Guarding the spirit · shou shen

Also rendered: Guarding the spirit (literal, and it keeps the watchman in 守) · Holding to the spirit (plainer, and it loses the military image)

Core vocabulary

Reviewed · 2026-10-24

At a glance

Pinyin: shǒu shén
Simplified: 守神
Literal: 守 shǒu — to hold, to keep watch; 神 shén — the alertness by which a person is present. To guard the spirit is to attend to that, rather than to the movements of the hand.
Shuowen: 《說文》：守，守官也，从宀从寸，謂法度所守；神，天神，引出萬物者也。「守神」本篇1見，「守形」1見，二者對舉，為全篇開宗之語。「守」字9見：守形、守神、守刺法、守四肢、守氣、守機，皆謂持守不遷。

In brief

The superior needler holds to the spirit; the coarse one holds to the form. The gloss is exact: 上守神者，守人之血氣有餘不足，可補寫也 — he keeps watch on the excess and deficiency of the patient’s blood and qi, and because he knows which it is, he can supplement and reduce. 麤守形者，守刺法也 — the other guards the method of needling, which is to say the hand, the depth, the speed, everything that can be taught without seeing the patient. The pair is the oldest statement in the book of what separates craft from medicine, and Chapter One had already used it before this chapter explained it.

Senses in the classical corpus

The superior's work 上守神

守病人血氣之虛實

Holding to the excess and deficiency of the patient's blood and qi.

上守神者，守人之血氣有餘不足，可補寫也 — 靈樞·小鍼解

Against the form 麤守形

粗工只守刺法

The coarse workman guards only the method of needling.

麤守形者，守刺法也 — 靈樞·小鍼解

What it enables 可補寫也

知其虛實，故補寫不誤

Because he knows excess and deficiency he can supplement and reduce.

可補寫也 — 靈樞·小鍼解

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

靈樞·小鍼解 Read in context →

所謂易陳者，易言也。難入者，難著于人也。麤守形者，守刺法也。上守神者，守人之血氣有餘不足，可補寫也。神客者，正邪共會也。神者，正氣也。客者，邪氣也。在門者，邪循正氣之所出入也。未睹其疾者，先知邪正何經之疾也。惡知其原者，先知何經之病，所取之處也。所谓易陈者，易言也。难入者，难著于人也。麤守形者，守刺法也。上守神者，守人之血气有余不足，可补写也。神客者，正邪共会也。神者，正气也。客者，邪气也。在门者，邪循正气之所出入也。未睹其疾者，先知邪正何经之疾也。恶知其原者，先知何经之病，所取之处也。

suǒ wèi yì chén zhě, yì yán yě. nán rù zhě, nán zhuó yú rén yě. cū shǒu xíng zhě, shǒu cì fǎ yě. shàng shǒu shén zhě, shǒu rén zhī xuè qì yǒu yú bù zú, kě bǔ xiě yě. shén kè zhě, zhèng xié gòng huì yě. shén zhě, zhèng qì yě. kè zhě, xié qì yě. zài mén zhě, xié xún zhèng qì zhī suǒ chū rù yě. wèi dǔ qí jí zhě, xiān zhī xié zhèng hé jīng zhī jí yě. wū zhī qí yuán zhě, xiān zhī hé jīng zhī bìng, suǒ qǔ zhī chù yě.

What is called easy to set forth means easy to speak of. Hard to enter means hard to apply to a person. The coarse guard the form means they guard the method of needling. The superior guard the spirit means they guard the excess and deficiency of the person’s blood and qi and can supplement and reduce. Spirit and guest means the upright and the evil meet together. The spirit is the upright qi; the guest is the evil qi. At the gate means the evil follows where the upright qi goes out and in. Not yet seeing the disease means first knowing in which channel the evil and the upright are contending. How know its source means first knowing of which channel the disease is, and the place to be taken.

「守神」本篇1見，「守形」1見，皆在首段，一對而已。全篇「守」字9見，自守形、守神而下，歷守刺法、守四肢、守氣、守機，皆此一「守」字之展轉；末段「持心」亦守之意。

Compounds built on this term

守形

shǒu xíng

guarding the form

與守神對舉

守機

shǒu jī

guarding the mechanism

本篇第二段

守氣

shǒu qì

guarding the qi

本篇第二段

How it has been translated

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

This site	guarding the spirit	the gloss is about keeping watch, not about ecstasy
Literal	keeping the spirit	exact, and it sounds devotional
Clinical	attending to the patient's qi	clear, and it drops 神

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-24

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