Bowel flow · chang liu

Also rendered: Bowel tumour (clinical, and it is not yet hard) · Intestinal flux (wrong, and it suggests diarrhoea) · Bowel flow (the site's convention, keeping 溜)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-10-26

At a glance

Pinyin: cháng liū
Simplified: 肠溜
Literal: 腸 cháng — the bowel; 溜 liū — what runs and gathers. Together: the mass that forms in the bowel when fluid stays there too long and the evil works on it.
Shuowen: 《說文》：腸，大小腸也。从肉昜聲。溜之義見筋溜條：取流行留聚，與瘤同源。此篇以「溜」名二病，皆言液聚而非血聚。

In brief

Bowel flow is the second of the six lesions and the slowest. 有所結，氣歸之，衛氣留之，不得反，津液久留，合而爲腸溜，久者數歲乃成 — something forms a knot, the qi returns to it, the defending qi stays there and cannot turn back, the fluids remain a long time and join into a bowel flow; the long ones take several years to complete. The chapter adds the one sign that separates it from the next: 以手按之柔 — press it and it is soft. That softness is what makes it 溜 and not 瘤, fluid and not hardened tissue, and it is why the same passage can go on to describe 昔瘤 as the same knot pressed and found hard.

Senses in the classical corpus

病名津液久留，合而爲腸溜

津液久留，合成腸溜

Fluids stay long and join into a bowel flow.

合而爲腸溜 — 靈樞·刺節真邪

成形之久久者數歲乃成

久的要幾年才成

The long ones take years to form — its pace is part of its name.

久者數歲乃成 — 靈樞·刺節真邪

按診以手按之柔

用手按它是軟的

Pressed, it is soft: the sign that separates it from 昔瘤.

以手按之柔 — 靈樞·刺節真邪

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

靈樞·刺節真邪 Read in context →

有所疾前筋，筋屈不得伸，邪氣居其間而不反，發於筋溜。有所結，氣歸之，衛氣留之，不得反，津液久留，合而爲腸溜，久者數歲乃成。以手按之柔。已有所結，氣歸之，津液留之，邪氣中之，凝結日以易甚，連以聚居，爲昔瘤，以手按之堅。有所疾前筋，筋屈不得伸，邪气居其间而不反，发于筋溜。有所结，气归之，卫气留之，不得反，津液久留，合而为肠溜，久者数岁乃成。以手按之柔。已有所结，气归之，津液留之，邪气中之，凝结日以易甚，连以聚居，为昔瘤，以手按之坚。

yǒu suǒ jí qián jīn, jīn qū bù dé shēn, xié qì jū qí jiān ér bù fǎn, fā yú jīn liū. yǒu suǒ jié, qì guī zhī, wèi qì liú zhī, bù dé fǎn, jīn yè jiǔ liú, hé ér wéi cháng liū, jiǔ zhě shù suì nǎi chéng. yǐ shǒu àn zhī róu. yǐ yǒu suǒ jié, qì guī zhī, jīn yè liú zhī, xié qì zhōng zhī, níng jié rì yǐ yì shèn, lián yǐ jù jū, wéi xī liú, yǐ shǒu àn zhī jiān.

Where disease settles before the sinew, the sinew bends and cannot stretch, evil stays in between and does not return, and there arises sinew flow. Where there is a knot, qi returns to it, guarding qi stays, and it cannot return; fluids stay long and join to make intestinal flow, which in the long case takes years to form; pressed with the hand it is soft. Where a knot has already formed, qi returns, fluids stay, evil strikes it, and the coagulation daily worsens, joining and gathering into an old growth; pressed with the hand it is hard.

「腸溜」本篇1見，與筋溜同段，言津液久留合而成之，按之柔以别於昔瘤，故引全段。

Compounds built on this term

津液久留

jīn yè jiǔ liú

fluids remaining long

腸溜所由成

昔瘤

xī liú

the old tumour

按之堅，與此相對

How it has been translated

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

This site	bowel flow	the pooling in the gut
Literal	bowel run	exact, and unhelpful
Clinical	a soft mass in the bowel	clear, and it uses the chapter's own sign

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-26

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Reading path

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