart, belching; in the lung, coughing; in the liver, talking; in the spleen, swallowing; in the kidney, yawning and sneezing; in the stomach, counterflow qi, retching and fear; in the large and small intestine, diarrhoea; when the lower burner overflows, water; when the bladder is impeded, dribbling obstruction; when it is no longer held, urine passed unawares; in the gallbladder, anger. This is called the five disorders.

本篇第二條最長，也是歷來臨床最常用之一條。其法為「某臟之氣失調，則現某症」：心噫、肺欬、肝語、脾吞、腎欠嚏。所列諸症多非重病，正是「所病」二字之義——是其氣失調時所現之常候，非別立一病名。下文接胃、大小腸、下焦、膀胱、膽，已溢出了「五」的範圍，可見五臟之氣必假腑道而後見。第三十八篇《欬論》專論欬之一症，即本條「肺爲欬」之推演；本站另有「喘」「汗」「飱泄」諸條，皆可與本條所列諸症互參。

Compounds built on this term

五氣

wǔ qì

the five qi

本篇謂五臟之氣

所病

suǒ bìng

what afflicts it

與「所惡」「所藏」「所主」同一句法

噫

ài

belching

心之病，讀音見本篇校勘

欬

kài

coughing

素問通例之咳字，不作「咳」

遺溺

yí niào

urine passed unawares

本篇與「癃」對舉，見本篇「癃」條

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	the five qi [and their] diseases	They keep 病 as disease and supply the relation between the two halves.
Unschuld	the five qi and the diseases [they cause]	He makes explicit that these are the afflictions each qi brings with it.
This site	the five qi in disorder	所病 is not 'the diseases of' but 'what goes wrong with', and the entry goes on to the stomach and bladder, which the word 'five' does not cover. Disorder leaves room for that; diseases would not.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

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