Classica Sinica Medica

流衍

liú yǎn

Spreading Flow · liu yan

Also rendered: Spreading Flow (this site; 流 is water moving and 衍 is spreading wide, so the name is water that has got everywhere rather than water held in a stream) · Liu yan (transliteration; how the name appears in tables of the fifteen circuits)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-10-13

At a glance

Pinyin
liú yǎn
Simplified
流衍
Literal
流 liú — to flow; 衍 yǎn — to spread out, to widen over a surface (《說文》: 衍，水朝宗于海也; the received sense is spreading out). 流衍 is water in excess: not a full stream but water spreading over everything, the opposite of the short water's 涸. The chapter's 紀 name for it is 封藏, sealed storage — the excess of water shuts the year down hard, and its harm is the kidney's.
Shuowen
**「流衍」本篇2見：一在「水曰流衍」，一在「流衍之紀」**；**《說文》：流，水行也；衍，水朝宗于海也**；**「是謂封藏」本篇1見，即流衍之紀之名**；**「寒司物化，天地嚴凝」本篇1見、「藏政以布，長令不揚」本篇1見，皆流衍之文**；**「其藏腎心」本篇1見，水太過兼及所勝之火**

In brief

Water going to excess. 水曰流衍 — water is called spreading flow — and its 紀 is 封藏: 流衍之紀，是謂封藏。寒司物化，天地嚴凝，藏政以布，長令不揚. Cold has charge of the world’s transformations, heaven and earth close hard, the governance of storing is spread abroad, and the command of growing is not raised — the excess of water is told as a year that never opens. Its attributes: 其化凜，其氣堅，其政謐，其令流注，其動漂泄沃涌，其德凝慘寒雰，其變冰雪霜雹…其象冬，其經足少陰太陽，其藏腎心…其病脹. Its viscera are the kidney and the heart — the water and the fire it puts out — and its illness is fullness, the swelling of a body with nothing moving in it. The chapter closes the group with it, and the closing passage adds 政過則化氣大舉，而埃昏氣交，大雨時降，邪傷腎也: the excess at last breaks, and the harm falls on the kidney.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The graph 流衍
流者水行，衍者廣布
水曰流衍 — Suwen 70
2
Its 紀 name 封藏
封者閉也，藏者藏也，水盛則閉藏過甚
流衍之紀，是謂封藏 — Suwen 70
3
Its opening 寒司物化，天地嚴凝
寒主物化，天地閉而嚴凝
寒司物化，天地嚴凝 — Suwen 70
4
Its governance 藏政以布，長令不揚
藏之政布而長之令不舉
藏政以布，長令不揚 — Suwen 70
5
Its paired viscera 其藏腎心
水太過則兼及所勝之火
其藏腎心 — Suwen 70
6
What it brings 其病脹
寒水過凝，故病脹
其病脹 — Suwen 70

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
Suwen 70 Suwen 70 · 五常政大論 Read in context →
流衍之紀，是謂封藏。寒司物化，天地嚴凝，藏政以布，長令不揚。其化凜，其氣堅，其政謐，其令流注，其動漂泄沃涌，其德凝慘寒雰，其變冰雪霜雹，其榖豆稷，其畜彘牛，其果栗棗，其色黑丹黅，其味鹹苦甘，其象冬，其經足少陰太陽，其藏腎心，其蟲鱗倮，其物濡滿，其病脹。上羽而長，氣不化也。政過則化氣大舉，而埃昏氣交，大雨時降，邪傷腎也。 流衍之纪，是谓封藏。寒司物化，天地严凝，藏政以布，长令不扬。其化凛，其气坚，其政谧，其令流注，其动漂泄沃涌，其德凝惨寒雰，其变冰雪霜雹，其谷豆稷，其畜彘牛，其果栗枣，其色黑丹黅，其味咸苦甘，其象冬，其经足少阴太阳，其藏肾心，其虫鳞倮，其物濡满，其病胀。上羽而长，气不化也。政过则化气大举，而埃昏气交，大雨时降，邪伤肾也。
Liú yǎn zhī jì, shì wèi fēng cáng. Hán sī wù huà, tiān dì yán níng, zàng zhèng yǐ bù, zhǎng lìng bù yáng. Qí huà lǐn, qí qì jiān, qí zhèng mì, qí lìng liú zhù, qí dòng piāo xiè wò yǒng, qí dé níng cǎn hán fēn, qí biàn bīng xuě shuāng báo, qí gǔ dòu jì, qí chù zhì niú, qí guǒ lì zǎo, qí sè hēi dān jīn, qí wèi xián kǔ gān, qí xiàng dōng, qí jīng zú shào yīn tài yáng, qí zàng shèn xīn, qí chóng lín luǒ, qí wù rú mǎn, qí bìng zhàng. Shàng yǔ ér zhǎng, qì bù huà yě. Zhèng guò zé huà qì dà jǔ, ér āi hūn qì jiāo, dà yǔ shí jiàng, xié shāng shèn yě.
The era of Spreading Flow is called sealing and storing: cold governs the transformation of beings, heaven and earth are sternly congealed, the governance of storage is laid out, and the command of growth is not raised. Its transformation cold and stern, its qi firm, its governance quiet, its command flowing and pouring, its movement drifting, leaking, watering and welling, its virtue congealed bleakness and cold fog, its change ice, snow, frost and hail, its grain beans and panicled millet, its domestic animal the pig and the ox, its fruit the chestnut and the jujube, its colour black, vermilion and yellow, its flavour salty, bitter and sweet, its image winter, its channels the foot lesser yin and greater yang, its viscera the kidney and heart, its creature the scaly and the naked, its thing moist and full, its illness distension. Where the upper is yu growth cannot transform. If its governance goes too far the qi of transformation is greatly raised, dust darkens and the qi intermixes, great rain falls in its season, and evil injures the kidney.
**「流衍」本篇2見：一在「水曰流衍」，一在「流衍之紀」**；**此段以「封藏」名其紀，「寒司物化，天地嚴凝」為其開端**；**「藏政以布，長令不揚」寫水太過之一年不開；藏讀 cáng**；**此段為十五紀之末；「其病脹」一句殿之，末「邪傷腎也」**

Compounds built on this term

靜順
jìng shùn
still compliance
本篇2見；水之平氣，與流衍對
涸流
hé liú
dried stream
本篇2見；水不及之名，其紀曰反陽
封藏
fēng cáng
sealed storage
本篇1見；流衍之紀之名，藏讀 cáng
其藏腎心
qí zàng shèn xīn
its viscera the kidney and heart
本篇1見；五太過之藏皆二

How it has been translated

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

This sitespreading flowwater spread over everything; the rendering answers 涸流, which is the same water with nothing left in it
Transliterationliu yanright about the referent, and it says nothing about spreading
Descriptivewater going to excessexact, and it loses the name the sentence 水曰流衍 uses as a subject

Entry status

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2026-10-13

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