Classica Sinica Medica

起居有常

qǐ jū yǒu cháng

Rising and resting with regularity

Cultivation

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
qǐ jū yǒu cháng
Simplified
起居有常
Literal
Getting up and settling down having a constant.

In brief

Suwen 1’s phrase for a life with a schedule. It sounds trivial and is not: in these texts sleep and waking are the first thing the seasons change, and irregularity is named as a cause of decline.

常 is a constant, a rule, something that does not vary. Paired with 起居 — rising and dwelling — it turns the most ordinary part of a day into a regimen.

Suwen 2 then specifies the constant: early to rise in spring and summer, early to bed in autumn and winter, and in winter, not before the sun. The general rule of chapter one is cashed out as a timetable in chapter two.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
A fixed daily order 起居有常
Rising and resting by a rule
起居有常，不妄作勞 — Suwen 1

Occurrences in the classics

Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.

Display
2 passages
Huangdi Neijing · Suwen Suwen 1 · On Innate Vitality in Antiquity Read in context →
食飲有節，起居有常，不妄作勞 食饮有节，起居有常，不妄作劳
shí yǐn yǒu jié, qǐ jū yǒu cháng, bù wàng zuò láo
They ate and drank with measure, rose and rested with regularity, and did not labour recklessly.
Three items in a row, all of them ordinary, all of them load-bearing.
素問·上古天真論 Suwen 1 · 上古天真論 Read in context →
歧伯對曰：上古之人，其知道者，法於陰陽，和於術數，食飲有節，起居有常，不妄作勞，故能形與神俱，而盡終其天年，度百歲乃去。 歧伯对曰：上古之人，其知道者，法于阴阳，和于术数，食饮有节，起居有常，不妄作劳，故能形与神俱，而尽终其天年，度百岁乃去。
Qí Bó duì yuē: shàng gǔ zhī rén, qí zhī dào zhě, fǎ yú yīn yáng, hé yú shù shù, shí yǐn yǒu jié, qǐ jū yǒu cháng, bù wàng zuò láo, gù néng xíng yǔ shén jù, ér jìn zhōng qí tiān nián, dù bǎi suì nǎi qù.
Qi Bo answered: among the people of high antiquity, those who knew the way took yin and yang as their law and kept themselves in accord with the computed arts; they ate and drank with measure and rose and rested with regularity; they did not labour recklessly. So they were able to keep form and spirit together and come to the end of the years allotted them, passing their hundred before they went.
「起居有常」——下文云今時之人起居無節，正與此反；**「起居」本篇2見**

Compounds built on this term

起居無節
qǐ jū wú jié
rising and resting without measure
The fault Suwen 1 names in people of the present
早臥早起
zǎo wò zǎo qǐ
retire early, rise early
The autumn form of the rule

How it has been translated

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

This siterising and resting with regularityTwo verbs, matching 起居.
Common Englishregular daily routineAccurate, less literal.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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