Sweating and draining · ke han ke xie

At a glance

Pinyin

kě hàn kě xiè

Simplified

可汗可泄

Literal

可 kě, may or can; 汗 hàn, sweat, here used as a verb, to sweat the patient; 泄 xiè, to drain or discharge. The two halves are a single rule read from one boundary: before the third day is full the disease is still in the exterior and may be sweated out; once the third day is full it has gone inward and may be drained. The phrase is the chapter's whole therapeutics in four graphs.

Shuowen

《說文解字》：可，肎也，从口丂——「可」讀 kě，本篇四見；汗，人液也，从水干聲——「汗」讀 hàn，本篇三見，此處作動詞用，發汗也；泄，水受九江博安洵波北入氐，从水世聲——「泄」讀 xiè，本篇惟此一見。「泄」之形當辨：底本作「泄」，不作「瀉」；《太素》此句作「可寫」；寫、瀉、泄三字形異而義同，本站各從其底本之形。「未」讀 wèi；「滿」讀 mǎn；「三」讀 sān；「日」讀 rì；「者」讀 zhě；「而」讀 ér；「已」讀 yǐ，愈也。「三日」是汗與泄之分界，與上文「未入於藏者可汗」為一事之兩說。