zuò qiáng zhī guān
Also rendered: office of strength (Drops 作 entirely) · office of labour / the strong worker (Makes the kidney the labourer)
Reviewed · 2026-09
At a glance
The kidney’s office. 王冰：「強於作用，故曰作強。」What issues from it is 伎巧 — skill and craft, the dexterity of a body whose foundation is sound. Read 作強 as causative rather than descriptive: the kidney is not itself the strong labourer but what makes strength and dexterity possible. A minority reading takes 強 as qiǎng, to strain, which fits a kidney that is failing; the note keeps it.
Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.
Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.
| Common English | office of strength / the strong worker | Both current. Both make the kidney the one who labours. |
| This site | office that makes strong | 作強 reads as causative: the kidney is what makes strength and dexterity possible, and 伎巧 in the next words is the result. The awkward English is deliberate — it keeps the cause where the text puts it. |
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