Classica Sinica Medica

叶蟄 简体 叶蛰

yè zhé

The leaf-hiding palace · ye zhe

Also rendered: Leaf Hiding (literal, and it reads as a place in a garden) · The Hibernating Leaf palace (explanatory, and it is not a name) · The Leaf-Hiding Palace (the site's convention, capitalised as a name)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-10-26

At a glance

Pinyin
yè zhé
Simplified
叶蛰
Literal
叶 yè — a leaf, and in this base text the scribal short form of 葉; 蟄 zhé — to hide away for the winter, as insects do. Together: the palace of the hidden leaf, the northern corner where the year begins.
Shuowen
《說文》：葉，艸木之葉也。从艸枼聲。蟄，藏也。从虫執聲。底本作「叶」，乃葉之省寫，非「叶」字本義（叶，古文協）；錄文照底本，說解依本字。

In brief

Leaf-Hiding is the first of the eight palaces and the one the year turns on. 太一常以冬至之日，居叶蟄之宫 — on the winter solstice the Great One dwells there, and after the round of the other seven it returns: 四十五日，日復居叶蟄之宫，曰冬至矣. The name is a calendar image rather than an anatomical one: 蟄 is the insect’s winter hiding, and the palace is the north, the point at which the year’s qi is most withdrawn. The chapter uses it twice more — the day of the solstice is the day on which wind and rain are watched, and a wind from the south at that moment is 虚風, the evil that will be stored in the bone until spring.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
宫名 居叶蟄之宫
住在葉蟄之宫
The palace of Leaf-Hiding, where the Great One dwells at the solstice.
叶蟄之宫 — 靈樞·九宫八風
2
歲周 日復居叶蟄之宫，曰冬至矣
又回到葉蟄之宫，就叫冬至了
Returning to it closes the year: that is the winter solstice.
日復居叶蟄之宫 — 靈樞·九宫八風
3
占風 太一立於叶蟄之宫
太一立在葉蟄之宫
In chapter 79 the same palace is where the year's wind is read.
太一立於叶蟄之宫 — 靈樞·歲露論

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
靈樞·九宫八風 Read in context →
太一常以冬至之日，居叶蟄之宫，四十六日明，日居天留；四十六日明，日居倉門；四十六日明，日居陰洛；四十五日明，日居天宫；四十六日明，日居玄委；四十六日明，日居倉果；四十六日明，日居新洛；四十五日明，日復居叶蟄之宫，曰冬至矣。 太一常以冬至之日，居叶蛰之宫，四十六日明，日居天留；四十六日明，日居仓门；四十六日明，日居阴洛；四十五日明，日居天宫；四十六日明，日居玄委；四十六日明，日居仓果；四十六日明，日居新洛；四十五日明，日复居叶蛰之宫，曰冬至矣。
tài yī cháng yǐ dōng zhì zhī rì, jū yè zhé zhī gōng, sì shí liù rì míng, rì jū tiān liú; sì shí liù rì míng, rì jū cāng mén; sì shí liù rì míng, rì jū yīn luò; sì shí wǔ rì míng, rì jū tiān gōng; sì shí liù rì míng, rì jū xuán wěi; sì shí liù rì míng, rì jū cāng guǒ; sì shí liù rì míng, rì jū xīn luò; sì shí wǔ rì míng, rì fù jū yè zhé zhī gōng, yuē dōng zhì yǐ.
The Great One on the day of the winter solstice always dwells in the palace of Yezhe. After forty-six days, on the next day, he moves to Tianliu; after forty-six days to Cangmen; after forty-six days to Yinluo; after forty-five days to Tiangong; after forty-six days to Xuanwei; after forty-six days to Cangguo; after forty-six days to Xinluo; and after forty-five days he returns to the palace of Yezhe, and it is the winter solstice again.
「叶蟄」本篇3見，皆作「叶蟄之宫」，太一自此起行、亦自此終歲，為八宫之首，故引全段。

Compounds built on this term

天留
tiān liú
Heaven's Keeping
第二宫，四十六日
倉門
cāng mén
the Granary Gate
第三宫
新洛
xīn luò
the New Hollow
第八宫，四十五日

How it has been translated

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

This sitethe Leaf-Hiding Palacethe name as a place
Literalleaf-hideexact, and clipped
Calendricalthe northern palace of the winter solsticeclear, and it explains the map

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-26

Search the glossary

Reading path

Guided routes through the corpus, each built on a handful of chapters and their key terms.

See all reading paths