Classica Sinica Medica

脾胃

pí wèi

Spleen and stomach · pi wei

Also rendered: spleen and stomach (The two organ names used together, as the chapter uses them) · the spleen-stomach axis (The later doctrinal name; more abstract than the text itself)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
pí wèi
Simplified
脾胃
Literal
脾 is the depot; 胃 is the palace. Set side by side they are not two organs that happen to be neighbours but one working pair: the stomach receives what is eaten and drunk, the spleen takes what the stomach has broken down and carries it onward. Chapter 29 is the text that says this plainly for the first time. The chapter's question is why two channels so closely paired — Taiyin and Yangming, exterior and interior to each other — make people ill in different ways, and the answer runs through the pair: what comes from without goes to the yang side and the palaces, what comes from within goes to the yin side and the depots. Later the chapter turns the pair into a mechanism — the limbs receive the qi of water and grain from the stomach, but only the spleen can carry it to them — and that mechanism is what later medicine calls the spleen-stomach axis.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：脾，土藏也，从肉卑聲；胃，穀府也，从肉、𡇒象形。「脾」讀 pí，本篇七見；「胃」讀 wèi，本篇七見。二字本篇連文惟開卷一見——「太陰陽明爲表裏，脾胃脉也」——即以此二字點出全篇所論之體：太陰陽明非泛論陰陽，而是脾胃二經之脉。

In brief

The depot and the palace that together turn food and drink into the qi the body runs on. Chapter 29 gives the pair its classic formulation: the stomach is the sea of the five depots and six palaces, and the spleen is what moves the stomach’s fluids onward. Because they are exterior and interior to one another — Yangming outside, Taiyin inside — the same body can be struck in two different ways: evils that arrive from without are taken by the yang side and settle in the palaces, while damage done by eating and drinking out of measure is taken by the yin side and settles in the depots.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The pair named as one thing 脾胃
脾胃相為表裏，共主水榖之化
太陰陽明爲表裏，脾胃脉也 — Suwen 29
2
Spleen: the depot that carries 脾
脾藏，為胃行其津液
今脾病不能爲胃行其津液 — Suwen 29
3
Stomach: the palace that receives 胃
胃為水榖之海，五藏六府之所仰
陽明者表也，五藏六府之海也 — Suwen 29
4
What the yang side takes 陽受之則入六府
賊風虛邪自外至，故陽受之而入府
故犯賊風虚邪者，陽受之 — Suwen 29
5
What the yin side takes 陰受之則入五藏
食飲起居之傷自內生，故陰受之而入藏
食飲不節，起居不時者，陰受之 — Suwen 29
6
Joined by a membrane, working by a vessel 以膜相連
脾胃之連在形為膜、在用為脉
脾與胃以膜相連耳，而能爲之行其津液 — Suwen 29

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·太陰陽明論 Suwen 29 · 太陰陽明論 Read in context →
黃帝問曰：太陰陽明爲表裏，脾胃脉也，生病而異者，何也？ 黄帝问曰：太阴阳明为表里，脾胃脉也，生病而异者，何也？
Huáng dì wèn yuē: tài yīn yáng míng wéi biǎo lǐ, pí wèi mài yě, shēng bìng ér yì zhě, hé yě?
The Yellow Emperor asks: Taiyin and Yangming are exterior and interior to one another — they are the vessels of spleen and stomach. When they give rise to illness, the illnesses differ. Why is that?
此句是全篇之發端，亦是全篇之綱。**「爲」讀 wéi，是也、作為也，本篇九見**，底本無一處作「為」；「表」讀 biǎo；**「裏」讀 lǐ，底本作「裏」，不作「裡」**；「脾」讀 pí，「胃」讀 wèi；**「脉」讀 mài，本篇三見，底本皆作「脉」，無一處作「脈」**；「異」讀 yì。「太陰陽明爲表裏」言其位，「脾胃脉也」言其體，「生病而異者」言其用——三句層層相推，一篇之論皆由此出。下文「陽者天氣也，主外；陰者地氣也，主内」即申表裏之義，「陽受之則入六府，陰受之則入五藏」即申生病而異之實。
素問·三部九候論 Suwen 20 · 三部九候論 Read in context →
故下部之天以候肝，地以候腎，人以候脾胃之氣。 故下部之天以候肝，地以候肾，人以候脾胃之气。
Gù xià bù zhī tiān yǐ hòu gān, dì yǐ hòu shèn, rén yǐ hòu pí wèi zhī qì.
Thus in the lower sector, heaven probes the liver, earth probes the kidney, and the human probes the qi of spleen and stomach.
「人以候脾胃之氣」——下部三候以肝、腎、脾胃當之，脾胃之氣属人候；**「脾胃」本篇1見**

Compounds built on this term

脾胃
pí wèi
spleen and stomach
本篇開卷一見，是全篇所論之體
胃氣
wèi qì
stomach qi
本站已立目（id 321），四支稟氣於胃即此氣
水榖之海
shuǐ gǔ zhī hǎi
the sea of water and grain
本篇稱陽明「五藏六府之海」，義同
脾風
pí fēng
spleen wind
本站已立目（id 637），與本篇脾胃之論可互參

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Fengspleen and stomachThey keep the two organ names plain and unhyphenated, treating 脾胃 as a fixed pair rather than a compound to be analysed.
Unschuldspleen and stomachUnschuld likewise leaves the pair standing, and glosses the relationship in a note rather than building it into the rendering.
This sitespleen and stomachWe render the two names separately and leave the pairing to the reader. The chapter is at pains to show that these are two things working as one, and a hyphenated or capitalised coinage would settle a question the text deliberately keeps open — whether the pair is one organ or two.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

Search the glossary

Reading path

Guided routes through the corpus, each built on a handful of chapters and their key terms.

See all reading paths