備化简体备化

bèi huà

Complete Transformation · bei hua

Also rendered: Complete Transformation (this site; 備 is full provision, so the name is not that earth transforms but that the transforming comes out whole) · Bei hua (transliteration; how the name appears in tables of the fifteen circuits)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-10-13

At a glance

Pinyin: bèi huà
Simplified: 备化
Literal: 備 bèi — complete, furnished with everything due (《說文》: 備，慎也; the received sense is full provision); 化 huà — transformation, the turning of a thing into its form. 備化 is earth at its even, and the one circuit named for transformation itself — because transformation is what earth does, and when earth is even there is nothing the year fails to bring round. The name is a state, not an action: not 'earth transforms' but 'the transforming is complete'.
Shuowen: **「備化」本篇2見：一在「土曰備化」，一在「備化之紀」**；**《說文》：備，慎也；化，教行也**；**「氣恊天休」本篇1見、「德流四政」本篇1見，皆備化之紀之文**；**「五化齊脩」本篇1見，唯此段有**；**「恊」本篇1見（受文作協）、「脩」本篇1見（受文作修）**

In brief

Earth in its even state, and the phase whose even name is the name of its own work. 土曰備化 — earth is called complete transformation — and its 紀 runs: 備化之紀，氣恊天休，德流四政，五化齊脩，其氣平，其性順，其用高下，其化豐滿，其類土，其政安靜，其候溽蒸，其令濕，其藏脾，脾其畏風，其主口，其榖稷，其果棗，其實肉，其應長夏，其蟲倮，其畜牛，其色黄，其養肉，其病否，其味甘，其音宫，其物膚，其數五. Its opening pair is the largest claim any of the five makes: 氣恊天休，德流四政 — its qi answers to the bounty of heaven, and its virtue runs through the governance of all four quarters. Its five transformations are not merely level or even but 齊脩, all of them ordered together, which is why the year-rites of the earth are the ones that hold the other four. Its viscus is the spleen, its season the long summer, its number five, the number of the centre; when it falls short it is 卑監, low and confined (called 減化, the diminishing transformation), and when it goes to excess 敦阜, mounded high (called 廣化, the widening one).

Senses in the classical corpus

The graph 備化

備者畢具，化者生化

土曰備化 — Suwen 70

Its phase 土之平氣

氣恊天休，德流四政

備化之紀，氣恊天休 — Suwen 70

Its five transformations 五化齊脩

五化皆齊而脩，非獨平均

五化齊脩 — Suwen 70

Its nature and use 其氣平，其性順

土氣平而性順，能載能化

其氣平，其性順 — Suwen 70

Its season and number 其應長夏，其數五

長夏為土，五為中數

其應長夏 / 其數五 — Suwen 70

Its two failures 卑監、敦阜

不及曰卑監（減化），太過曰敦阜（廣化）

土曰卑監 / 土曰敦阜 — Suwen 70

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

Suwen 70 Suwen 70 · 五常政大論 Read in context →

備化之紀，氣恊天休，德流四政，五化齊脩，其氣平，其性順，其用高下，其化豐滿，其類土，其政安靜，其候溽蒸，其令濕，其藏脾，脾其畏風，其主口，其榖稷，其果棗，其實肉，其應長夏，其蟲倮，其畜牛，其色黄，其養肉，其病否，其味甘，其音宫，其物膚，其數五。备化之纪，气协天休，德流四政，五化齐修，其气平，其性顺，其用高下，其化丰满，其类土，其政安静，其候溽蒸，其令湿，其藏脾，脾其畏风，其主口，其谷稷，其果枣，其实肉，其应长夏，其虫倮，其畜牛，其色黄，其养肉，其病否，其味甘，其音宫，其物肤，其数五。

Bèi huà zhī jì, qì xié tiān xiū, dé liú sì zhèng, wǔ huà qí xiū, qí qì píng, qí xìng shùn, qí yòng gāo xià, qí huà fēng mǎn, qí lèi tǔ, qí zhèng ān jìng, qí hòu rù zhēng, qí lìng shī, qí zàng pí, pí qí wèi fēng, qí zhǔ kǒu, qí gǔ jì, qí guǒ zǎo, qí shí ròu, qí yìng zhǎng xià, qí chóng luǒ, qí chù niú, qí sè huáng, qí yǎng ròu, qí bìng pǐ, qí wèi gān, qí yīn gōng, qí wù fū, qí shù wǔ.

In the era of Complete Transformation the qi is in accord with the goodness of heaven, its virtue flows through the governance of the four quarters, and the five transformations are complete and cultivated. Its qi even, its nature compliant, its use high and low, its transformation full and abundant, its class earth, its governance quiet and still, its climate damp and steaming, its command dampness, its viscus the spleen; the spleen fears wind; it governs the mouth; its grain panicled millet, its fruit the jujube, its kernel the flesh, its answering late summer, its creature the naked, its domestic animal the ox, its colour yellow, its nourishment the flesh, its illness stuffiness, its flavour sweet, its note gong, its thing the skin, its number five.

**「備化」本篇2見：一在「土曰備化」，一在「備化之紀」**；**此段以「氣恊天休，德流四政」立土之平，五平紀中惟此兼言四政**；**「五化齊脩」本篇1見，唯此段有；「齊」讀 qí，非臍**；**「恊」本篇1見（受文作協）；「脩」本篇1見（受文作修）：二字皆底本正字，已入校勘**

Compounds built on this term

卑監

bēi jiān

low confinement

本篇2見；土不及之名，其紀曰減化

敦阜

dūn fù

mounded height

本篇2見；土太過之名，其紀曰廣化

其藏脾

qí zàng pí

its viscus the spleen

本篇3見

長夏

zhǎng xià

late summer

本篇2見；備化之紀其應長夏

How it has been translated

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

This site	complete transformation	the transforming brought round in full; the rendering keeps 備 as completion rather than as preparation
Transliteration	bei hua	right about the referent, and it explains nothing about what is complete
Descriptive	earth in its even state	exact, and it loses the claim that the year's five transformations are all of them furnished

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2026-10-13

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