大氣简体大气

dà qì

Great qi · da qi

Also rendered: great qi (Keeps the word short and lets the three contexts do the defining) · the great evil qi (Explicit, but the Chinese never says 邪 in this compound)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: dà qì
Simplified: 大气
Literal: 大 is a person with arms and legs flung wide — 說文 defines it by an escalation, 天大、地大、人亦大, and says the graph pictures a human form — and 氣 is the older 气, breath or vapour, 說文's 雲气, with the 米 added later for the grain given as provision to a guest. 大氣 is therefore not atmosphere and not a technical organ of the chest here. In chapter 27 it is the great evil qi itself, and the word is used three times, each time on the far side of a verb: it all comes out in draining, it stays and rests in supplementing, it has already passed when the physician has watched badly.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：大，天大，地大，人亦大，故大象人形；气，雲气也，象形；氣，饋客芻米也，从米气聲，後世以氣為气。大氣連言，本篇指大邪之氣。本篇之目：大氣皆出，故命曰冩；大氣留止，故命曰補；𠉀邪不審，大氣已過。

In brief

In chapter 27, the great evil qi — the thing draining is supposed to get out and supplementing is supposed to keep in. The word appears three times and the three uses are what define it: 大氣皆出, it all comes out, closes the description of draining; 大氣留止, it stays and rests, closes the description of supplementing; and 大氣已過, it has already passed, is what the physician finds when he has watched carelessly and drains too late, so that the true qi falls away instead. Commentators who take it as the qi of the chest run into trouble with the second of the three: supplementing is not meant to make the chest qi stay.

Senses in the classical corpus

What draining gets out 大氣皆出

瀉法之效，大邪之氣盡出

呼盡乃去，大氣皆出，故命曰冩 — Suwen 27

What supplementing keeps in 大氣留止

補法之效，氣留止而不泄

推闔其門，令神氣存，大氣留止，故命曰補 — Suwen 27

What has gone when you are late 大氣已過

候邪不審則大氣已過，瀉之反脫真氣

故曰𠉀邪不審，大氣已過，冩之則真氣脱 — Suwen 27

Set against true qi 真氣脱

大氣已過而瀉，則所脫者反是真氣

冩之則真氣脱，脱則不復 — Suwen 27

The evil that returns 邪氣復至

真氣不復，邪氣得以復至而病益蓄

邪氣復至，而病益蓄 — Suwen 27

Not the qi of the chest 大氣

舊注有以大氣為胸中大氣者，於「留止」一語為滯

大氣留止，故命曰補 — Suwen 27

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display

3 passages

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

故曰𠉀邪不審，大氣已過，冩之則真氣脱，脱則不復，邪氣復至，而病益蓄。故曰其往不可追，此之謂也。故曰候邪不审，大气已过，写之则真气脱，脱则不复，邪气复至，而病益蓄。故曰其往不可追，此之谓也。

Gù yuē hòu xié bù shěn, dà qì yǐ guò, xiè zhī zé zhēn qì tuō, tuō zé bù fù, xié qì fù zhì, ér bìng yì xù.Gù yuē qí wǎng bù kě zhuī, cǐ zhī wèi yě.

Hence it is said: if one watches for the evil without care, and the great qi has already passed, then draining will make the true qi fall away; once it has fallen away it does not return, the evil qi comes again, and the disease accumulates the more. Hence it is said that its going cannot be pursued. This is what that means.

「大氣已過」是三見之中最要緊的一見：它說明候氣之事不是抽象的謹慎，而是有代價的——候之不審，邪氣已過而猶瀉之，所瀉去的就不是邪而是真氣，「脱則不復」，真氣一去不返，邪氣便可再來，病於是益蓄。**「𠉀」讀 hòu，即「候」之異體，本篇十二見**，遍檢本篇無一處作「候」形；**「審」讀 shěn**，本篇三見；**「脱」讀 tuō**，底本作脱不作「脫」，本篇二見；「復」讀 fù，本篇四見；**「蓄」讀 xù**，本篇惟此一見。「其往不可追」（「往」讀 wǎng，「追」讀 zhuī）與上句「其來不可逢」（「逢」讀 féng）對舉成文，一來一往之間，就是下文所說「不可挂以髮」的那個時機。

素問·熱論 Suwen 31 · 陽明脉解 Read in context →

十二日，厥陰病衰，囊縱，少腹微下，大氣皆去，病日已矣。十二日，厥阴病衰，囊纵，少腹微下，大气皆去，病日已矣。

Shí èr rì, jué yīn bìng shuāi, náng zòng, shào fù wēi xià, dà qì jiē qù, bìng rì yǐ yǐ.

On the twelfth day the 厥陰 disease declines: the scrotum relaxes, the lower abdomen settles somewhat, the great qi has all departed, and day by day the disease is finished.

「大氣」之目於本站已立（id 844），本篇用之別為一義：「十二日，厥陰病衰，囊縱，少腹微下，大氣皆去，病日已矣」——**「大氣」讀 dà qì，本篇指邪氣之盛者**，與本站「大氣」條所收第八篇「大氣」之指宗氣者別，各隨其文。「十」讀 shí；「二」讀 èr；「日」讀 rì；「厥」讀 jué，本篇五見；「陰」讀 yīn，本篇十四見；「病」讀 bìng；**「衰」讀 shuāi，本篇八見**，病勢減退也；**「囊」讀 náng，本篇三見**；**「縱」讀 zòng，鬆緩也**——與第六日「囊縮」之「縮」對文；**「少」讀 shào，「少腹」即小腹**——本篇「少」十二見而二讀，經名與少腹讀 shào，少愈讀 shǎo；「腹」讀 fù，本篇四見；「微」讀 wēi，本篇二見；「下」讀 xià，平復也；「大」讀 dà；「氣」讀 qì；「皆」讀 jiē，本篇八見；「去」讀 qù，離去也；「已」讀 yǐ；「矣」讀 yǐ，本篇五見。**「大氣皆去」即邪氣盡去**，故繼之曰「病日已矣」；此與第三十篇「寒氣」之屬、本站「大氣」條他篇之義可互注，而其指邪氣之一義為本篇所獨。

素問·調經論 Suwen 62 · 調經論 Read in context →

歧伯曰：冩實者，氣盛，乃内鍼，鍼與氣俱内，以開其門，如利其户。鍼與氣俱出，精氣不傷，邪氣乃下。外門不閉，以出其疾，摇大其道，如利其路，是謂大冩。必切而出，大氣乃屈。歧伯曰：写实者，气盛，乃内针，针与气俱内，以开其门，如利其户。针与气俱出，精气不伤，邪气乃下。外门不闭，以出其疾，摇大其道，如利其路，是谓大写。必切而出，大气乃屈。

Qí bó yuē: xiè shí zhě, qì shèng, nǎi nà zhēn, zhēn yǔ qì jù nà, yǐ kāi qí mén, rú lì qí hù. Zhēn yǔ qì jù chū, jīng qì bù shāng, xié qì nǎi xià. Wài mén bù bì, yǐ chū qí jí, yáo dà qí dào, rú lì qí lù, shì wèi dà xiè. Bì qiè ér chū, dà qì nǎi qū.

Qi Bo says: to drain an excess – when the qi is full, insert the needle. Let the needle go in together with the qi, to open the gate, as one opens a door; let the needle come out together with the qi, and the essence qi is not wounded while the evil qi goes down. Leave the outer gate unclosed so that the disease can get out; enlarge the way by shaking, as one widens a road. This is called the great draining. Press the hole as you come out, and the great qi is brought to heel.

「摇大其道，如利其路，是謂大冩。必切而出，大氣乃屈」——**「大氣」本篇1見，在寫實之法中**：**王冰注「大氣，大邪之氣也」，與本目第二十七篇「當寫之邪氣」全同**：**大氣皆出則寫法畢，本篇「必切而出，大氣乃屈」正此義**；**「屈」讀 qū，盡也；「冩」讀 xiè**；**「大」讀 dà**

Compounds built on this term

大氣

dà qì

great qi

本篇三見，一出、一留、一過

大氣皆出

dà qì jiē chū

the great qi all comes out

瀉法之驗

大氣留止

dà qì liú zhǐ

the great qi stays and rests

補法之驗

真氣

zhēn qì

true qi

本站已立目（id 153），與大氣對舉

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	the great qi	They keep 大 as great throughout and leave the identification to the commentary, which is what the Chinese does.
Unschuld	the great qi	Unschuld likewise keeps the literal form, and discusses at length whether it is to be taken as the evil or as a physiological qi; he concludes that in this chapter it is the evil.
This site	great qi	We keep the literal pair and settle the question in the definition rather than in the headword, because the three occurrences are what decide it and any gloss we built into the name would quietly prejudge the second one.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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