平人

píng rén

The balanced person · ping ren

Also rendered: balanced person (Literal, and keeps the scale-image in 平) · normal person (The usual term in modern Chinese medicine) · healthy person (Loose: replaces evenness with vigour) · the level man (Older English, now reads oddly)

Core vocabulary

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: píng rén
Simplified: 平人
Literal: 平 even, level, at rest (《說文》: 語平舒也 — speech even and unhurried, thence level and equal); 人 the person, that which is noblest in heaven and earth (《說文》: 天地之性最貴者也). The person whose qi is level.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：平，語平舒也（段注：引申為凡平之稱，謂均、謂常）；人，天地之性最貴者也。

In brief

What the whole chapter measures by. A balanced person is not an ideal of vigour but a set of numbers: the pulse moves twice on the out-breath and twice on the in-breath, once more as the breath settles, five times in all, with the deep long breath counted in on top. That count is the standard, and because the physician himself is not ill he can use his own calm breathing as the ruler against which the patient’s pulse is read. Everything else in the chapter is a distance from this mark: one beat to a breath is scant qi, three with agitation is warmth, wind or impediment, four or more, or a pulse that now races and now stalls, is death.

Senses in the classical corpus

A count, not an ideal 命曰平人

一息五至，閏以太息

人一呼脉再動，一吸脉亦再動，呼吸定息，脉五動，閏以太息，命曰平人 — Suwen 18

Simply: one who is not ill 平人者，不病也

平人即無病之人

平人者，不病也 — Suwen 18

Used as the ruler for others 常以不病調病人

以平人之息度病人之脉

常以不病調病人醫不病，故爲病人平息以調之爲法 — Suwen 18

What makes him so 平人之常氣禀於胃

平人之所以平者，胃氣為之

平人之常氣禀於胃，胃者，平人之常氣也 — Suwen 18

The standard departed from 人一呼脉一動，一吸脉一動，曰少氣

不及五至者為少氣，過者為躁、為死

人一呼脉一動，一吸脉一動，曰少氣 — Suwen 18

Occurrences in the classics

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

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3 passages

素問·平人氣象論 Suwen 18 · 平人氣象論 Read in context →

黄帝問曰：平人何如？歧伯對曰：人一呼脉再動，一吸脉亦再動，呼吸定息，脉五動，閏以太息，命曰平人。平人者，不病也。常以不病調病人醫不病，故爲病人平息以調之爲法。黄帝问曰：平人何如？岐伯对曰：人一呼脉再动，一吸脉亦再动，呼吸定息，脉五动，闰以太息，命曰平人。平人者，不病也。常以不病调病人医不病，故为病人平息以调之为法。

huáng dì wèn yuē: píng rén hé rú?qí bó duì yuē: rén yī hū mài zài dòng, yī xī mài yì zài dòng, hū xī dìng xī, mài wǔ dòng, rùn yǐ tài xī, mìng yuē píng rén. píng rén zhě, bù bìng yě. cháng yǐ bù bìng tiáo bìng rén, yī bù bìng, gù wéi bìng rén píng xī yǐ tiáo zhī wéi fǎ.

The Yellow Emperor asks: What is a balanced person like? Qibo replies: When a person exhales once the pulse moves twice, and when he inhales once it moves twice again; as the breath settles between them it moves once more, so that in one breath the pulse moves five times, with the deep long breath counted in besides — this is named a balanced person. A balanced person is one who is not ill. One regularly uses the breathing of one who is not ill to gauge the person who is ill; the physician is not ill, and so he calms his breathing on the patient’s account and uses it as the measure — this is the method.

篇首設問「平人何如」，岐伯即以呼吸計脈之至數為對：一呼再動、一吸再動、定息又一動、閏以太息，凡五動而命之曰平人；醫者不病，故以其平息調病人之脈而為法。此為全篇度量之本。

素問·調經論 Suwen 62 · 調經論 Read in context →

歧伯曰：夫陰與陽，皆有俞會，陽注於陰，陰滿之外，陰陽匀平，以充其形，九𠉀若一，命曰平人。歧伯曰：夫阴与阳，皆有俞会，阳注于阴，阴满之外，阴阳匀平，以充其形，九候若一，命曰平人。

Qí bó yuē: fú yīn yǔ yáng, jiē yǒu shù huì, yáng zhù yú yīn, yīn mǎn zhī wài, yīn yáng yún píng, yǐ chōng qí xíng, jiǔ hòu ruò yī, mìng yuē píng rén.

Qi Bo says: yin and yang each have their meeting places at the transport points. The yang pours into the yin; the yin fills and goes outward. When yin and yang are evenly balanced they fill out the body, and the nine probes are as one. Such a man is called a balanced man.

「陰陽匀平，以充其形，九𠉀若一，命曰平人」——**「平人」本篇1見，在答實者何道從來一節中**：**本篇之平人不以呼吸定息為數，而以九𠉀若一為斷——三部九候之脉齊一，即無病之人**；**「九𠉀」本篇3見：九𠉀若一、九𠉀莫病、必謹察其九𠉀**；**「平」讀 píng、「人」讀 rén**

素問·金匱真言論 Suwen 4 · 金匱真言論 Read in context →

夫精者，身之本也。故藏於精者，春不病温。夏暑汗不出者，秋成風瘧，此平人脉法也。夫精者，身之本也。故藏于精者，春不病温。夏暑汗不出者，秋成风疟，此平人脉法也。

fú jīng zhě, shēn zhī běn yě. gù cáng yú jīng zhě, chūn bù bìng wēn. xià shǔ hàn bù chū zhě, qiū chéng fēng nüè, cǐ píng rén mài fǎ yě.

Now essence is the root of the body. Hence one who stores essence does not fall ill of warm disease in spring. One who in the summer heat does not sweat forms wind malaria by autumn. This is the pulse method of the healthy person.

「此平人脉法也」——以平人為法，言常而不言變；**「平人」本篇1見**

Compounds built on this term

平

píng

even, level

說文：語平舒也

人

rén

person

說文：天地之性最貴者也

常氣

cháng qì

the regular qi

平人之所以為平者

不病

bù bìng

not ill

平人之定義

平息

píng xī

to calm the breathing

醫者自調其息以為診法

How it has been translated

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

Common English	normal person, or healthy person	Both are standard; the chapter title is often rendered as on the pulse of a normal person.
This site	the balanced person	平 in 說文 is 語平舒, even and unhurried — the word is about evenness, not about strength, and the chapter defines it by counting: five movements to a breath, neither slow nor hurried. Normal suggests a statistical average the text never invokes, and healthy suggests a vigour the text never asks for; a balanced person may be one breath from scant qi and still be balanced. Balanced keeps the image of the scales that 平 carries, and leaves the definition to the counting that follows it.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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