絶人長命简体绝人长命

jué rén cháng mìng

Cutting short the long life · jue ren chang ming

Also rendered: cutting short the long life (Keeps 絶 as a cutting and 長命 as a noun) · destroying people's allotted lifespan (More explicit, and loses the violence of 絶)

Life stages

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: jué rén cháng mìng
Simplified: 绝人长命
Literal: 絶 is to cut a thread — 說文's 斷絲, and the old graph shows a knife severing silk. 命 is to be sent: 說文 glosses it as 使, and it is 令 with a mouth added, an order issued. 長命 is the long life a person was allotted, the same quantity that chapter 1 calls 天年. So the phrase is not a curse thrown at a bad physician; it is a measurement. Chapter 27 says it twice, once at the end of each of the two closing paragraphs, and between the two it says 予人天殃 — he hands the patient a calamity from heaven — as if the life were a sum that has been taken and the calamity the receipt.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：絕，斷絲也。从糸从刀从卪；命，使也。从口从令；長，久遠也。从兀从匕。絶人長命，謂斷絕人所得於天之長壽。本篇之目：邪獨内著，絶人長命，予人天殃。長命之長讀 cháng，與本站天年條（id 160）之義相接。

In brief

To cut short the long life that was a person’s — the sentence chapter 27 passes on the physician who needles without knowing the three regions and nine indicators. It appears twice, closing each of the last two paragraphs, and the second time it is preceded by 釋邪攻正 — releasing the evil and attacking the upright — which is what the cutting consists of. The phrase belongs with 天年 of chapter 1: the life is conceived as an allotted quantity, and the physician’s incompetence is measured as a subtraction from it.

Senses in the classical corpus

The first occurrence 絶人長命

真氣失、邪獨著而壽命絕

真氣已失，邪獨内著，絶人長命，予人天殃 — Suwen 27

The second occurrence 絶人長命

釋邪攻正，再言之

因加相勝，釋邪攻正，絶人長命 — Suwen 27

What is cut 長命

人所受於天之長壽

絶人長命 — Suwen 27

What accompanies it 予人天殃

絕其命而予以天殃

予人天殃 — Suwen 27

Why it cannot last 不能久長

不知三部九候，故不能久長

不知三部九𠉀，故不能久長 — Suwen 27

The measure it is cut from 天年

與第一篇天年之義相接

盡終其天年 — Suwen 1

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·離合真邪論 Suwen 27 · 離合真邪論 Read in context →

用實爲虚，以邪爲真，用鍼無義，反爲氣賊，奪人正氣，以從爲逆，榮衛散亂，真氣已失，邪獨内著，絶人長命，予人天殃。用实为虚，以邪为真，用针无义，反为气贼，夺人正气，以从为逆，荣卫散乱，真气已失，邪独内著，绝人长命，予人天殃。

Yòng shí wéi xū, yǐ xié wéi zhēn, yòng zhēn wú yì, fǎn wéi qì zéi, duó rén zhèng qì, yǐ cóng wéi nì, róng wèi sàn luàn, zhēn qì yǐ shī, xié dú nèi zhuó, jué rén cháng mìng, yǔ rén tiān yāng.

To treat repletion as vacuity and take the evil for the true, to use the needle without principle, is to become a thief of the qi: it robs people of their upright qi, turns following into going against, scatters the bloom and defence, loses the true qi, leaves the evil lodged alone within, cuts short the long life that was theirs, and hands them a calamity from heaven.

此段是本篇最後一段責醫之辭，而「絶人長命」四字是它的句末重錘，與下段「釋邪攻正，絶人長命」遙遙相應——同一句話說兩遍，是本篇結尾的筆法。**「絶」讀 jué，本篇二見**，底本作「絶」不作「絕」；**「長」讀 cháng**，與本站天年條（id 160）之義相接；**「予」讀 yǔ，本篇惟此一見**，給予之義，不讀 yú；**「殃」讀 yāng，本篇惟此一見**，災殃之義；**「奪」讀 duó**，「正」讀 zhèng；**「著」讀 zhuó**，留著之義。「以從爲逆」四字尤須留意：「從」讀 cóng，順從之從——本當順之而反逆之，與本站逆從條（id 484）同字。「榮衛散亂」（「散」讀 sàn，「亂」讀 luàn）是從第二段的「榮衛之傾移」到此的最後一步：傾移尚有定向，散亂則無復條理。

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

帝曰：有毒無毒，服有約乎？歧伯曰：病有久新，方有大小，有毒無毒，固宜常制矣。大毒治病，十去其六；常毒治病，十去其七；小毒治病，十去其八；無毒治病，十去其九。榖肉果菜，食養盡之，無使過之，傷其正也。不盡，行復如法。必先歲氣，無伐天和，無盛盛，無虚虚，而遺人天殃，無致邪，無失正，絶人長命。帝曰：有毒无毒，服有约乎？歧伯曰：病有久新，方有大小，有毒无毒，固宜常制矣。大毒治病，十去其六；常毒治病，十去其七；小毒治病，十去其八；无毒治病，十去其九。谷肉果菜，食养尽之，无使过之，伤其正也。不尽，行复如法。必先岁气，无伐天和，无盛盛，无虚虚，而遗人天殃，无致邪，无失正，绝人长命。

Dì yuē: yǒu dú wú dú, fú yǒu yuē hū? Qí bó yuē: bìng yǒu jiǔ xīn, fāng yǒu dà xiǎo, yǒu dú wú dú, gù yí cháng zhì yǐ. Dà dú zhì bìng, shí qù qí liù; cháng dú zhì bìng, shí qù qí qī; xiǎo dú zhì bìng, shí qù qí bā; wú dú zhì bìng, shí qù qí jiǔ. Gǔ ròu guǒ cài, shí yǎng jìn zhī, wú shǐ guò zhī, shāng qí zhèng yě. Bù jìn, xíng fù rú fǎ. Bì xiān suì qì, wú fá tiān hé, wú shèng shèng, wú xū xū, ér yí rén tiān yāng, wú zhì xié, wú shī zhèng, jué rén cháng mìng.

Huang Di said: as to having poison and not having poison, is there a rule for taking them? Qi Bo said: illnesses are old and new, prescriptions great and small, poisonous and not poisonous — there is indeed a constant rule. A great poison in treating illness takes away six in ten; a common poison takes away seven in ten; a small poison takes away eight in ten; what has no poison takes away nine in ten. With grain, flesh, fruit and vegetables let food nourish him to the full; do not let it go beyond, lest it injure what is upright in him. If it is not all removed, proceed again by the same method. One must first attend to the qi of the year and not cut down the harmony of heaven; do not add fullness to fullness nor emptiness to emptiness and so leave a person heaven’s calamity; do not bring on evil, do not lose the upright, cutting short a person’s long life.

**「絶人長命」本篇1見，止在此句**；**本站原引《離合真邪論》「絶人長命，予人天殃」；此篇作「無致邪，無失正，絶人長命」，語同而屬句不同**；**「榖肉果菜」本篇1見，在「無使過之，傷其正也」之前**；**「必先歲氣，無伐天和」本篇1見，與此句同段**

Compounds built on this term

絶人長命

jué rén cháng mìng

cutting short the long life

本篇二見，分結末二段

予人天殃

yǔ rén tiān yāng

handing them a calamity from heaven

予讀 yǔ，殃讀 yāng

天年

tiān nián

the allotted years

本站已立目（id 160），與長命同實

不能久長

bù néng jiǔ cháng

unable to last long

久長之長亦讀 cháng

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	cut short people's lives	They drop 長, which is understandable in context but loses the link back to the allotted span of chapter 1.
Unschuld	sever man's long life	Unschuld keeps both halves and uses 'sever', which is close to what 絶 says about silk and a knife.
This site	cutting short the long life	We keep 長 inside the phrase so the reader hears the echo of 天年: what is being cut is not life in general but a particular length of life that was supposed to be there.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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