Classica Sinica Medica

食飲不節 简体 食饮不节

shí yǐn bù jié

Eating and drinking without measure · shi yin bu jie

Also rendered: eating and drinking without measure (Keeps 節 as measure, which is the graph's own sense) · immoderate eating and drinking (Plainer; shifts the blame onto quantity alone)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
shí yǐn bù jié
Simplified
食饮不节
Literal
食 is eating, 飲 is drinking, 節 is measure — literally the node of a bamboo stem, and so the limit or rule by which something is ordered. Eating and drinking without measure is therefore not gluttony alone but disorder: intake that has lost the rule that should govern it. Chapter 29 pairs it with 起居不 時, rising and resting out of season, and the two together are the chapter's complete account of what damages the yin side of the body from within — the exact counterpart to the thieving wind and empty evil that damage the yang side from without.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：節，竹約也，从竹即聲，引申為法度、制節之義。「食」讀 shí；「飲」讀 yǐn，底本作「飲」，不作「饮」；「不」讀 bù；「節」讀 jié，底本作「節」，不作「节」；「起」讀 qǐ；「居」讀 jū；「時」讀 shí。「不節」與「不時」為對文：一違其節度，一違其時序。

In brief

Intake that has lost the measure that should govern it. Chapter 29 sets it beside rising and resting out of season, and names the pair as the cause of damage that yin receives — as opposed to the wind and empty evil that yang receives from outside. The consequence the chapter gives is anatomical: what yin receives enters the five depots, and there it produces distension, fullness and blockage above and food-diarrhoea below, which in time becomes intestinal flux. The chapter is not preaching temperance; it is assigning a class of disease to a class of cause, and doing it with the same even hand it uses everywhere else.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The phrase 食飲不節
飲食失其節度
食飲不節，起居不時者，陰受之 — Suwen 29
2
Its pair 起居不時
起居失其時序
起居不時者，陰受之 — Suwen 29
3
What receives it 陰受之
傷自內生，故陰受
陰受之 — Suwen 29
4
Where it goes 陰受之則入五藏
陰受之而入藏，與陽之入府相對
陰受之則入五藏 — Suwen 29
5
What it produces 䐜滿閉塞，下爲飱泄
藏病則滿塞於中、飱泄於下
入五藏則䐜滿閉塞，下爲飱泄 — Suwen 29
6
What it is set against 犯賊風虚邪者，陽受之
邪自外至者陽受之，傷自內生者陰受之
故犯賊風虚邪者，陽受之 — Suwen 29

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
素問·太陰陽明論 Suwen 29 · 太陰陽明論 Read in context →
故犯賊風虚邪者，陽受之；食飲不節，起居不時者，陰受之。 故犯贼风虚邪者，阳受之；食饮不节，起居不时者，阴受之。
Gù fàn zéi fēng xū xié zhě, yáng shòu zhī; shí yǐn bù jié, qǐ jū bù shí zhě, yīn shòu zhī.
Therefore the one who offends against thieving wind and empty evil — yang receives it. The one whose eating and drinking are without measure and whose rising and resting are out of season — yin receives it.
**此節與上句為全篇最重要之對舉。**「故」讀 gù；「犯」讀 fàn，觸犯、遭受也；「賊」讀 zéi，底本作「賊」，不作「贼」；「風」讀 fēng，本篇三見，底本作「風」，不作「风」；「虚」讀 xū；「邪」讀 xié；「者」讀 zhě；「陽」讀 yáng；「受」讀 shòu，本篇七見；「之」讀 zhī；「食」讀 shí；「飲」讀 yǐn；「不」讀 bù；「節」讀 jié；「起」讀 qǐ；「居」讀 jū；「時」讀 shí；「陰」讀 yīn。賊風虛邪自外至，故陽受之而入六府；食飲起居之傷自內生，故陰受之而入五藏。**一外一內、一陽一陰、一府一藏，綱舉而目張**——此即本篇答「生病而異者，何也」之實際。「虛邪賊風」四字連讀，指乘虛而入之風邪，與本站「虛邪賊風」條（id 154）同實而字序倒。

Compounds built on this term

食飲不節
shí yǐn bù jié
eating and drinking without measure
本篇一見，陰受之由
起居不時
qǐ jū bù shí
rising and resting out of season
本篇一見，與上句為對文
賊風虛邪
zéi fēng xū xié
thieving wind and empty evil
本篇一見，陽受之由；本站已立「虛邪賊風」條（id 154）
入五藏
rù wǔ zàng
entering the five depots
本篇一見，陰受之歸宿

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng(rendered descriptively)They render the clause as 'improper eating and drinking', folding 節 into propriety rather than measure.
Unschuldeating and drinking without restraintUnschuld uses restraint, which captures the moral weight that later commentary reads into the passage.
This siteeating and drinking without measureWe keep measure: 節 is the node in a bamboo stem, a rule of interval, and the chapter pairs it with 時 — the right time — in the next clause. The pair is about order, not about restraint, and the rendering should say so.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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