衝陽简体冲阳

chōng yáng

Chongyang · the surging yang

Also rendered: Chongyang (this site; the pulse name as the tradition has it, and the one used wherever the point is being discussed) · The surging yang (a rendering of the two graphs, used in the definition but not as a name)

Vessels

Reviewed · 2026-10-08

At a glance

Pinyin: chōng yáng
Simplified: 冲阳
Literal: 衝 chōng — a thoroughfare, a place where things surge through (《說文》: 衝，通道也); 陽 yáng — yang, and here the yang side of the body, the outer and upper face. 衝陽 is where the qi of the stomach channel surges across the instep — the pulse taken in the hollow between the second and third metatarsal bones, the point the tradition calls the source of the stomach channel. In Suwen 69 it is the pulse that decides death when wood is in surplus, because wood in surplus strikes earth, and earth's channel is the stomach's.
Shuowen: **「衝」讀 chōng，本篇2見，皆在「衝陽」一詞內**；**「陽」讀 yáng，本篇9見**；**《說文》：衝，通道也；通途為衝，引申為衝要、衝激**；**「衝陽」本篇1見，止在此句**；**本篇五脈（衝陽、太淵、太谿、太衝、神門）各一見，皆繫「絶者，死不治」之文**

In brief

The pulse at the instep where the stomach channel’s qi surges through, and the pulse this chapter takes when the wood circuit is in surplus. The rule the chapter follows, without ever stating it, is that a circuit in surplus strikes one phase and the pulse taken is that phase’s own channel pulse: 歲木太過，風氣流行，脾土受邪 — wood in surplus strikes the earth of the spleen — and so it is 衝陽, the stomach’s pulse, whose stopping means death. 絶 here is the pulse ceasing, not the channel being cut; the chapter says of all five pulses that when it is 絶 there is death and no cure.

Senses in the classical corpus

The graphs 衝陽

衝者通道，陽者陽面；胃氣衝過之處

衝陽絶者，死不治 — Suwen 69

The place 衝陽

足跗之上，胃脈之所過

歲木太過，風氣流行，脾土受邪 — Suwen 69

The rule 脾土受邪，取胃之脈

所勝之藏受邪，即取該藏之脈

衝陽絶者，死不治 — Suwen 69

What 絶 means 衝陽絶者

絶者脈絶不至，非斷絶之義

衝陽絶者，死不治 — Suwen 69

The verdict 死不治

五脈之絶，皆斷以死不治

死不治 — Suwen 69

With the star 上應太白星

木太過則金來復之，太白亦見

上應太白星 — Suwen 69

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display

1 passages

Suwen 69 Suwen 69 · 氣交變大論 Read in context →

帝曰：五運之化，太過何如？歧伯曰：歲木太過，風氣流行，脾土受邪，民病飱泄食減，體重煩冤，腸鳴，腹支滿，上應歲星。甚則忽忽善怒，眩冒巔疾，化氣不政，生氣獨治，雲物飛動，草木不寧，甚而搖落，反脅痛而吐甚。衝陽絶者，死不治，上應太白星。帝曰：五运之化，太过何如？歧伯曰：岁木太过，风气流行，脾土受邪，民病飧泄食减，体重烦冤，肠鸣，腹支满，上应岁星。甚则忽忽善怒，眩冒巅疾，化气不政，生气独治，云物飞动，草木不宁，甚而摇落，反胁痛而吐甚。冲阳绝者，死不治，上应太白星。

Dì yuē: wǔ yùn zhī huà, tài guò hé rú? Qí bó yuē: suì mù tài guò, fēng qì liú xíng, pí tǔ shòu xié, mín bìng sūn xiè shí jiǎn, tǐ zhòng fán yuān, cháng míng, fù zhī mǎn, shàng yìng suì xīng. Shèn zé hū hū shàn nù, xuàn mào diān jí, huà qì bù zhèng, shēng qì dú zhì, yún wù fēi dòng, cǎo mù bù níng, shèn ér yáo luò, fǎn xié tòng ér tù shèn. Chōng yáng jué zhě, sǐ bù zhì, shàng yìng tài bái xīng.

Huang Di said: as for the transformation of the five circuits, what is it like when there is surplus? Qi Bo said: in a year of wood in surplus, the qi of wind spreads and moves and the earth of the spleen receives evil; the people are ill with gruel diarrhoea and diminished eating, a heavy body and freting oppression, rumbling in the bowels and fullness propping the abdomen; it answers above to Jupiter. If it is severe they are dazed and quick to anger, dizzy and veiled, with illness at the crown; the qi of transformation does not govern and the qi of growth rules alone, clouds and things fly and move, plants and trees are not at rest and are even shaken bare, and there is counterflow pain in the flanks and severe vomiting. Where Chongyang is cut off there is death and no cure; it answers above to Venus.

**「衝陽」本篇1見，止此一句**；**「絶」本篇5見，五脈之文皆用此字；「絶者」非斷絶，是脈絶不至**；**「歲木太過」是十表之首：木太過則風行，脾土受邪，故取胃之衝陽**；**「上應太白星」是復氣之星：木太過，金來復之**；**「甚而搖落」之「搖」底本作「搖」，來稿作簡體「摇」，已還原**

Compounds built on this term

太衝

tài chōng

Taichong

本篇1見；金太過則肝木受邪，取肝脈

絶

jué

cut off; ceased

本篇5見，五脈之絶皆此字，底本作「絶」

脾土

pí tǔ

the earth of the spleen

本篇2見；脾土受邪

死不治

sǐ bù zhì

death and no cure

本篇5見，五脈之文皆以此四字收束

How it has been translated

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

This site	Chongyang	the name this site uses for the pulse and the point; the chapter calls it 衝陽 and means the pulse
Transliteration	chong yang	how the name appears wherever the stomach channel's source point is listed
Descriptive	the surging pulse at the instep	exact about the place, and it invites reading 衝 as the surge rather than as the thoroughfare the graph is

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-08

Search the glossary

Reading path

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

See all reading paths