Classica Sinica Medica

五痺

wǔ bì

The five obstructions

Also rendered: the five obstructions (Follows the 說文 gloss 痺之言閉也) · the five bi syndromes (Transliteration, standard in modern TCM English) · the five impediments (Older and vaguer; impediment suggests slowness)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
wǔ bì
Simplified
五痺
Literal
五 five; 痺 obstruction — the class of illness in which something is blocked and does not pass. Five of them, named after the five tissues: skin, flesh, sinew, bone and vessel.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：五，五行也；痺，溼病也（段注：痺之言閉也，閉塞不通之謂）。

In brief

What ten days of decoction was meant to drive out, together with the eight winds. Wang Bing names the five by tissue: the obstructions of skin, flesh, sinew, bone and vessel. The Newly Collated edition corrects him on his source — the passage he quotes as from the Discourse on Obstruction is not in that chapter, and should be attributed to the Discourse on Wind, with the list of obstructions quoted separately. The site’s own entry on 痺 follows the definition given in Suwen 10: blood that moves and cannot return to its hollow.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
Obstruction of the five tissues 皮、肉、筋、骨、脈之痺
王冰：「五痺，謂皮肉筋骨脈之痺也。」
以去八風五痺之病 — Suwen 13
2
Driven out early, with decoction 湯液十日，以去八風五痺之病
中古之治病至而治之，故十日可去
湯液十日，以去八風五痺之病 — Suwen 13
3
Newly Collated correction of the source 當云《風論》
新校正云：王注引《痺論》，「今經中《痺論》不如此，當云《風論》」
（新校正） — Suwen 13 (Xin jiaozheng)
4
The same word as in Suwen 10 痺
第十篇：「血行而不得反其空，故為痺。」
（第十篇之訓） — Suwen 10

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
素問·移精變氣論 Suwen 13 · 移精變氣論 Read in context →
中古之治病，至而治之。湯液十日，以去八風五痺之病。 中古之治病，至而治之。汤液十日，以去八风五痺之病。
zhōng gǔ zhī zhì bìng, zhì ér zhì zhī. tāng yè shí rì, yǐ qù bā fēng wǔ bì zhī bìng.
In middle antiquity, when they treated illness they treated it as soon as it arrived: ten days of decoction, to drive out the illnesses of the eight winds and the five obstructions.
王冰：「八風，謂八方之風。五痺，謂皮、肉、筋、骨、脈之痺也。」新校正云：「按此注引《痺論》，今經中《痺論》不如此，當云《風論》曰……《痺論》曰：風、寒、濕三氣雜至，合而為痺。」校勘家多從新校正之說。

Compounds built on this term

五
wǔ
five
說文：五行也
痺
bì
obstruction
說文：溼病也。第十篇之訓：血行不得反其空
皮痺
pí bì
skin obstruction
王冰所列五痺之一
筋痺
jīn bì
sinew obstruction
王冰所列五痺之一
骨痺
gǔ bì
bone obstruction
王冰所列五痺之一

How it has been translated

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

Common Englishthe five bi syndromesTransliteration is the norm now, and avoids the rheumatism problem.
This sitethe five obstructions痺 is glossed in the 說文 as 閉 — shut, blocked — and Suwen 10 defines it directly as blood that moves and cannot get back to its hollow. Obstruction keeps that. Rheumatism, which older translations reach for, is a different disease with a different history; syndrome adds a nosological category the text has no word for.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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