Classica Sinica Medica

氣迫 简体 气迫

qì pò

Qipo · pressed qi

Also rendered: deficient qi (Makes it a quantity) · urgent qi (Reads 迫 as urgency) · qi under pressure (Descriptive)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
qì pò
Simplified
气迫
Literal
氣 qi; 迫 pressed hard, driven, urgent. Qi that is pressed upon because it did not arrive.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：迫，近也（引申為逼迫、急迫）。

In brief

The counterpart of 氣淫. The season has come and the qi has not: what the missing qi would have overcome runs wild (所勝妄行), what it would have generated falls ill (所生受病), and the quarter it cannot overcome presses in on it (所不勝薄之). Where 淫 is overstepping, 迫 is being pressed — and the same word 薄 appears in both, as the pressure that results either way.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
Qi that fails to come in its season 至而不至
The season arrives and the qi does not
至而不至，此謂不及 — Suwen 9
2
What follows from it 所勝妄行，所生受病，所不勝薄之
Three things happen at once, and the physician cannot stop them
則所勝妄行，而所生受病，所不勝薄之也，命曰氣迫 — Suwen 9

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·六節藏象論 Suwen 9 · 六節藏象論 Read in context →
至而不至，此謂不及，則所勝妄行，而所生受病，所不勝薄之也，命曰氣迫。 至而不至，此谓不及，则所胜妄行，而所生受病，所不胜薄之也，命曰气迫。
zhì ér bù zhì, cǐ wèi bù jí, zé suǒ shèng wàng xíng, ér suǒ shēng shòu bìng, suǒ bù shèng bó zhī yě, mìng yuē qì pò.
When the season has come and the qi does not, that is falling short: what it overcomes acts recklessly, what it generates falls ill, and what it does not overcome presses upon it. This is called pressed qi.
不及則三重並作：所勝者無制而妄行、所生者失養而受病、所不勝者乘虛而薄之。「薄」讀 bó，與上文氣淫之「薄」同字同義。

Compounds built on this term

所勝妄行
suǒ shèng wàng xíng
what it overcomes acts recklessly
No longer held in check
所生受病
suǒ shēng shòu bìng
what it generates falls ill
Starved of what should have generated it
薄
bó
pressing
The same word as in 氣淫

How it has been translated

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

Common Englishdeficient qi / qi urgencyDeficient is the commonest and the least apt; urgency reads 迫 as speed.
This sitepressed qi迫 names what is done to the qi, not how much of it there is. Deficient would make this a pair of quantities, when the chapter has gone to some trouble to make it a pair of mistimings.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

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

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