Classica Sinica Medica

釋邪攻正 简体 释邪攻正

shì xié gōng zhèng

Releasing the evil and attacking the upright · shi xie gong zheng

Also rendered: releasing the evil and attacking the upright (Word-for-word, and keeps the antithesis) · letting the evil go and assaulting the true (Slightly more violent in English than 攻 needs)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
shì xié gōng zhèng
Simplified
释邪攻正
Literal
釋 is to untie — 說文's 解, to loosen, and the graph is built so as to show something being sorted apart — and 攻 is to strike, 說文's 擊. 正 is what stands still in the right place: 說文 glosses it as 是, and the graph is a foot stopped at a line. So the four syllables describe two mistakes at once: letting go of what should have been driven out, and hitting what should have been protected. Chapter 27 puts it at the end of a sentence that has already listed the physician's failures, and follows it with the same curse it used two lines earlier — he cuts short the long life.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：釋，解也。从釆，取其分別物也；攻，擊也。从攴工聲；正，是也。从止，一以止。釋者放而去之，攻者擊而伐之；釋邪攻正，謂放走邪氣而反攻伐正氣。本篇之目：因加相勝，釋邪攻正，絶人長命。

In brief

To release the evil and attack the upright — the inversion at the end of chapter 27’s indictment. The physician who does not know the three regions and nine indicators, and who does not know how to join them to the four seasons and five phases, ends up adding to the conquests instead of resolving them: he lets the evil go and strikes the upright qi. The chapter has already said the same thing in other words two lines earlier — he takes repletion for vacuity and the evil for the true — and it ends on the same sentence both times: he cuts short a life that should have been long.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The inversion itself 釋邪攻正
放邪而伐正，補瀉全反
因加相勝，釋邪攻正 — Suwen 27
2
Its precondition 不知三部九𠉀
不知三部九候，故不能久長
不知三部九𠉀，故不能久長 — Suwen 27
3
Its second precondition 不知合之四時五行
不知與四時五行相合
因不知合之四時五行 — Suwen 27
4
The conquest that is worsened 因加相勝
相勝之勢本當解之，醫者反加甚之
因加相勝 — Suwen 27
5
The same thing said earlier 以邪爲真
認邪作真，即釋邪攻正之另一面
用實爲虚，以邪爲真 — Suwen 27
6
The consequence, twice 絶人長命
本篇二見「絶人長命」，前後呼應
釋邪攻正，絶人長命 — Suwen 27

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·離合真邪論 Suwen 27 · 離合真邪論 Read in context →
不知三部九𠉀，故不能久長，因不知合之四時五行，因加相勝，釋邪攻正，絶人長命。 不知三部九候，故不能久长，因不知合之四时五行，因加相胜，释邪攻正，绝人长命。
Bù zhī sān bù jiǔ hòu, gù bù néng jiǔ cháng, yīn bù zhī hé zhī sì shí wǔ xíng, yīn jiā xiāng shèng, shì xié gōng zhèng, jué rén cháng mìng.
Not knowing the three regions and nine indicators, one cannot last long; and by not knowing how to join them to the four seasons and five phases, one adds to their mutual conquest, releases the evil and attacks the upright, cutting short the long life that was theirs.
「釋邪攻正」四字是全篇責醫之語的收束，也是最重的一筆：不是技藝不精，而是把攻補的方向整個顛倒了。**「釋」讀 shì，本篇惟此一見**，捨棄、放走之義，與「攻」對舉——一縱一害，四字備之；**「勝」讀 shèng，本篇惟此一見**，與本站所勝所不勝條（id 537）之勝同讀；**「絶」讀 jué，本篇二見**，底本作「絶」不作「絕」；「長」讀 cháng，長命之長。「絶人長命」四字本篇二見——前見於第四十一段之末，後見於此段之末，而此段更以「因」字兩層推說其故：一因不知三部九候，二因不知合之四時五行。是則本篇之責，歸根到底不是責其手法，而是責其不知。

Compounds built on this term

釋邪攻正
shì xié gōng zhèng
releasing the evil and attacking the upright
本篇惟此一見，全篇責醫之結穴
相勝
xiāng shèng
mutual conquest
勝讀 shèng，本站所勝所不勝條（id 537）可參
四時五行
sì shí wǔ xíng
the four seasons and five phases
本站並已立目（id 538、711）
三部九候
sān bù jiǔ hòu
three regions and nine indicators
本站已立目（id 659）

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Fengreleasing the evil and attacking the trueThey keep 正 as true here rather than upright, which connects the phrase to 真氣 two lines above.
Unschuldset free the evil and attack the correctUnschuld's 'set free' is a good match for 釋 and 'correct' is defensible for 正, though it reads oddly in English as a noun.
This sitereleasing the evil and attacking the uprightWe use upright for 正 to keep it distinct from 真 true, since chapter 27 uses both and the indictment depends on the physician being unable to tell them apart; if both are rendered 'true' the confusion the chapter is condemning disappears from the translation.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

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