Classica Sinica Medica

土惡木 简体 土恶木

tǔ wù mù

Earth averse to wood · tu wu mu

Also rendered: earth is averse to wood (Keeps the phase names and the verb plain) · earth is conquered by wood (Restates the relation; loses 惡 as a reaction)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
tǔ wù mù
Simplified
土恶木
Literal
Three graphs and a whole theory: 土 earth, 惡 wù averse to, 木 wood. It is the shortest statement of the conquest sequence in the Suwen, and chapter 30 uses it to explain something that would otherwise look like superstition — why a patient starts in terror at the sound of wood but is unmoved by bells and drums. Wood conquers earth; the stomach is earth; therefore the stomach, and the vessel that belongs to it, answers to the sound of wood and not to the sound of metal. The reasoning is not offered as a metaphor. It is offered as the reason.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：土，地之吐生物者也，二象地之下、地之中，物出形也；木，冒也，冒地而生，東方之行。「土」讀 tǔ，本篇二見；「惡」讀 wù，本篇六見皆讀 wù；「木」讀 mù，本篇四見。三字連言惟此一見——「故聞木音而驚者，土惡木也」——是本篇以五行立說之唯一處，其餘皆以經脉血氣立說，二途並進而同歸於陽明。

In brief

The chapter’s explanation of why the sound of wood alarms a patient with Yangming disease. Yangming is the vessel of the stomach, the stomach belongs to earth, and earth is the phase that wood conquers; so the sound that belongs to wood reaches a body already disposed against it. The proof offered within the chapter is the contrast: metal, which does not conquer earth, leaves the patient unmoved. The phrase is the shortest form of a rule that runs through the whole book — that a phase answers to whatever conquers it.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The rule stated 土惡木
木剋土，故屬土之胃畏屬木之音
故聞木音而驚者，土惡木也 — Suwen 30
2
What it is called on to explain 聞木音而驚
非木音駭人，乃土為木之所勝
聞木音則惕然而驚 — Suwen 30
3
The control case 鐘鼓不爲動
金不剋土，故聞金聲而不驚
鐘鼓不爲動 — Suwen 30
4
Why the stomach is earth 胃者，土也
胃屬土，陽明為胃之脉，故陽明之病應木音
歧伯對曰：陽明者，胃脉也，胃者，土也 — Suwen 30
5
The general rule behind it 所勝所不勝
各隨其所不勝而病，與本站「所勝所不勝」條互參
所上之處，皆非其素所能也 — Suwen 30
6
Its place in the chapter 土惡木也
五行之說本篇惟此一見，以下皆歸之血氣之盛
帝曰：善。其惡火何也？ — Suwen 30

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
素問·陽明脉解 Suwen 30 · 陽明脉解 Read in context →
歧伯對曰：陽明者，胃脉也，胃者，土也，故聞木音而驚者，土惡木也。 歧伯对曰：阳明者，胃脉也，胃者，土也，故闻木音而惊者，土恶木也。
Qí bó duì yuē: yáng míng zhě, wèi mài yě, wèi zhě, tǔ yě, gù wén mù yīn ér jīng zhě, tǔ wù mù yě.
Qibo answers: Yangming is the vessel of the stomach, and the stomach is earth. Thus the reason the sound of wood alarms him is that earth is averse to wood.
此句是答語之結，亦是全篇以五行立說之唯一處。「歧」讀 qí，**本篇七見，底本皆作「歧」，無一處作「岐」**；「伯」讀 bó；「對」讀 duì；「者」讀 zhě；「陽」讀 yáng；「明」讀 míng；「胃」讀 wèi，本篇二見；「脉」讀 mài；「也」讀 yě；「土」讀 tǔ，本篇二見；「故」讀 gù，本篇四見；「聞」讀 wén；「木」讀 mù；「音」讀 yīn；「而」讀 ér；「驚」讀 jīng；**「惡」讀 wù，本篇六見皆讀 wù**——惡人與火、土惡木也、其惡火、熱甚則惡火、其惡人、惋則惡人，無一讀 è 者。「土惡木也」四字與下文「陽明主肉…邪客之則熱」之就血氣立說者，一以五行、一以血氣，兩途並進而同歸於陽明。

Compounds built on this term

土惡木
tǔ wù mù
earth averse to wood
本篇一見，全篇五行論證之眼
胃者，土也
wèi zhě, tǔ yě
the stomach is earth
本篇一見，五行配藏府之例
所勝所不勝
suǒ shèng suǒ bù shèng
what conquers and what does not
本站已立目（id 537）
五行
wǔ xíng
the five phases
本站已立目（id 711），本篇木土相剋即其一例

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Fengearth (is) averse to woodThey keep 惡 as aversion and leave the phase names untranslated, so the sentence reads as a statement about phases rather than about soil and timber.
Unschuldthe earth hates woodUnschuld's 'hates' is stronger than the original and personifies the phase more than the Chinese does.
This siteearth is averse to woodWe keep 惡 as 'averse to' and the phase names as phase names. Rendering 土 and 木 as 'earth' and 'wood' rather than translating the five phases into a Western element system keeps the sentence legible as a technical claim: this is not an analogy about materials but a statement inside an ordered scheme.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

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