經水简体经水

jīng shuǐ

The channel-rivers · jing shui

Also rendered: the channel-rivers (Keeps both halves of the word, warp and water) · the rivers (Loses the 經, which is what ties the image to the body's channels)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: jīng shuǐ
Simplified: 经水
Literal: 經 is the warp of a cloth, the thread that runs lengthwise and stays put while the weft crosses it — 說文 glosses it simply as weaving — and 水 is water, which 說文 defines by what it does rather than what it is: 準, the level. So 經水 are the fixed watercourses of a landscape, the rivers that run in their beds. That is exactly how chapter 27 uses them: not as a fancy name for the channels but as the middle term of a three-part correspondence — heaven has its mansions and degrees, earth has its rivers, the human being has channels — which lets the chapter spend the next four clauses describing weather and have every word of it land on the pulse.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：經，織也。从糸巠聲；水，準也。北方之行，象眾水並流，中有微陽之气也。經水連言，謂地上流行之大水，即江河之有常道者。本篇之目：地有經水，人有經脉。按《靈樞》別有〈經水〉篇，以十二經水配十二經脉，與本篇取譬之義同而系統更備。

In brief

The rivers of the earth, used in chapter 27 as the middle term of the correspondence that the whole chapter argues from: heaven has its mansions and degrees, earth has its rivers, the human being has channels. Because of that correspondence the chapter can describe four kinds of weather — mild, frozen, baking, gusting — and have each one say something exact about the blood: quiet, congealed and dragging, boiling over, heaving into ridges. The image is not decorative. It is what licenses the chapter’s central claim, that an evil entering a pulse behaves like a river meeting wind.

Senses in the classical corpus

The middle term of the correspondence 地有經水

天有宿度，地有經水，人有經脉

故天有宿度，地有經水，人有經脉 — Suwen 27

Quiet in mild weather 經水安靜

天地温和則水安流

天地温和，則經水安靜 — Suwen 27

Congealed in the cold 經水凝泣

天寒地凍則水凝澀不行

天寒地凍，則經水凝泣 — Suwen 27

Boiling in the heat 經水沸溢

天暑地熱則水沸而外溢

天暑地熱，則經水沸溢 — Suwen 27

Heaving in a gust 波涌而隴起

卒風暴起則水涌如隴

卒風暴起，則經水波涌而隴起 — Suwen 27

The point of the whole image 亦如經水之得風也

邪入於脉，猶水之得風

虚邪因而入客，亦如經水之得風也 — Suwen 27

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

歧伯對曰：夫聖人之起度數，必應於天地，故天有宿度，地有經水，人有經脉。天地温和，則經水安靜；天寒地凍，則經水凝泣；天暑地熱，則經水沸溢；卒風暴起，則經水波涌而隴起。歧伯对曰：夫圣人之起度数，必应于天地，故天有宿度，地有经水，人有经脉。天地温和，则经水安静；天寒地冻，则经水凝泣；天暑地热，则经水沸溢；卒风暴起，则经水波涌而陇起。

Qí bó duì yuē: fú shèng rén zhī qǐ dù shù, bì yìng yú tiān dì, gù tiān yǒu xiù dù, dì yǒu jīng shuǐ, rén yǒu jīng mài.Tiān dì wēn hé, zé jīng shuǐ ān jìng;Tiān hán dì dòng, zé jīng shuǐ níng sè;Tiān shǔ dì rè, zé jīng shuǐ fèi yì;Cù fēng bào qǐ, zé jīng shuǐ bō yǒng ér lǒng qǐ.

Qibo replies: When the sages set up measures and numbers they necessarily made them answer to heaven and earth. Thus heaven has its mansions and degrees, earth has its rivers, and the human being has the channels. When heaven and earth are mild and harmonious, the rivers are calm and still; When heaven is cold and earth frozen, the rivers congeal and drag; When heaven is hot and earth baking, the rivers boil and overflow; When a sudden wind rises in a gust, the rivers heave in waves and swell into ridges.

五句一氣，是本篇取譬的全部：先立「天有宿度，地有經水，人有經脉」三句之綱，然後以温和、寒凍、暑熱、卒風四變分說水之四態，而每一种水態都對應著血与氣的一种狀態。**「宿」讀 xiù**，星宿分度之宿，不讀 sù；**「卒」讀 cù，通「猝」**，本篇二見（此處、「卒然逢之」）並讀 cù；**「泣」讀 sè，通「澀」**，不讀 qì；「涌」讀 yǒng，底本作涌不作「湧」；「隴」讀 lǒng；「凍」讀 dòng；「沸」讀 fèi，「溢」讀 yì。四變之中，惟卒風一變直接引出下文「亦如經水之得風也」——風者是水之變因，亦正是邪之喻體，故知這四句不是鋪陳，而是為「邪」字預備的比喻。

Compounds built on this term

經水

jīng shuǐ

the channel-rivers

本篇四見，分屬温和、寒凍、暑熱、卒風四變

經脉

jīng mài

the channels and pulses

本篇「人有經脉」，與經水相配

宿度

xiù dù

mansions and degrees

天之經水，與地之經水對舉

凝泣

níng sè

congealed and dragging

泣讀 sè 通澀，寒則經水如此

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 river courses	They render 經 as course, which keeps the sense of a fixed bed rather than an undirected flow, and 水 as river.
Unschuld	the conduit waters	Unschuld's 'conduit' picks up the engineering side of 經, which is defensible but gives the phrase a more built, less natural reading than the chapter's weather imagery suggests.
This site	the channel-rivers	We keep 經 inside the English because the correspondence the chapter sets up — earth's 經水 against the body's 經脉 — only works if the reader hears the shared first syllable on both sides.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

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