冥冥

míng míng

The dark and obscure · ming ming

Also rendered: the dark and obscure (Two adjectives, matching the doubled graph) · the unseen (Shorter, but drops the dimness the word carries)

Core vocabulary

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: míng míng
Simplified: 冥冥
Literal: 冥 is darkness — 說文 enters it as 幽, dim, with the sun under a cover — and doubled it is the chapter's name for everything that cannot be seen, tasted or pointed at. Chapter 26 uses it three times in as many sentences and then defines it: the form, qi, construction and defence do not show outwardly, and yet the physician alone knows them. The chapter then spends its closing movement on the one thing that is like it — spirit.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：冥，幽也。从日从六，冖聲。日數十，十六日而月始虧幽也。重言之則為冥冥，謂幽微不可見。本篇之目：觀其冥冥者，言形氣榮衛之不形於外，而工獨知之。**底本通篇作「冥」，不作第二十五篇之「𡨋」**，本篇十見。

In brief

What the physician sees and no one else does. Chapter 26 defines it precisely: it means that form, qi, construction and defence do not appear outwardly, and yet the practitioner knows them, because he has cross-matched the sun’s warmth, the moon’s phases and the floating and sinking of the seasonal qi. The word carries the chapter’s epistemology — looked at, it has no form; tasted, it has no flavour — and it leads straight into the closing passage on spirit, which is dark at first and then brightly, singularly clear.

Senses in the classical corpus

Defined by concealment 形氣榮衛之不形於外

不形於外而工獨知之

觀其冥冥者，言形氣榮衛之不形於外，而工獨知之 — Suwen 26

Defined by how it is known 參伍相合而調之

交參互驗而後先知

以日之寒温，月之虚盛，四時氣之浮沈，參伍相合而調之 — Suwen 26

Defined negatively 視之無形，嘗之無味

視之無形、嘗之無味，故謂冥冥

視之無形，嘗之無味，故謂冥冥，若神髣髴 — Suwen 26

Why it makes the physician different 工常先見之

先見而不形於外，故人莫之見

工常先見之，然而不形於外 — Suwen 26

What it is likened to 若神髣髴

若有若無，如神之髣髴

故謂冥冥，若神髣髴 — Suwen 26

The same word in chapter 25 是謂𡨋𡨋

第二十五篇作「𡨋」形，與本篇「冥」同詞

是謂𡨋𡨋，莫知其形 — Suwen 25

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

視之無形，嘗之無味，故謂冥冥，若神髣髴。视之无形，尝之无味，故谓冥冥，若神仿佛。

Shì zhī wú xíng, cháng zhī wú wèi, gù wèi míng míng, ruò shén fǎng fú.

Looked at, it has no form; tasted, it has no flavour. Therefore it is called dark and obscure, like something numinous, dimly glimpsed.

「冥冥」是全篇論「醫者何以知人所不能知」的關鍵詞。**「冥」讀 míng，本篇十見，底本通篇作「冥」，不作第二十五篇之「𡨋」**——同詞而異體，各從其篇之底本，讀者於此可見抄本字形之不一律。**「嘗」讀 cháng，辨味之義，非曾經之曾**；「味」讀 wèi；**「髣」、「髴」讀 fǎng fú，即「仿佛」之異體**。三句連讀，其義層層收緊：觀冥冥者，觀人所不能見（§26）；其所觀不形於外，故先見之而眾人俱不能見（§27、29）；視之無形、嘗之無味，故以「若神髣髴」狀之（§30）。由此直入篇末論神一節——「神乎神，耳不聞…適若昏，昭然獨明」（「昏」讀 hūn，「昭」讀 zhāo）正是把冥冥之知說成了體驗：初若昏，忽昭然獨明。故本篇之神不是冥想之境，而是長期候氣所得的先見之明。

Suwen 74 Suwen 74 · 至真要大論 Read in context →

黄帝問曰：五氣交合，盈虚更作，余知之矣。六氣分治，司天地者，其至何如？歧伯再拜對曰：明乎哉問也！天地之大紀，人神之通應也。帝曰：願聞上合昭昭，下合冥冥，柰何？歧伯曰：此道之所主，工之所疑也。帝曰：願聞其道也。黄帝问曰：五气交合，盈虚更作，余知之矣。六气分治，司天地者，其至何如？歧伯再拜对曰：明乎哉问也！天地之大纪，人神之通应也。帝曰：愿闻上合昭昭，下合冥冥，奈何？歧伯曰：此道之所主，工之所疑也。帝曰：愿闻其道也。

Huáng dì wèn yuē: wǔ qì jiāo hé, yíng xū gēng zuò, yú zhī zhī yǐ. Liù qì fēn zhì, sī tiān dì zhě, qí zhì hé rú? Qí bó zài bài duì yuē: míng hū zāi wèn yě! Tiān dì zhī dà jì, rén shén zhī tōng yìng yě. Dì yuē: yuàn wén shàng hé zhāo zhāo, xià hé míng míng, nài hé? Qí bó yuē: cǐ dào zhī suǒ zhǔ, gōng zhī suǒ yí yě. Dì yuē: yuàn wén qí dào yě.

Huang Di asked: the five qi joining and closing, fullness and emptiness taking their turns — I know these already. As for the six qi dividing the governance, and what governs the heaven and lies in the spring: how do they come? Qi Bo bowed his head to the ground, bowed twice again, and answered: how bright the question is! This is the great order of heaven and earth, and the correspondence that runs between man and spirit. Huang Di said: I would hear how one joins above with the bright and bright and below with the dark and dark — what is the way of it? Qi Bo said: this is what the way has charge of, and where the physician doubts. Huang Di said: I would hear the way of it.

**「冥冥」本篇1見，止在此句**；**此段「下合冥冥」，與上文「上合昭昭」相對，全篇之問由此起**

Compounds built on this term

冥冥

míng míng

the dark and obscure

不形於外而工獨知者

𡨋𡨋

míng míng

the dark and obscure

第二十五篇之字形，同詞異體

參伍

cēn wǔ

cross-checking

本站已立目（id 666），知冥冥之法

髣髴

fǎng fú

dimly glimpsed

冥冥之狀，若神髣髴

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	darkness	Wiseman uses the bare noun for 冥冥 and lets the reduplication carry the emphasis, which works but loses the sense of a region or state.
Unschuld	the obscure	Unschuld keeps it as a substantive and glosses it in his commentary as what cannot be perceived by the senses.
This site	the dark and obscure	The chapter defines the word twice — once as what does not appear outwardly and once as what has no form and no flavour — so we keep both halves: dark, for what cannot be seen; obscure, for what cannot be made out. We keep 冥 untranslated in the headword's romanisation only.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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