膜

mó

Membrane · mo

Also rendered: membrane (The anatomical term, and the one the objection needs) · a thin connecting tissue (Expands 膜 into a phrase; loses the noun-like weight)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: mó
Simplified: 膜
Literal: 膜 is the flesh radical with 莫 beside it: a thin sheet of flesh, a membrane. Chapter 29 uses it once, and uses it to make a difficulty rather than to solve one. If the spleen and stomach are joined by nothing but a membrane, the Emperor asks, how can the spleen move the stomach's fluids? It is a good objection, and the chapter answers it by changing the level of the argument: the connection that matters is not the sheet of flesh but the channel that penetrates the stomach, belongs to the spleen and rises to the pharynx. The membrane is what anatomy can see; the vessel is what does the work.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：膜，肉閒胲膜也，从肉莫聲。「膜」讀 mó，本篇一見。「相」讀 xiāng；「連」讀 lián，底本作「連」，不作「连」；「耳」讀 ěr，語末助詞，猶言「而已」——「以膜相連耳」五字以「耳」收，正見帝之設疑：形之所見不過如此，何以能為胃行其津液？

In brief

The thin sheet of flesh that joins the spleen to the stomach. Chapter 29 raises it as an objection — how can so slight a connection support so large a function? — and answers by pointing to the vessel instead: foot Taiyin penetrates the stomach, belongs to the spleen and networks the pharynx, and it is by that channel, not by the membrane, that the spleen moves the stomach’s fluids. The passage is one of the clearest moments in the Suwen where an anatomical observation and a functional claim are set against each other and the functional claim wins.

Senses in the classical corpus

The graph 膜

肉閒之薄膜，連結藏府者

脾與胃以膜相連耳 — Suwen 29

The objection it raises 以膜相連耳

形之所見不過一膜，何以能行津液

脾與胃以膜相連耳，而能爲之行其津液，何也 — Suwen 29

What answers the objection 其脉貫胃屬脾絡嗌

脾胃之連在用為脉，不在形為膜

其脉貫胃屬脾絡嗌 — Suwen 29

What the membrane cannot explain 爲之行其津液

津液之行非膜之力，乃脉之用

而能爲之行其津液 — Suwen 29

What follows from the vessel 故太陰爲之行氣於三陰

太陰循其脉而為胃行氣

故太陰爲之行氣於三陰 — Suwen 29

The counterpart on the yang side 陽明者表也

陽明為表，亦為之行氣於三陽

陽明者表也，五藏六府之海也 — 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 →

帝曰：脾與胃以膜相連耳，而能爲之行其津液，何也？歧伯曰：足太陰者，三陰也，其脉貫胃屬脾絡嗌，故太陰爲之行氣於三陰。帝曰：脾与胃以膜相连耳，而能为之行其津液，何也？歧伯曰：足太阴者，三阴也，其脉贯胃属脾络嗌，故太阴为之行气于三阴。

Dì yuē: pí yǔ wèi yǐ mó xiāng lián ěr, ér néng wèi zhī xíng qí jīn yè, hé yě?Qí bó yuē: zú tài yīn zhě, sān yīn yě, qí mài guàn wèi shǔ pí luò yì, gù tài yīn wèi zhī xíng qì yú sān yīn.

The Emperor says: the spleen and the stomach are joined to each other by nothing but a membrane — how then can it move the fluids on its behalf? Qibo says: foot Taiyin is the third yin. Its vessel penetrates the stomach, belongs to the spleen and networks the pharynx; therefore Taiyin moves the qi for it through the three yin.

**此問是本篇最後一轉，由理論而及於形，再由形而及於脉。**「帝」讀 dì；「曰」讀 yuē；「脾」讀 pí；**「與」讀 yǔ，底本作「與」，不作「与」**；「胃」讀 wèi；「以」讀 yǐ；「膜」讀 mó；「相」讀 xiāng；「連」讀 lián；「耳」讀 ěr；「而」讀 ér；「能」讀 néng；**「爲」讀 wèi**；「之」讀 zhī；「行」讀 xíng；「其」讀 qí；「津」讀 jīn；「液」讀 yè；「何」讀 hé；「也」讀 yě。「歧」讀 qí；「伯」讀 bó；「足」讀 zú；「太」讀 tài；「陰」讀 yīn；「者」讀 zhě；「三」讀 sān；「脉」讀 mài；「貫」讀 guàn；「屬」讀 shǔ；「絡」讀 luò；「嗌」讀 yì；「故」讀 gù；「氣」讀 qì；「於」讀 yú。前文既言脾為胃行其津液，帝遂疑其形——脾胃之間不過一膜之連，何以能代胃而行？歧伯答以經脈之貫屬，**由「膜」（形）而進於「脉」（氣）**，是全篇由理論而解剖之收束。

素問·痺論 Suwen 43 · 痺論 Read in context →

故循皮膚之中，分肉之間，熏於肓膜，散於胸腹，逆其氣則病，從其氣則愈，不與風寒濕氣合，故不爲痺。故循皮肤之中，分肉之间，熏于肓膜，散于胸腹，逆其气则病，从其气则愈，不与风寒湿气合，故不为痹。

Gù xún pí fū zhī zhōng, fēn ròu zhī jiān, xūn yú huāng mó, sàn yú xiōng fù, nì qí qì zé bìng, cóng qí qì zé yù, bù yǔ fēng hán shī qì hé, gù bù wéi bì.

So it runs within the skin and between the partings of the flesh, steams the membranes of the body cavities and spreads through the chest and belly. If its qi is counterflow there is illness; if it is compliant, recovery. It does not combine with the qi of wind, cold and dampness, and therefore does not itself make obstruction.

「熏於肓膜」——「膜」讀 mó，**本篇「膜」1見**；**此為肓膜，即鬲中之膜**——王冰「肓膜，謂五藏之間，鬲中膜也」，**與 ch29「脾與胃以膜相連」之膜非一處**；「熏」讀 xūn、**熏讀 xūn，薰蒸也**。

Compounds built on this term

膜

mó

membrane

本篇一見，脾胃相連之形

以膜相連

yǐ mó xiāng lián

joined by a membrane

本篇一見，帝設疑之辭

貫胃屬脾

guàn wèi shǔ pí

penetrating the stomach and belonging to the spleen

本篇一見，太陰脉之所行

行其津液

xíng qí jīn yè

moving its fluids

本篇三見，「爲」皆讀 wèi

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	membrane	They render 膜 as membrane without expansion, keeping the word as the concrete thing the Emperor is pointing at.
Unschuld	membrane	Unschuld does the same, and notes that the objection is about whether a visible structure can account for a function.
This site	membrane	We keep the plain word. The force of the passage comes from the contrast — a membrane is thin, a channel does work — and any expansion of 膜 would blur the very smallness that makes the objection bite.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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