Classica Sinica Medica

體惰 简体 体惰

tǐ duò

Bodily sloth · ti duo

Also rendered: Bodily sloth (keeps the sense of slackness) · Body slackness (plain, and it sounds like a temperament) · Traumatic asthenia (clinical, and it is an interpretation)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-10-25

At a glance

Pinyin
tǐ duò
Simplified
体惰
Literal
體 tǐ — the body, the whole assembled frame; 惰 duò — slack, unwilling to move. The compound is not lethargy of mood but a body that will not gather itself.
Shuowen
《說文》：體，總十二屬也。惰，不敬也，一曰懈也。「體惰」本篇1見，為篇中唯一自名之病。

In brief

The disease named in this chapter after injury: blood lost in quantity, wind-cold entering, or a fall, and afterwards the four limbs go slack and will not gather. It is not a withered limb and not a painful one — the frame is intact, the strength is simply not delivered. The chapter treats it at the threefold meeting below the navel, which it then identifies as yang brightness and greater yin meeting three inches below the navel, at guan yuan. The name matters because it fixes the picture: what fails is not the limb but the body’s hold on it.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The name 名曰體惰
称作体惰
It is named bodily sloth.
名曰體惰 — 靈樞·寒熱病
2
The cause 身有所傷，血出多
身体受伤，出血过多
The body has been injured and much blood has gone out.
身有所傷，血出多 — 靈樞·寒熱病
3
The signs 四支懈惰不收
四肢松懈而不能收持
The four limbs are slack and will not gather.
四支懈惰不收 — 靈樞·寒熱病
4
Where it is treated 取其小腹臍下三結交
取小腹脐下的三结交
Take the threefold meeting below the navel.
取其小腹臍下三結交 — 靈樞·寒熱病

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
靈樞·寒𤍠病 Read in context →
身有所傷，血出多，及中風寒，若有所墮墜，四支懈惰不收，名曰體惰，取其小腹臍下三結交。三結交者，陽明、大陰也。臍下三寸，關元也。 身有所伤，血出多，及中风寒，若有所堕坠，四支懈惰不收，名曰体惰，取其小腹脐下三结交。三结交者，阳明、大阴也。脐下三寸，关元也。
shēn yǒu suǒ shāng, xuè chū duō, jí zhòng fēng hán, ruò yǒu suǒ duò zhuì, sì zhī xiè duò bù shōu, míng yuē tǐ duò, qǔ qí xiǎo fù qí xià sān jié jiāo. sān jié jiāo zhě, yáng míng, dà yīn yě. qí xià sān cùn, guān yuán yě.
When the body has been wounded and much blood lost, or wind-cold has struck, or the patient has fallen from a height, and the four limbs are slack and cannot be gathered, the condition is called bodily lassitude. Take the threefold meeting below the navel on the lower abdomen. The threefold meeting is where yangming and taiyin meet; three cun below the navel it is Guanyuan.
「體惰」本篇1見，段中自名其病，並出三結交、關元以定其所取。

Compounds built on this term

四支懈惰不收
sì zhī xiè duò bù shōu
the four limbs slack and ungathered
體惰之主證
三結交
sān jié jiāo
the threefold meeting
關元之別名

How it has been translated

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

This sitebodily sloththe text's own name
Literalbody-slackexact, and it is awkward
Clinicalpost-traumatic limb slacknessclear, and it is an identification

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-25

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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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