五惡 简体 五恶

wǔ wù

The five aversions · wu wu

Also rendered: the five aversions (Says what an organ recoils from) · the five hatreds (Too strong; 惡 here is milder than that) · what the five viscera dislike (Plainest, loses the noun) · wu wu (Bare transliteration)

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
wǔ wù
Simplified
五恶
Literal
惡 carries the heart radical and is glossed by the dictionary 過也 — to go past, to offend — with the sense of loathing a later development. In this chapter it is read wù, not è: not badness but what cannot be borne. Every one of the seven occurrences in the chapter is the verb.
Shuowen
《說文解字》:惡,過也。从心亞聲(段注:過者,失也;引申為憎惡之義,讀 wù)。本篇「惡」七見,並讀 wù。

In brief

Heart loathes heat, lung cold, liver wind, spleen dampness, kidney dryness. Five lines, and the shortest complete statement in the book that an organ can have a preference. Heat damages the heart, certainly, but the word chosen is the word for what a person cannot bear — and the chapter’s next-of-kin, chapter 22, uses the same facts the other way round: the kidney suffers dryness, so give it acrid to moisten it. Between them the two chapters turn climate into advice.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
Each viscus and what it cannot bear 心惡熱,肺惡寒
五臟各有所惡之氣
五藏所惡:心惡熱,肺惡寒,肝惡風,脾惡濕,腎惡燥 — Suwen 23
2
Read wù, not è 惡
憎惡之義,非善惡之惡
心惡熱 — Suwen 23
3
Wind and the liver 肝惡風
風為木之氣,同氣相求而反為病
肝惡風 — Suwen 23
4
Dampness and the spleen 脾惡濕
第二十二篇「脾苦濕」與此同義
脾惡濕 — Suwen 23
5
The same fact turned into treatment 腎苦燥,急食辛以潤之
第二十二篇就其可治者言之
腎苦燥,急食辛以潤之 — Suwen 22

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
2 passages
素問·宣明五氣 Suwen 23 · 宣明五氣 Read in context →
五藏所惡:心惡熱,肺惡寒,肝惡風,脾惡濕,腎惡燥,是謂五惡。 五藏所恶:心恶热,肺恶寒,肝恶风,脾恶湿,肾恶燥,是谓五恶。
Wǔ zàng suǒ wù: xīn wù rè, fèi wù hán, gān wù fēng, pí wù shī, shèn wù zào, shì wèi wǔ wù.
What the five viscera loathe: the heart loathes heat, the lung loathes cold, the liver loathes wind, the spleen loathes dampness, the kidney loathes dryness. This is called the five aversions.
本篇「五藏所惡」五句,是全书说脏气所忌的最短一表。「惡」讀 wù 不讀 è,是動詞不是形容詞——五臟不是「壞」於熱寒風濕燥,而是「受不了」它。第二十二篇同此數事而換一說法:「腎苦燥,急食辛以潤之」「脾苦濕,急食苦以燥之」,「苦」與「惡」義近而彼重在可治,此重在所忌。兩篇對讀,则五臟與氣候之關係,一面是禁忌、一面是治法。「濕」字底本作「濕」,與第二十二篇同形。
素問·陽明脉解 Suwen 30 · 陽明脉解 Read in context →
黃帝問曰:足陽明之脉病,惡人與火,聞木音則惕然而驚,鐘鼓不爲動,聞木音而驚,何也? 黄帝问曰:足阳明之脉病,恶人与火,闻木音则惕然而惊,钟鼓不为动,闻木音而惊,何也?
Huáng dì wèn yuē: zú yáng míng zhī mài bìng, wù rén yǔ huǒ, wén mù yīn zé tì rán ér jīng, zhōng gǔ bù wéi dòng, wén mù yīn ér jīng, hé yě?
The Yellow Emperor asks: when the vessel of foot Yangming is diseased, the patient is averse to people and to fire; he hears the sound of wood and starts in alarm, yet bells and drums do not move him. Why is it that the sound of wood alarms him?
「五惡」之目於本站已立(五藏各有所惡),本篇則於「惡」字別開一義:**「惡」讀 wù,本篇六見皆讀 wù**——惡人與火、土惡木也、其惡火、熱甚則惡火、其惡人、惋則惡人,皆憎惡、畏忌之義,無一讀 è 者。「黃」讀 huáng,**底本作「黃」,不作「黄」**;「帝」讀 dì;「問」讀 wèn;「曰」讀 yuē;「足」讀 zú;「陽」讀 yáng;「明」讀 míng;「之」讀 zhī;「脉」讀 mài;「病」讀 bìng;「人」讀 rén;「與」讀 yǔ;「火」讀 huǒ;「聞」讀 wén;「木」讀 mù;「音」讀 yīn;「則」讀 zé;「惕」讀 tì;「然」讀 rán;「而」讀 ér;「驚」讀 jīng;「鐘」讀 zhōng;「鼓」讀 gǔ;「不」讀 bù;「爲」讀 wéi;「動」讀 dòng;「何」讀 hé;「也」讀 yě。**本篇之「惡」與「五惡」之「惡」同讀而異用**:五惡者,五藏各有所惡之常(如心惡熱、肺惡寒);本篇之惡,則是病中一時之變——土惡木是五行之常,惡火、惡人是血氣之變,與第二十三篇「五惡」、第二十四篇「出血惡氣」可互參。

Compounds built on this term

惡
wù
to loathe
說文:過也;本篇七見並讀 wù
五惡
wǔ wù
the five aversions
本篇第四條之目
所惡
suǒ wù
what it loathes
與「所病」「所藏」「所主」同一句法
熱寒風濕燥
rè hán fēng shī zào
heat, cold, wind, dampness, dryness
本篇五惡之目
苦
kǔ
to suffer from
第二十二篇作「苦」,與「惡」義近而別

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Fengthe five [viscera] and what they dislikeThey keep the verb and add the organ, letting the clause do the work.
Unschuldthe five [depots] and their aversionsHe uses aversion, which carries the medical weight without sounding personal.
This sitethe five aversions'Hatred' would make organs into enemies of the weather. Aversion is strong enough to be worth writing down and mild enough to be about a season.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

Search the glossary

Reading path

Guided routes through the corpus, each built on a handful of chapters and their key terms.

See all reading paths