虚邪

xū xié

Empty evil · xu xie

Also rendered: empty evil (Keeps 邪 as evil, as this site does throughout) · deficient evil (Matches the site's rendering in 虛邪賊風 (id 154))

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: xū xié
Simplified: 虚邪
Literal: 虚 is emptiness, and 邪 is evil — a word 說文 enters as the name of a place and which the medical texts use for whatever irregular qi does harm. 虚邪 is the evil that arrives through an emptiness: the wind that comes in its season from its own direction and finds the body's defences down. Chapter 26 defines it twice, once as the evil of the eight standards and once, more sharply, as what happens when the body's emptiness meets heaven's.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：邪，琅邪郡。从邑牙聲，借為邪正之邪；虚，大丘也。昆侖丘謂之昆侖虚，引申為空虚之虚。醫書之「邪」謂不正之氣，「虚邪」謂乘虚而入之邪。本篇之目：虚邪者，八正之虚邪氣也。底本「虚」不作「虛」。

In brief

Evil that enters through an emptiness — the seasonal wind that arrives from its own quarter at its own time and finds the body undefended. Chapter 26 distinguishes it from 正邪, the mild evil that slips in through open pores when the body is exerted, and the distinction is clinical rather than moral: the empty evil is deep and must be avoided altogether, the upright evil is slight and no one notices it. The chapter’s severity comes from the sentence about two emptinesses meeting — the body’s and heaven’s — which is where the evil reaches the bone.

Senses in the classical corpus

Defined by its source 虚邪者，八正之虚邪氣也

八正之虚邪即八方虚風之邪

虚邪者，八正之虚邪氣也 — Suwen 26

What the eight watch for 所以𠉀八風之虚邪

候八風之邪以時至者

八正者，所以𠉀八風之虚邪，以時至者也 — Suwen 26

To be avoided outright 而避之勿犯也

虚邪之來有時，避之則不犯

八正之虚邪，而避之勿犯也 — Suwen 26

The two emptinesses 兩虚相感

身虚逢天虚，其邪深入至骨

以身之虚，而逢天之虚，兩虚相感，其氣至骨 — Suwen 26

Distinguished from the mild kind 正邪者…其中人也微

正邪乘汗出腠開而入，中人微而莫知其情

正邪者，身形若用力，汗出，腠理開，逢虚風，其中人也微 — Suwen 26

The full four-word form 虛邪賊風

本站已立目（id 154），與本篇「虚邪」同實

虚邪賊風，避之有時 — Suwen 1

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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3 passages

素問·八正神明論 Suwen 26 · 八正神明論 Read in context →

虚邪者，八正之虚邪氣也。虚邪者，八正之虚邪气也。

Xū xié zhě, bā zhèng zhī xū xié qì yě.

The empty evil is the evil qi of the emptiness of the eight standards.

本篇於邪氣分為二類，此其一。**「虚」讀 xū，底本作此形，不作「虛」**，與本站 id 154「虛邪賊風」之「虛」同詞而字形從各自底本。「邪」讀 xié。定義只一句「虚邪者，八正之虚邪氣也」，而真正的分量在上一節「以身之虚，而逢天之虚，兩虚相感，其氣至骨」——（「逢」讀 féng；「感」讀 gǎn；「骨」讀 gǔ）邪之所以深，不在邪之甚而在虛之重：身虚與天虚相值，其邪直入於骨而傷五藏。與「正邪」之「其中人也微」恰成對照：一者深入而當避，一者輕微而莫知。「八風」（id 480）與「虛邪賊風」（id 154）二條可參。

素問·離合真邪論 Suwen 27 · 離合真邪論 Read in context →

夫邪之入於脉也，寒則血凝泣，暑則氣淖澤，虚邪因而入客，亦如經水之得風也。夫邪之入于脉也，寒则血凝泣，暑则气淖泽，虚邪因而入客，亦如经水之得风也。

Fú xié zhī rù yú mài yě, hán zé xuè níng sè, shǔ zé qì nào zé, xū xié yīn ér rù kè, yì rú jīng shuǐ zhī dé fēng yě.

Now when an evil enters the pulse: cold makes the blood congeal and drag, heat makes the qi thin and glossy, and the empty evil takes advantage of this to enter and lodge — exactly as a river meets the wind.

「虚邪因而入客」——本站此條立目於第二十六篇，彼處「虚邪者，八正之虚邪氣也」是為虚邪立訓，此處則說虚邪如何得入：乘血氣之凝或澤而入。**「虚」讀 xū**，底本作虚，與本條詞頭之「虛」同詞而字形各從其篇之底本；「客」讀 kè，留止之義。「亦如經水之得風也」一句尤要：邪之入脉，猶水之得風——風起則水涌，邪入則脉隴起，故下文緊接「經之動脉，其至也亦時隴起」。

素問·太陰陽明論 Suwen 29 · 太陰陽明論 Read in context →

故犯賊風虚邪者，陽受之；食飲不節，起居不時者，陰受之。故犯贼风虚邪者，阳受之；食饮不节，起居不时者，阴受之。

Gù fàn zéi fēng xū xié zhě, yáng shòu zhī; shí yǐn bù jié, qǐ jū bù shí zhě, yīn shòu zhī.

Therefore the one who offends against thieving wind and empty evil — yang receives it. The one whose eating and drinking are without measure and whose rising and resting are out of season — yin receives it.

本條「虚邪」於第二十六篇已立，本篇作「賊風虚邪」，以「賊風」狀其來勢、以「虚邪」狀其乘虛，四字連讀，指自外而至之邪。**「虚」讀 xū，本篇三見，底本作「虚」，不作「虛」**；「邪」讀 xié；「賊」讀 zéi；「風」讀 fēng；「犯」讀 fàn；「者」讀 zhě；「陽」讀 yáng；「受」讀 shòu；「之」讀 zhī。本篇「虚邪」與第二十六篇「八正之虚邪」同源：彼以八正之位言其何時可避，此以表裏內外言其何所受之。又本篇下文「邪氣盛則實」之義雖出於第二十八篇，而本篇「陽受之」「陰受之」之分，正是虛邪所至有表裏之別。

Compounds built on this term

虚邪

xū xié

empty evil

乘虚而入之邪，本篇與正邪對舉

正邪

zhèng xié

upright evil

本站本篇另立目，中人微而莫知其情

虚風

xū fēng

empty wind

八風之乘虚者，正邪亦逢之

虛邪賊風

xū xié zéi fēng

deficient evils, thieving winds

本站已立目（id 154）

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	deficient evil	Wiseman uses 'deficient' for 虚 in pathological clusters, which is why our entry for 虛邪賊風 follows him there.
Unschuld	evil [qi] associated with deficiency	Unschuld expands the term into an explanation, which is helpful in context but cannot be repeated as a name.
This site	empty evil	This chapter puts 虚邪 in explicit opposition to 正邪, and 'empty' is what keeps that opposition visible in English — 'deficient' would make the pair sound like two degrees of the same thing. Both renderings mean the same evil qi, and the site's two entries should be read together.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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