Classica Sinica Medica

遺 简体 遗

yí

Residue · yi

Also rendered: residue (Keeps the sense of something left over; no clinical colouring) · lingering heat (Names what is left; loses the word's generality)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
yí
Simplified
遗
Literal
遺 yí, to leave behind, to be left over. One graph, and chapter 31 uses it six times in five lines. The meaning is concrete: the heat disease has been got over, but something of it has been left behind and will not go. The chapter is unusually precise about the mechanism — food taken while the heat is still extreme, so that grain qi and the stored heat press against each other and two heats join.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：遺，亡也，从辵貴聲——「遺」讀 yí，**本篇六見**，皆殘留、餘留之義（時有所遺者、諸遺者、故有所遺也×2、治遺柰何、多食則遺）。**「遺」不作「遺失」解，亦不讀 wèi（饋遺之遺）**，本篇六見無一例外。「時」讀 shí；「所」讀 suǒ，本篇四見；「者」讀 zhě；「諸」讀 zhū，凡也；「熱」讀 rè；「甚」讀 shèn；**「強」讀 qiǎng，勉強也**——與上文「腰脊強」之讀 jiāng 者同形異讀；「食」讀 shí；「故」讀 gù；「治」讀 zhì；「柰」讀 nài；「多」讀 duō；「則」讀 zé。**「遺」之一字，是本篇論病後調攝之眼目**。

In brief

What is left behind after a heat disease has apparently got better. Chapter 31 gives it a single cause — food forced on the patient while the heat is still extreme — and a single mechanism: the disease has declined but the heat is stored somewhere, grain qi and it press against each other, two heats join, and so something remains. The treatment is correspondingly general: look to the emptiness and repletion, regulate what is counterflow and what follows. The prohibition that closes the passage is the other half of the same teaching — meat brings relapse, overeating leaves residue.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The thing itself 時有所遺者
熱病已愈而餘熱時時不去
熱病已愈，時有所遺者 — Suwen 31
2
Its cause 熱甚而強食之
熱勢尚盛而勉強進食，則熱與穀氣相合
熱甚而強食之，故有所遺也 — Suwen 31
3
Its mechanism 因其榖氣相薄，兩熱相合
穀氣之熱與所藏之熱相迫，故熱反留
因其榖氣相薄，兩熱相合 — Suwen 31
4
Where the heat sits 熱有所藏
病雖衰而熱潛藏於內，「藏」讀 cáng
皆病已衰而熱有所藏 — Suwen 31
5
Its treatment 視其虚實，調其逆從
不專清熱，先辨虚實、定逆從
視其虚實，調其逆從 — Suwen 31
6
Its prohibition 多食則遺，此其禁也
食肉則復，多食則遺，是為熱病之禁
多食則遺，此其禁也 — Suwen 31

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·熱論 Suwen 31 · 熱論 Read in context →
歧伯曰：諸遺者，熱甚而強食之，故有所遺也。 歧伯曰：诸遗者，热甚而强食之，故有所遗也。
Qí bó yuē: zhū yí zhě, rè shèn ér qiǎng shí zhī, gù yǒu suǒ yí yě.
Qibo says: in every case of residue it is because food was forced on the patient while the heat was still extreme, and so something is left behind.
論遺之因。「諸」讀 zhū，凡也；**「遺」讀 yí，本篇六見**；「者」讀 zhě；「熱」讀 rè；「甚」讀 shèn；「而」讀 ér；**「強」讀 qiǎng，勉強也**——本篇「強」二見：此讀 qiǎng，上文「腰脊強」讀 jiāng；「食」讀 shí；「之」讀 zhī；「故」讀 gù；「有」讀 yǒu；「所」讀 suǒ；「也」讀 yě。**「熱甚而強食之」是遺之唯一病因**：熱未衰而納穀，則穀氣與熱相薄，故熱反留而不去。

Compounds built on this term

遺
yí
residue
本篇六見，熱病後之餘熱
有所遺
yǒu suǒ yí
something is left behind
本篇三見
治遺
zhì yí
treating the residue
本篇一見
食復
shí fù
relapse from eating
後世之名，本篇作「食肉則復」

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng(there is) residual [heat]They supply 'heat' because the English needs an object, but the addition quietly decides for the reader what the residue consists of.
Unschuld(something) remainsUnschuld stays with the verb, which is faithful to 遺 and leaves the question of what remains open until the next sentence answers it.
This siteresidueWe keep 遺 as residue. It is one graph in Chinese and should be one word here; the chapter supplies its own account of what the residue is and how it got there.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

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

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