肺消

fèi xiāo

Lung wasting · fei xiao

Also rendered: Lung wasting (this site; 消 kept as wasting across the chapter) · Pulmonary wasting (the anatomical-sounding alternative; Latinate where the Chinese is plain)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: fèi xiāo
Simplified: 肺消
Literal: 肺消 fèi xiāo — lung, and wasting. 消 is to melt away, to be consumed; it is the same 消 that later turns up in 鬲消 later in this chapter, and the chapter is careful to keep the two apart: 肺消 comes of cold moving into the lung, 鬲消 comes of heat moving out of the heart. Its sign is one of the cruellest measurements in the book — 飲一溲二, drink one measure, void two. The body loses more than it takes in, and the chapter closes the case in three words: 死不治.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：消，盡也——**本義為消盡、消融**，**醫書以之狀肌肉消爍、津液耗竭之病**。「肺」讀 fèi，本篇6見；「消」讀 xiāo，本篇3見。**「肺消」與下文「鬲消」同名「消」而以寒熱、上下別之**——**此為寒移之消，彼為熱傳之消**。

In brief

Lung wasting: produced when the heart shifts cold into the lung. Its sign is that the patient voids more than he drinks, and the chapter judges it untreatable.

Senses in the classical corpus

What the graphs say 肺消

肺病而消盡

心移寒於肺，肺消 — Suwen 37

The sign that decides it 肺消

飲一溲二，所溺反多於所飲

飲一溲二 — Suwen 37

Produced by cold, not heat 肺消

由寒移而成，與熱傳之鬲消別

心移寒於肺 — Suwen 37

Judged 肺消

死不治

飲一溲二，死不治 — Suwen 37

Distinguished from 鬲消肺消

同名之消，一寒一熱，一在肺一在鬲

肺消者，飲一溲二 — Suwen 37

The 溲 graph 溲

，小便也，本篇惟此一見

飲一溲二 — Suwen 37

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

Suwen 37 Suwen 37 · 氣厥論 Read in context →

心移寒於肺，肺消。肺消者，飲一溲二，死不治。心移寒于肺，肺消。肺消者，饮一溲二，死不治。

Xīn yí hán yú fèi, fèi xiāo.Fèi xiāo zhě, yǐn yī sōu èr, sǐ bù zhì.

When the heart shifts cold into the lung, it becomes lung wasting. In lung wasting one drinks one measure and voids two: death, and no treatment.

**「心移寒於肺，肺消。肺消者，飲一溲二，死不治」十八字，是本篇第一個死證**。**「飲一溲二」四字是診斷之據**——**所飲者一而所溺者二，入不敷出，津液竭矣**。**「死不治」三字是預後**——**本篇三處言死，「死不治」與「死不可治」措辭微異而義同，「則死」獨無「不治」二字**，**本站照錄其異，不為畫一**。**「溲」「溲」讀 sōu，本篇惟此一見**——**「溲」者，小便也**。**寒移五變惟此一變言死**——**肺為嬌藏，寒入而不能出，故為不治**。

Compounds built on this term

飲一溲二

yǐn yī sōu èr

drink one, void two

本篇斷肺消為死證之據

鬲消

gé xiāo

diaphragm wasting

本篇同名之消，由熱傳而成，與肺消別

消爍

xiāo shuò

wasting and scorching

本站第三十五篇「令人消爍脱肉」之語

死不治

sǐ bù zhì

death, and no treatment

本篇三處言死之一，另二為「則死」「死不可治」

How it has been translated

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

This site	lung wasting	kept distinct from 鬲消 below; the distinction the chapter is making is cold versus heat, not upper versus lower
Unschuld	lung wasting	the same rendering
Wiseman	(fèi xiāo) lung dispersion	dispersion for 消, which loses the sense of being consumed

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

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