高梁简体高粱

gāo liáng

Rich grain · gao liang

Also rendered: Rich grain (this site; keeps the social fact — this is food the poor did not eat) · Fine grain and fat meat (expands 膏粱 into its two halves, which the base text does not write)

Core vocabulary

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: gāo liáng
Simplified: 高粱
Literal: 高 gāo — high; 梁 liáng — here the fine grain, the milled and polished millet of a wealthy table. The received text often writes 膏粱, fat and fine grain, and this base text writes 高梁 with the graph it also uses for the beam in 伏梁: the same shape, two quite different words. Chapter 40 opens its most social passage with it. Heat-within and wasting-within are illnesses of the rich; rich grain is what makes them rich illnesses, and forbidding it is therefore 不合其心 — it does not suit their hearts. The Emperor's question is a real dilemma and not a rhetorical one: forbid the food and you offend the patient, forbid the drugs and the illness does not mend. Qibo's answer declines to soften either half. What is at stake is not luxury but the fact that the illness and the remedy are made of the same heat.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：高，崇也——**本義為高，引申為凡在上、在上品者**；梁，水橋也——**本義為橋梁**，**「粱」（从米）為米之精者，經典多假「梁」為之**。「高」讀 gāo、**本篇2見**；「梁」讀 liáng、**本篇5見**——**「高梁」2見，「伏梁」三見，同形而異詞**；**通行本或作「膏粱」（「粱」讀 liáng），底本作「高梁」，今照錄**。「富」讀 fù、「貴」讀 guì、**各1見、1見**；「禁」讀 jìn、**本篇2見**；「心」讀 xīn、**本篇3見**——**「不合其心」者，不合其人之所欲也**。

In brief

Fine, rich grain — the food of the wealthy. Forbidding it in heat-within and wasting-within is what makes chapter 40’s dilemma a dilemma: the patient’s table is the illness.

Senses in the classical corpus

What the graph says 高梁

梁者米之精者，經典假「梁」為之；高者，上品

不可服高梁、芳草、石藥 — Suwen 40

Whose food it is 皆富貴人也

熱中、消中者皆富貴之人，故其病由口腹

皆富貴人也 — Suwen 40

Why forbidding it fails 是不合其心

禁其所欲，則不合其心

今禁高梁，是不合其心 — Suwen 40

Why allowing it fails 是病不愈

不禁芳草、石藥，則病不得愈

是病不愈 — Suwen 40

The question put 願聞其説

兩難之際，請聞其說

願聞其説 — Suwen 40

The same graph elsewhere 伏梁

「梁」又為伏梁之梁，本篇同形而異詞

病名曰伏梁 — Suwen 40

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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2 passages

Suwen 40 Suwen 40 · 腹中論 Read in context →

夫熱中、消中者。皆富貴人也。今禁高梁，是不合其心；禁芳草、石藥，是病不愈，願聞其説。夫热中、消中者。皆富贵人也。今禁高梁，是不合其心；禁芳草、石药，是病不愈，愿闻其说。

Fú rè zhōng, xiāo zhōng zhě. Jiē fù guì rén yě. Jīn jìn gāo liáng, shì bù hé qí xīn; jìn fāng cǎo, shí yào, shì bìng bù yù, yuàn wén qí shuō.

Now those who have heat-within and wasting-within are all men of wealth and station. To forbid rich grain is not to suit their hearts; to forbid aromatic herbs and mineral drugs is to leave the illness unmended. I wish to hear your account of it.

**「夫熱中、消中者。皆富貴人也」——底本「者」下作句號，今照錄不改**，**其義仍是一句**；**通行本作讀號，見本篇校勘**。「夫」讀 fú**讀 fú**；「熱」讀 rè、**本篇5見**；「消」讀 xiāo、**本篇2見**；「中」讀 zhōng**「熱中」「消中」之「中」皆讀 zhōng**；「今」讀 jīn、「是」讀 shì、**各1見、3見**；「愈」讀 yù、**本篇1見**；「願」讀 yuàn、「説」讀 shuō，**「説」不作「說」**。**本站「熱中」（#459）、「消中」（#590）各有專條**，**此條所言者，是二者之人之食**——**病由口腹，而口腹之病必富貴者得之，是本篇最切世事之一筆**。

素問·生氣通天論 Suwen 3 · 生氣通天論 Read in context →

汗出偏沮，使人偏枯。汗出見濕，乃生痤疿。高梁之變，足生大丁，受如持虚。勞汗當風，寒薄爲齇，鬱乃痤。汗出偏沮，使人偏枯。汗出见湿，乃生痤疿。高梁之变，足生大丁，受如持虚。劳汗当风，寒薄为齇，郁乃痤。

Hàn chū piān jǔ, shǐ rén piān kū. hàn chū jiàn shī, nǎi shēng cuó fèi. gāo liáng zhī biàn, zú shēng dà dīng, shòu rú chí xū. láo hàn dāng fēng, hán bó wéi zhā, yù nǎi cuó.

If one half of the body sweats and the other does not, the person wastes away on that side. Sweating that meets dampness brings pimples and prickly heat. Fine grain and rich meat suffice to raise a great boil on the foot; one takes it up as though holding an empty vessel. When the sweat of toil meets wind and cold presses in, there is redness of the nose; if it builds up, there are pimples.

「高梁之變，足生大丁」——高梁讀 gāo liáng，即膏粱，肥甘之食；足，能也；變讀 biàn；**「高梁」本篇1見**

Compounds built on this term

高梁

gāo liáng

rich grain

通行本或作膏粱，底本作高梁

膏粱

gāo liáng

fat and fine grain

高梁之通行寫法

富貴人

fù guì rén

men of wealth and station

熱中、消中之人

不合其心

bù hé qí xīn

does not suit their hearts

禁高梁之難

How it has been translated

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

This site	rich grain	translated; the base text's 高梁 is kept as the headword and 膏粱 noted beside it
Unschuld	fine grain and fatty meat	renders the received 膏粱 in full
Wiseman	rich food	Wiseman's rendering for 膏粱 in the dietary prohibitions

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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