清厥

qīng jué

Cold counterflow · qing jue

Also rendered: cold counterflow (Says that the cold and the wrong direction belong together) · chilling and reversal (Wiseman's vocabulary; reversal is not transparent English) · cold extremities with qi rising (Expands the term into a mechanism) · qing jue (Bare transliteration)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: qīng jué
Simplified: 清厥
Literal: 清 is water made clear — 《說文》朖也，澂水之皃 — and here means cold and clear rather than pure. 厥 originally meant to heave a stone, 《說文》發石也; medicine took it for qi going the wrong way. Put together: the limbs are clear and cold and the qi has stopped travelling outward.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：清，朖也，澂水之皃。从水青聲；厥，發石也。从厂欮聲（醫書借為氣逆之名）。

In brief

In chapter 22 it belongs to kidney depletion, and sits in a list that is easy to read past: pain in the chest, pain in the upper and lower abdomen, cold counterflow, and a mind without pleasure. That last item is why the two words are worth separating out. This is not merely a chilled patient; it is the picture of an organ that has stopped distributing warmth anywhere — outward to the hands and feet, and inward enough to make the spirits want anything. Later books use the same pair for very different afflictions, but the two directions are always together.

Senses in the classical corpus

Cold limbs with upward counterflow 清厥

陽氣不達四末，手足清冷而氣逆

虚則胸中痛，大腹小腹痛，清厥，意不樂 — Suwen 22

Read afterQC 腰足清清

同屬腎氣不周之候

推而上之，上而不下，腰足清也 — Suwen 17

Counterflow as a family 厥

本篇「厥」字屢見，皆氣逆之義

肺苦氣上逆 — Suwen 22

With heaviness elsewhere 熱厥寒厥之辨

後世分厥為寒熱二端，本篇止舉其一

陽氣衰於下則為寒厥 — Suwen 45

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display

2 passages

素問·藏氣法時論 Suwen 22 · 藏氣法時論 Read in context →

腎病者，腹大脛腫，喘欬身重，寢汗出，憎風，虚則胸中痛，大腹小腹痛，清厥，意不樂，取其經少陰、太陽血者。肾病者，腹大胫肿，喘欬身重，寝汗出，憎风，虚则胸中痛，大腹小腹痛，清厥，意不乐，取其经少阴、太阳血者。

Shèn bìng zhě, fù dà jìng zhǒng, chuǎn kài shēn zhòng, qǐn hàn chū, zēng fēng, xū zé xiōng zhōng tòng, dà fù xiǎo fù tòng, qīng jué, yì bù lè, qǔ qí jīng shào yīn, tài yáng xuè zhě.

In kidney illness the abdomen is enlarged and the shins swollen, there is panting and coughing with heaviness of the body, sweating in sleep, and hatred of wind; in depletion there is pain in the chest, pain in the upper and lower abdomen, cold counterflow, and a mind without pleasure. Take the blood of its channels, the lesser yin and the greater yang.

本篇清厥一症，見於腎病之虛而不是傷在特定之脈。腎陽不布，故四肢清冷而氣逆；清冷與厥逆二者本是一病，分言則失。其前列症為胸中痛、大腹小腹痛，後綴「意不樂」——同一虛候而連情志，可見本篇所謂厥者不止手足。第十七篇「推而上之，上而不下，腰足清也」，清字同讀 qīng，亦屬陽氣不周。後世第四十五篇《厥論》別出寒厥熱厥，與此同源而分其目。

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

歲土太過，雨濕流行，腎水受邪。民病腹痛，清厥意不樂，體重煩冤。上應鎮星。甚則肌肉萎，足痿不收，行善瘈，腳下痛，飲發，中滿食減，四支不舉。變生得位，藏氣伏，化氣獨治之，泉涌河衍，涸澤生魚，風雨大至，土崩潰，鱗見于陸。病腹滿溏泄，腸鳴，反下甚而太谿絶者，死不治。上應歲星。岁土太过，雨湿流行，肾水受邪。民病腹痛，清厥意不乐，体重烦冤。上应镇星。甚则肌肉萎，足痿不收，行善瘈，脚下痛，饮发，中满食减，四支不举。变生得位，藏气伏，化气独治之，泉涌河衍，涸泽生鱼，风雨大至，土崩溃，鳞见于陆。病腹满溏泄，肠鸣，反下甚而太溪绝者，死不治。上应岁星。

Suì tǔ tài guò, yǔ shī liú xíng, shèn shuǐ shòu xié. Mín bìng fù tòng, qīng jué yì bù lè, tǐ zhòng fán yuān. Shàng yìng zhèn xīng. Shèn zé jī ròu wěi, zú wěi bù shōu, xíng shàn chì, jiǎo xià tòng, yǐn fā, zhōng mǎn shí jiǎn, sì zhī bù jǔ. Biàn shēng dé wèi, zàng qì fú, huà qì dú zhì zhī, quán yǒng hé yǎn, hé zé shēng yú, fēng yǔ dà zhì, tǔ bēng kuì, lín xiàn yú lù. Bìng fù mǎn táng xiè, cháng míng, fǎn xià shèn ér tài xī jué zhě, sǐ bù zhì. Shàng yìng suì xīng.

In a year of earth in surplus, rain and dampness spread and move and the water of the kidney receives evil. The people are ill with pain in the abdomen, clear counterflow and a mind that takes no pleasure, a heavy body and freting oppression; it answers above to Saturn. If it is severe, the flesh wastes, the feet are limp and cannot be drawn up, walking brings twitching, there is pain under the foot, rheum breaks out, the centre is full and eating diminishes, and the four limbs cannot be lifted. Change arises when it holds its place: the qi of storage lies hidden and the qi of transformation governs alone, springs gush and rivers overflow, dried-up marshes bring forth fish, wind and rain arrive in force, the earth crumbles and collapses, and scaled creatures are seen on land. The illness is fullness of the abdomen, sloppy diarrhoea and rumbling in the bowels; if it turns worse below and Taixi is cut off, there is death and no cure; it answers above to Jupiter.

「歲土太過，雨濕流行，腎水受邪。民病腹痛，清厥意不樂，體重煩冤」——**「清厥」本篇2見：此一見、「足痿清厥」一見**；**清厥者，足脛逆冷；本篇一因雨濕流行而腎水受邪，一因濕乃大行而長氣反用，皆陰盛於下**；**本篇「厥」5見，皆在「清厥」二見、「陰厥」2見、「厥陰」一見之内，無獨立之「厥」，故不入「厥」目**；**「厥」讀 jué**

Compounds built on this term

清

qīng

cold and clear

說文：朖也，澂水之皃

厥

jué

counterflow

說文：發石也；醫書以為氣逆

清厥

qīng jué

cold counterflow

本篇於腎虛證見之

腰足清

yāo zú qīng

cold waist and feet

第十七篇同其讀法

意不樂

yì bù lè

a mind without pleasure

本篇與清厥同列，為腎虛之候

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	cold reversal	They render 厥 as reversal throughout — the qi reverses — and keep cold for 清.
Unschuld	cold and qi counterflow	He separates the two graphs in English, which keeps both halves visible.
This site	cold counterflow	'Reversal' suggests qi running backwards, which is too mechanical; counterflow keeps the older sense of going against direction. And since the patient is cold rather than chilled, plain cold is the word.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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