xià gé
Also rendered: Below the diaphragm (literal, and it is a location) · Lower obstruction (clinical, and it loses the anatomy) · The lower diaphragm (wrong: 下 modifies the seat)
Reviewed · 2026-10-25
At a glance
The worm obstruction below the diaphragm: food goes down and comes back only after a full day — 晬時, the turn of a day. The delay is the diagnostic: in the upper obstruction the return is immediate, here it is late, because a mass has formed below and the road is narrowed. The chapter then explains it: when the man eats, the worms come up to eat; as they come up the lower stomach empties; emptied, it is overcome by evil qi, and accumulation, abscess and constriction follow in order.
Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.
Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.
| This site | below the diaphragm | the seat as a name |
| Literal | lower diaphragm | exact, and it misleads |
| Clinical | low obstruction with delayed vomiting | clear, and interpretive |
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