Spasm · chi

Also rendered: Tetany (Clinical) · Convulsive rigidity (Literal)

Reviewed · 2026-10-28

At a glance

Pinyin: chì
Simplified: 痓
Literal: 痓 chì is the book's way of writing 痙 jìng: the muscles draw taut, the neck and back stiffen, the jaw locks. The base text uses 痓 throughout and never writes 痙; the commentary inside it, when it glosses the word, writes 痙 and reads it jìng. This site follows the base text's shape and therefore its reading, and notes the other in the definition rather than silently replacing it.
Shuowen: **《說文》無「痓」字**，有「痙」：「痙，彊急也。」从疒，巠聲。**痓即痙之或體**，底本通篇作痓，注中乃作痙。**底本六見**，皆在卷四。**痓分剛柔**：發熱無汗、反惡寒者為剛痓；發熱汗出、不惡寒者為柔痓。**剛柔之分，全在有汗無汗**，與太陽中風、傷寒之分同一關捩。**「痓」六見無一例外**，故可掛於章頁而不慮誤配。

In brief

The body drawn taut: neck and back rigid, jaw locked, the whole trunk arched backward. The book divides it into a hard form, with fever, no sweat and aversion to cold, and a soft form, with fever, sweat and no aversion to cold; a third line gives the general name to fever with a deep fine pulse, and a fourth traces the whole thing to sweating too much. Its signs are given at length — cold feet, hot head, red face, restless head-shaking, locked jaw, arched back.

Senses in the classical corpus

The general name 名曰：「痓」

發熱而脉沉細，表證之中見裏脉，即名為痓

Fever with a deep, fine pulse — an exterior illness showing an interior pulse — is what the book names spasm.

太陽病，發熱，脉沉而細者，名曰：「痓」 — 傷寒論·辨痓濕暍脉證第四

The hard form 名曰：「剛痓」

發熱無汗而反惡寒，表氣閉也，故曰剛

Fever, no sweat, and aversion to cold instead of to wind: the exterior is shut, and the form is called hard.

太陽病，發熱無汗，反惡寒者，名曰：「剛痓」 — 傷寒論·辨痓濕暍脉證第四

The soft form 名曰：「柔痓」

發熱汗出而不惡寒，表氣開也，故曰柔

Fever, sweat, and no aversion to cold: the exterior is open, and the form is called soft.

太陽病，發熱，汗出，不惡寒者，名曰：「柔痓」 — 傷寒論·辨痓濕暍脉證第四

The full picture 背反張者，痓病也

身熱足寒、頸項強急、面赤目赤、頭摇口噤、背反張，皆筋脉強急之象

Heat in the body and cold feet, neck and back stiff, red face and eyes, the head alone shaking, the jaw suddenly locked, the back arched: this is spasm.

病身熱足寒，頸項強急，惡寒，時頭熱，面赤，目脉赤，獨頭面揺，卒口噤，背反張者，痓病也 — 傷寒論·辨痓濕暍脉證第四

How it is made 因致痓

發汗太多則津液亡而筋失所養，故因而致痓

Sweating too much drains the fluids and the sinews lose their nourishment; spasm follows from that.

太陽病，發汗太多，因致痓 — 傷寒論·辨痓濕暍脉證第四

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display

6 passages

傷寒論·辨痓濕暍脉證第四 Read in context →

傷寒所致太陽痓、濕、暍三種，宜應别論，以爲與傷寒相似，故此見之。伤寒所致太阳痓、湿、暍三种，宜应别论，以为与伤寒相似，故此见之。

shāng hán suǒ zhì tài yáng chì shī yē sān zhǒng yí yīng bié lùn yǐ wèi yǔ shāng hán xiāng shì gù cǐ jiàn zhī

The three conditions arising from cold damage, namely convulsion, dampness and heatstroke of the taiyang stage, deserve separate discussion; because their signs resemble those of cold damage, they are presented here.

**「痓」五篇共6見**（經文，不含成注），本文引第4篇第01段、第4篇第02段、第4篇第03段、第4篇第04段、第4篇第05段、第4篇第06段。

傷寒論·辨痓濕暍脉證第四 Read in context →

太陽病，發熱無汗，反惡寒者，名曰：「剛痓」。太阳病，发热无汗，反恶寒者，名曰：“刚痓”。

tài yáng bìng fā rè wú hàn fǎn wù hán zhě míng yuē gāng chì

In taiyang disease with fever, absence of sweating and paradoxical aversion to cold, the disorder is called rigid convulsion.