Classica Sinica Medica

痺厥 简体 痹厥

bì jué

Impediment inversion · bi jue

Also rendered: Impediment inversion (this site; matches the rendering the chapter page already uses, and keeps 痺 as a stopping rather than as numbness) · Bi jue (transliteration; used where the pair is quoted beside 鼽衄 and 風瘧 in the season catalogue)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-10-10

At a glance

Pinyin
bì jué
Simplified
痹厥
Literal
痺 bì — obstruction, the sickness radical over 畀; 厥 jué — inversion, the qi failing at its root and showing itself in the extremities. Suwen 4 gives the pair to winter, and gives it twice in the same shape it gives every season's complaint: 冬善病痺厥 as what the season is prone to, 冬不病痺厥 as what a kept year is free of. The two belong together because the chapter's winter is the season of storing: what is stored badly grows cold and stops, and that is 痺; what has stopped at the root shows itself in the hands and feet, and that is 厥.
Shuowen
**「痺」讀 bì，本篇2見，見本站第四〇四條**；**「厥」讀 jué，本篇2見，見本站第一二八四條**；**「痺厥」本篇2見**；**「冬」本篇8見**；**「飱泄」本篇1見，見本站第五九一條**

In brief

Winter’s pair: obstruction and inversion, named together. Suwen 4 lists them last in its catalogue of what each season is prone to, and last again in the catalogue of what a disciplined year avoids — 冬不病痺厥、飱泄而汗出也. Why the two are one subject is the chapter’s own physics: winter stores, and the failure of storing is both a stopping and a reversal. What stops is the 痺; what reverses, so that the hands and feet go cold while the root is at fault, is the 厥. The site carries both graphs singly as well — 痺 as bi · obstruction, 厥 as inversion — and this entry is for the pair as the chapter uses it.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The graphs 痺厥
痺者閉塞不通，厥者氣逆而手足寒
冬善病痺厥 — Suwen 4
2
What winter is prone to 冬善病痺厥
冬氣在四支，故善病痺厥
冬善病痺厥 — Suwen 4
3
What winter is free of 冬不病痺厥
藏精不泄，則冬不病痺厥
冬不病痺厥、飱泄而汗出也 — Suwen 4
4
Why the limbs 冬氣者，病在四支
痺厥之證見於四支，四支者冬氣之所在
冬氣者，病在四支 — Suwen 4
5
What winter stores 夫精者，身之本也
冬藏於精，藏之不固則痺厥隨之
夫精者，身之本也 — Suwen 4
6
What goes with it 飱泄而汗出
痺厥與飱泄同屬冬之不藏
冬不病痺厥、飱泄而汗出也 — Suwen 4

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·金匱真言論 Suwen 4 · 金匱真言論 Read in context →
故春善病鼽衄，仲夏善病胸脅，長夏善病洞泄寒中，秋善病風瘧，冬善病痺厥。 故春善病鼽衄，仲夏善病胸胁，长夏善病洞泄寒中，秋善病风疟，冬善病痹厥。
gù chūn shàn bìng qiú nǜ, zhòng xià shàn bìng xiōng xié, cháng xià shàn bìng dòng xiè hán zhōng, qiū shàn bìng fēng nüè, dōng shàn bìng bì jué.
Thus in spring one is prone to snivelling and nosebleed; in midsummer to disease of the chest and flanks; in late summer to pouring diarrhoea with cold within; in autumn to wind malaria; in winter to impediment inversion.
**「痺厥」本篇2見，此其一；其二在「冬不病痺厥」**；**「四支」本篇1見，見本站第八九四條**；**「飱泄」本篇1見，見本站第五九一條**；**「長夏」本篇4見，讀 cháng xià，見本站第三八〇條**

Compounds built on this term

冬善病痺厥
dōng shàn bìng bì jué
winter is prone to impediment inversion
本篇1見
冬不病痺厥
dōng bù bìng bì jué
in winter no impediment inversion
本篇1見
冬氣者，病在四支
dōng qì zhě, bìng zài sì zhī
the winter qi: disease is in the four limbs
本篇1見
飱泄而汗出
sūn xiè ér hàn chū
sloppy diarrhoea and sweating
本篇1見

How it has been translated

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

This siteImpediment inversion · bi jue痺 stops and 厥 reverses; one word for each half
Literalobstruction inversionlines up with this site's single-graph entries, 痺 bi · obstruction and 厥 inversion
Descriptivepainful obstruction with cold extremitieswhat the clinic makes of it; right about the signs, wrong about the register

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-10

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Reading path

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