霍亂简体霍乱

huò luàn

Cholera · huo luan

Also rendered: cholera (The received English name, and the one a modern reader will know) · sudden turmoil (Renders both halves literally, avoids the modern disease name)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: huò luàn
Simplified: 霍乱
Literal: 霍 is the sound of suddenness — the rushing of rain, the flicker of a bird taking off — and 亂 is disorder, what has been thrown into confusion. The name is not a description of an organism but of an onset: something that comes down at speed and throws the whole body into confusion, vomiting and purging together. Chapter 28 lists it among the diseases that are treated by needling, immediately after the sudden abscess and the sudden abdominal fullness, because what makes it what it is the suddenness.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：霍，飛聲也，雨而雙飛者其聲霍然，引申為疾速之義；亂，治之反也，从乙，不治則亂。「霍亂」之名，《內經》數見，《靈樞》有專篇。本篇之目：霍亂，剌俞傍五，足陽明及上傍三。

In brief

Sudden confusion of the bowel — vomiting and purging together, coming on at speed. Chapter 28’s entry for it is pure practice and no prognosis: needle five beside the transport points, and three at the foot yang brilliance and above it. It stands in a run of entries that all begin with 暴, suddenly — the sudden abscess, the sudden abdominal fullness, the sudden grief, the sudden inversion — and what groups them is not the organ affected but the way they arrive.

Senses in the classical corpus

The disease 霍亂

吐利並作、猝然發作之病

霍亂，剌俞傍五 — Suwen 28

Treated at the transport points 剌俞傍五

取背俞之傍五處

剌俞傍五 — Suwen 28

And at the yang brilliance 足陽明及上傍三

足陽明胃經及其上方傍三處

足陽明及上傍三 — Suwen 28

One of the sudden diseases 暴

與暴癰、腹暴滿、暴憂、暴厥同以「暴」狀其發

腹暴滿，按之不下 — Suwen 28

Suddenness itself 霍

霍然，疾速之貌，从雨从隹

霍亂 — Suwen 28

Disorder itself 亂

不治則亂，吐利交作而氣機逆亂

霍亂 — Suwen 28

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display

2 passages

素問·通評虚實論 Suwen 28 · 通評虚實論 Read in context →

霍亂，剌俞傍五，足陽明及上傍三。霍乱，刺俞傍五，足阳明及上傍三。

Huò luàn, cì shù páng wǔ, zú yáng míng jí shàng páng sān.

For cholera, needle five beside the transport points, and three at the foot yang brilliance and above it.

此節列於腹暴滿、少陰俞諸刺法之間，亦以刺俞傍、足陽明為治。**「霍」讀 huò，本篇惟此一見**；**「亂」讀 luàn，本篇惟此一見**，底本作「亂」，不作「乱」；「及」讀 jí；「明」讀 míng。「霍亂」之名，《內經》數見，《靈樞》有專篇，與本篇「暴」字七見（寒氣暴上、腹暴滿、暴癰、暴憂、暴厥、内氣暴薄、暴痛）同一狀其發之驟。

素問·氣交變大論 Suwen 69 · 氣交變大論 Read in context →

歲土不及，風乃大行，化氣不令，草木茂榮，飄揚而甚，秀而不實，上應歲星。民病飱泄霍亂，體重腹痛，筋骨繇復，肌肉瞤酸，善怒，藏氣舉事，蟄蟲早附，咸病寒中，上應歲星、鎮星。岁土不及，风乃大行，化气不令，草木茂荣，飘扬而甚，秀而不实，上应岁星。民病飧泄霍乱，体重腹痛，筋骨繇复，肌肉瞤酸，善怒，藏气举事，蛰虫早附，咸病寒中，上应岁星、镇星。

Suì tǔ bù jí, fēng nǎi dà xíng, huà qì bù lìng, cǎo mù mào róng, piāo yáng ér shèn, xiù ér bù shí, shàng yìng suì xīng. Mín bìng sūn xiè huò luàn, tǐ zhòng fù tòng, jīn gǔ yáo fù, jī ròu shùn suān, shàn nù, zàng qì jǔ shì, zhé chóng zǎo fù, xián bìng hán zhōng, shàng yìng suì xīng, zhèn xīng.

In a year of earth falling short, wind then moves greatly, the qi of transformation issues no command, and though plants and trees grow lush they are tossed about and flower without setting fruit; it answers above to Jupiter. The people are ill with gruel diarrhoea and sudden turmoil, a heavy body and pain in the abdomen, sinews and bones that shake and return, flesh that twitches and is sore, and quickness to anger; the qi of storage takes up its work, the hibernating creatures attach themselves early, and all are ill with cold in the centre; it answers above to Jupiter and Saturn.

「民病飱泄霍亂，體重腹痛，筋骨繇復」——**「霍亂」本篇1見，止此一見**；**本篇霍亂與飱泄並見，皆脾土為風木所乘之候**；**「霍」讀 huò、「亂」讀 luàn**

Compounds built on this term

霍亂

huò luàn

cholera

本篇惟此一見

剌俞傍五

cì shù páng wǔ

needle five beside the transports

本篇刺法之一

足陽明

zú yáng míng

foot yang brilliance

胃經之名，本篇刺法取之

暴厥

bào jué

sudden inversion

與霍亂同以暴狀其發之驟

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	cholera	They use the modern name, following the identification standard in Chinese medicine since the nineteenth century.
Unschuld	sudden turmoil	Unschuld renders the name rather than the disease, keeping 霍's suddenness and 亂's disorder, and warns against equating it with modern cholera.
This site	cholera	We keep the received name because chapter 28 gives no symptoms to distinguish it and the modern word is what a reader will look up — but we gloss it as sudden confusion of the bowel, and we do not assume the modern organism. The chapter's own point is the suddenness, not the agent.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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