大汗

dà hàn

Great sweating · da han

Also rendered: profuse sweating (Clinically natural, but 'profuse' suggests a symptom to be stopped rather than a crisis resolved) · the great sweat (Keeps the noun and the capital; slightly archaic)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: dà hàn
Simplified: 大汗
Literal: 大 dà, great; 汗 hàn, sweat. Not sweating a lot as a symptom, but the one decisive sweat that ends the disease. In chapter 32 each of the five depot heat diseases has its day of worsening and its day of great sweating, and the great sweat is always the good one: it is the sign that the disease has turned.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：汗，人液也，从水干聲——「大」讀 dà，本篇九見；「汗」讀 hàn，本篇十六見。**「大汗」本篇五見，五藏熱病各一**（肝甲乙、心丙丁、脾戊巳、肺庚辛、腎壬癸），皆在其「甚」日之後，與「甚」對舉而為愈候。**本篇之例：所勝之日則甚，本藏當旺之日則大汗**——肝（木）庚辛甚而甲乙大汗，心（火）壬癸甚而丙丁大汗，脾（土）甲乙甚而戊巳大汗，肺（金）丙丁甚而庚辛大汗，腎（水）戊巳甚而壬癸大汗。五藏一例，秩然不紊。下文又總括之曰：「諸汗者，至其所勝日，汗出也」、「諸當汗者，至其所勝日，汗大出也」——**一篇之中三提汗之期，見本篇以汗之有無大小斷熱病之愈否**。「戊」讀 wù；「巳」讀 sì，詳見本站「所勝日」條；「甲乙」讀 jiǎ yǐ。**「大汗」與本站「汗」（id 689）、「絶汗」（id 561）別**：「汗」為通名，「絶汗」為死候之汗，「大汗」則為邪退之汗，三者同名而異指。

In brief

The decisive sweat that marks recovery. Chapter 32 assigns each depot heat disease a day on which it worsens and a day on which the great sweat comes; the worsening day belongs to the phase that conquers the depot, the sweating day to the depot’s own phase. The chapter states the rule twice more in general terms, which makes the great sweat the chapter’s principal sign that the disease has turned. It is not the same thing as sweating as a symptom, and not the same as the final sweat of a dying patient.

Senses in the classical corpus

The sweat that ends the disease 甲乙大汗

大汗者，邪退之汗，非病狀之汗

甲乙大汗 — Suwen 32

Paired with the day of worsening 庚辛甚，甲乙大汗

一甚一汗，肝熱病之兩日

庚辛甚，甲乙大汗 — Suwen 32

Falls on the depot's own day 丙丁大汗

心屬火，大汗於丙丁，即本藏當旺之日

丙丁大汗 — Suwen 32

The general rule restated 諸汗者，至其所勝日，汗出也

五藏之汗皆有其期

諸汗者，至其所勝日，汗出也 — Suwen 32

Restated with the measure 諸當汗者，至其所勝日，汗大出也

汗出與汗大出，詳略之別

汗大出也 — Suwen 32

Contrasted with sweat as symptom 汗出而寒

肺熱之汗出而仍寒，非邪退之汗

汗出而寒 — Suwen 32

Occurrences in the classics

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

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1 passages

素問·剌熱 Suwen 32 · 剌熱 Read in context →

熱爭則腰痛不可用俛仰，腹滿泄，兩頷痛，甲乙甚，戊巳大汗，氣逆則甲乙死。热争则腰痛不可用俯仰，腹满泄，两颔痛，甲乙甚，戊巳大汗，气逆则甲乙死。

Rè zhēng zé yāo tòng bù kě yòng fǔ yǎng, fù mǎn xiè, liǎng hàn tòng, jiǎ yǐ shèn, wù sì dà hàn, qì nì zé jiǎ yǐ sǐ.

When heat contends the lower back aches so that one cannot bend forward or back, the abdomen is full and there is diarrhoea, and both jaws ache. It is worse on jia-yi days and sweats greatly on wu-si days; if the qi counterflows, death comes on a jia-yi day.

脾熱病之甚日與汗日。「腰」讀 yāo；「痛」讀 tòng，本篇十七見；「可」讀 kě；「用」讀 yòng；「俛」讀 fǔ；「仰」讀 yǎng；**「泄」讀 xiè，本篇一見**，《太素》作「寫」，今作「瀉」；「兩」讀 liǎng；「頷」讀 hàn；**「戊」讀 wù，「巳」讀 sì**——脾屬土，土日當作「戊己」，而底本此作「巳」，下文「氣逆則戊己死」方作天干之「己」，同篇二形互見，各從底本。**脾病「甲乙甚」而「戊巳大汗」**：甲乙屬木，木剋土，故甚；戊巳（當作戊己）屬土，為脾之旺日，故大汗。

Compounds built on this term

大汗

dà hàn

great sweating

本篇五見，五藏各一

汗大出

hàn dà chū

the sweat comes out greatly

本篇一見，總括五藏之例

汗出而寒

hàn chū ér hán

sweating with coldness

本篇一見，肺熱之變，與大汗之為愈候者別

絶汗

jué hàn

the final sweat

本站已立目（id 561），死候之汗，與此相反

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	great sweating	They keep 大 as 'great', which matches the text's own contrast with ordinary sweating.
Unschuld	sweats heavily	Unschuld reads it as an observation about volume, which loses the fact that this sweat is the turning point.
This site	great sweating	We keep 'great'. In this chapter the word marks a crisis that resolves the disease, not a quantity of fluid, and 'great' is the one adjective that carries both senses.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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