宿度

xiù dù

Mansions and degrees · xiu du

Also rendered: mansions and degrees (Keeps both words; 宿 as mansion is the astronomical sense) · the stations of the sky (Clearer in English, but turns one word into three)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: xiù dù
Simplified: 宿度
Literal: 宿 is to stop for the night — 說文 glosses it as 止, to halt — and from stopping-places along the sky's road it became the name of the twenty-eight lunar mansions, the stretches of sky the moon passes through night by night. 度 is a measured standard, 說文's 法制: the degrees into which those stretches are divided. Read it xiù dù, not sù dù: the word is the plural of 宿 in its astronomical sense, and the chapter needs it in that sense, because what it sets against the earth's rivers and the body's channels is the fixed, measurable order of the sky.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：宿，止也。从宀𠈇聲；度，法制也。从又庶省聲。宿為止宿之宿，引申為日月五星所次舍之分野，即二十八宿之宿，讀 xiù 不讀 sù。本篇之目：故天有宿度。

In brief

The mansions of the sky and the degrees they are divided into — the fixed, measurable order of heaven. Chapter 27 opens its answer with a three-part correspondence: heaven has its mansions and degrees, earth has its rivers, the human being has channels. The point of naming the sky first is that the sky is the term that is measurable: the sages set up their measures so as to answer to heaven and earth, and the physician’s measures inherit that answering. The reading matters — xiù, the astronomical plural, not sù, lodging.

Senses in the classical corpus

What heaven has 天有宿度

天有星宿之分度，為度量之所自出

故天有宿度，地有經水，人有經脉 — Suwen 27

The measure the sages answered to 起度數，必應於天地

聖人制數度，必上應於天

夫聖人之起度數，必應於天地 — Suwen 27

Set beside earth's rivers 地有經水

天上的宿度與地上的經水同為「有常」者

故天有宿度，地有經水 — Suwen 27

Set beside the body's channels 人有經脉

人有經脉，猶天有宿度、地有經水

人有經脉 — Suwen 27

Degrees as the measurable part 宿度之度

度者分度，是其可測之處

必應於天地 — Suwen 27

Not lodging 宿讀 xiù

與住宿之宿別，舊注音秀

故天有宿度 — 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；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；

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;

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;

「天有宿度，地有經水，人有經脉」三句，是本篇全部取譬的總綱，也是《內經》天人相配之說最整齊的一次表述。**「宿」讀 xiù**：舊注音秀，指二十八宿之分度，與住宿之 sù 同名異讀；本站凡星宿之宿皆讀 xiù，與此一致。**「數」讀 shù**，「度數」讀 dù shù；**「應」讀 yìng**（去聲），「必應於天地」謂必與天地相感應、相符合，不讀 yīng。「夫」（大，此讀 fú）是發語詞，本篇三見並讀 fú。三句之下緊接四變（温和、寒凍、暑熱、卒風），可見「宿度」不是閒設的陪襯——正因為天有可測的常度，然後天的變化才可候，然後醫者候天地之變以調人身才有著落。

Compounds built on this term

宿度

xiù dù

mansions and degrees

天之常度，本篇惟此一見

起度數

qǐ dù shù

setting up measures and numbers

聖人制數度之事

二十八宿

èr shí bā xiù

the twenty-eight mansions

宿讀 xiù 之所本

應於天地

yìng yú tiān dì

answering to heaven and earth

「應」讀 yìng，去聲

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 degrees of the lunar mansions	They expand 宿 into 'lunar mansions', which is correct and removes any chance of reading it as lodging.
Unschuld	the mansion measurements	Unschuld keeps 宿 as mansion and renders 度 as measurement, which brings out the chapter's concern with what can be measured.
This site	mansions and degrees	We keep it short and keep both syllables in, marking the reading xiù in the headword. The word only occurs once in the chapter but it is the first of the three terms in the correspondence, and the chapter's whole argument rests on that opening move.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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