八動简体八动

bā dòng

The eight movements · ba dong

Also rendered: the eight movements (Keeps 動 as movement rather than naming the winds) · the eight winds (Names them; loses the emphasis on variation)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: bā dòng
Simplified: 八动
Literal: 八 is eight and 動 is movement — 說文 writes it as 作, to set in motion. The eight movements are conventionally the winds of the eight directions, the seasonal winds that come from each quarter and are named and watched throughout the medical literature. Chapter 25 asks something harder of the physician than knowing their names: 能存八動之變 — to hold their changes, to keep in mind not what the eight winds are but how they vary. The verb 存 is the same one used later in the chapter for holding the needle, and that is not an accident.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：八，別也。象分別相背之形；動，作也。从力重聲。八動，舊注謂八風之動，即八方之風。本篇之目：能存八動之變，五勝更立。

In brief

The eight winds and, more importantly, their variation. Chapter 25 lists holding their changes alongside the alternation of the five conquests as one of the attainments that put a physician beyond deception and let him go out and in alone. The emphasis falls on 變, change: it is not a table of eight winds to be memorised but a set of movements to be tracked, in the same way the chapter later wants the physician to track the comings and goings of qi rather than to know its name.

Senses in the classical corpus

The winds of the eight directions 八動

舊注以八風當之，即八方之風

能存八動之變 — Suwen 25

Their variation, not their names 之變

所重在「變」，不在八風之名

能存八動之變 — Suwen 25

Held, not merely known 能存

「存」謂存之於心，與下文「存鍼」同一字法

能存八動之變 — Suwen 25

Paired with the five conquests 五勝更立

八動之變與五勝之更立，同為當察者

五勝更立 — Suwen 25

One of the attainments 獨出獨入

能此者獨出獨入，聖智不能欺

能逹虚實之數者，獨出獨入 — Suwen 25

The same verb, later in the chapter 後乃存鍼

「存」字重出，一存其變，一存其鍼

五藏已定，九候已備，後乃存鍼 — Suwen 25

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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1 passages

素問·寶命全形論 Suwen 25 · 寶命全形論 Read in context →

能存八動之變，五勝更立。能逹虚實之數者，獨出獨入。能存八动之变，五胜更立。能达虚实之数者，独出独入。

Néng cún bā dòng zhī biàn, wǔ shèng gēng lì. Néng dá xū shí zhī shù zhě, dú chū dú rù.

One who can hold the changes of the eight movements and the alternation by which the five conquests set each other up, and one who can reach through the numbers of emptiness and repletion, goes out alone and comes in alone.

「能存八動之變，五勝更立。能逹虚實之數者，獨出獨入。」八動舊注謂八風之動，即八方之風；本篇所重不在八風之名，而在「變」字——能存其變，方為能者。「存」讀 cún，存之於心之義；下文「後乃存鍼」之「存」同一字法，一存其變，一存其鍼，皆非徒知而已。**「逹」讀 dá，即「達」之異體；本篇「土得木而達」作達、「能逹虚實之數」作逹，二形同篇並見，各從底本並互注。**「勝」讀 shèng；「更」讀 gēng。

Compounds built on this term

八動

bā dòng

the eight movements

舊注謂八風之動

八風

bā fēng

the eight winds

八方之風，八動之所指

五勝

wǔ shèng

the five conquests

與八動並舉，說見本站該條

變

biàn

change

「八動之變」之變，與下文「觀適之變」同字

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Feng	the eight movements	They leave 動 as movement, which is consistent with their practice of not reading a commentary into the text.
Unschuld	the eight [winds'] movements	He supplies 'winds' in brackets, acknowledging the standard identification without committing to it.
This site	the eight movements	We keep 動 unglossed for the same reason the chapter pairs it with 變: the point is that they move and can be tracked. Naming them as winds in the headword would turn a verb into a list.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

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