魂

hún

Hun · the yang soul

Also rendered: hun · the yang soul (Keeps the word and adds what the dictionary says) · the ethereal soul (The old missionary rendering, still the commonest) · the wandering soul (Says what it does rather than what it is) · hun (Bare transliteration)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: hún
Simplified: 魂
Literal: Both halves of the pair are glossed in the dictionary by phase rather than by worth: 魂 is 陽气也, yang qi, and 魄 is 陰神也, a yin spirit. Neither gloss says anything about which one survives death. The chapter is not interested in that question either — it lists the hun among five things a viscus stores, alongside spirit, thought and will.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：魂，陽气也。从鬼云聲；魄，陰神也。从鬼白聲。本篇「肝藏魂」「肺藏魄」，即本此陰陽之分。

In brief

The liver stores the hun and the lung the po — two of the five things chapter 23 says the viscera hold, and the pair that has given translators the most trouble. They are the two souls, and the dictionary’s own gloss separates them by phase: one is yang qi, the other a yin spirit. The chapter puts them in a list with spirit, thought and will, and in doing so says what it thinks they are — five things a person has, each lodged somewhere. The site already has an entry for the po; this is the other half, and the two should be read together.

Senses in the classical corpus

The hun lodged in the liver 肝藏魂

魂屬陽而肝藏之

肝藏魂 — Suwen 23

Set beside the po 肺藏魄

魄屬陰而肺藏之，與魂相對

肺藏魄 — Suwen 23

The dictionary's distinction 魂，陽气也；魄，陰神也

一屬氣，一屬神

《說文解字》 — Shuowen

One of five, not two 心藏神……腎藏志

本篇與神、意、志同列

心藏神，肺藏魄，肝藏魂，脾藏意，腎藏志 — Suwen 23

The po, already entered 魄

本站第十一篇「魄」條、「魄門」條

魄門亦為五藏使 — Suwen 11

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display

1 passages

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

五藏所藏：心藏神，肺藏魄，肝藏魂，脾藏意，腎藏志。是謂五藏所藏。五藏所藏：心藏神，肺藏魄，肝藏魂，脾藏意，肾藏志。是谓五藏所藏。

Wǔ zàng suǒ cáng: xīn cáng shén, fèi cáng pò, gān cáng hún, pí cáng yì, shèn cáng zhì. shì wèi wǔ zàng suǒ cáng.

What the five viscera store: the heart stores spirit, the lung the po, the liver the hun, the spleen thought, the kidney the will. This is what the five viscera store.

本篇「五藏所藏」一條，以神、魄、魂、意、志分屬五臟，而魂魄二名最易引人作玄谈。《说文》分之最平实：魂，阳气也；魄，阴神也——一属气一属神，只以阴阳别，不以贵贱别。本篇列之於神、意、志之间，是视魂魄为五脏所藏之「神」之一目，与心藏神、脾藏意、腎藏志同类，并非於五脏之外别立二物。本站第十一篇已立「魄」條，又有「魄門」條（「魄門亦為五藏使」），皆与本条相发；魂则本篇所补，二条宜合看。「藏」读 cáng，与「五藏」（zàng）同形异读。

Compounds built on this term

魂

hún

the hun

說文：陽气也

魄

pò

the po

說文：陰神也；本站第十一篇已立目

肝藏魂

gān cáng hún

the liver stores the hun

本篇之目

神

shén

spirit

本篇「心藏神」，本站第一篇已立目

志

zhì

the will

本篇「腎藏志」，本站第一篇已立目

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 ethereal soul and the corporeal soul	They keep the pair that the missionaries settled on, and it is still what most English readers meet.
Unschuld	the hun soul and the po soul	He transliterates both and lets the gloss carry whatever meaning is needed.
This site	hun · the yang soul	The dictionary separates the two by phase and not by worth: one is yang qi, the other a yin spirit. 'Ethereal' and 'corporeal' turn that into a judgement about which one survives, which the chapter never makes — here they are simply two of five things stored.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

Search the glossary

Reading path

Guided routes through the corpus, each built on a handful of chapters and their key terms.

See all reading paths