zòng fù chuí yú
Also rendered: Slack belly and hanging fat (keeps both verbs and the body) · A pendulous abdomen (clinical, and it loses the fat) · Loose belly, drooping fat (plainer, and it is unmedical)
Reviewed · 2026-10-25
At a glance
The silhouette of the fat-bodied man, given twice and both times as a definition. The chapter has sorted bodies into three: 肥, whose shins are firm and skin full; 膏, whose shins are not firm and skin slack; and 肉, whose skin and flesh do not part. The 膏 man is the one whose qi is abundant and whose skin is loose, so that the belly slackens and the fat hangs; the 肉 man is simply large above and below; the 脂 man is drawn small even though fat. The phrase therefore does more than describe a shape — it identifies a constitution, with its own ratio of blood to qi and its own tolerance of cold. The slackness is the sign: where skin lets go, qi is abundant and the form spreads.
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.
| This site | slack belly and hanging fat | the text's own picture |
| Literal | let-go belly, hanging fat | exact, and it is awkward |
| Clinical | the habitus of the greasy constitution | clear, and it is a diagnosis |
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