五鬱简体五郁

wǔ yù

The five pent-up qi · wu yu

Also rendered: The five pent-up qi (this site; a name the chapter does not write but the passage is built on) · The five depressions (clinical usage; 鬱 here is a qi held back, not a mood)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-10-14

At a glance

Pinyin: wǔ yù
Simplified: 五郁
Literal: The five pent-up qi. The chapter never writes the phrase 五鬱: it names the five one at a time — 木鬱、火鬱、土鬱、金鬱、水鬱 — and gives each its own treatment, 逹之、發之、奪之、泄之、折之. The entry is the five together, which is how the passage is read and how the later commentaries cite it.
Shuowen: 「五鬱」二字本篇無連文；五者各見二處：一在鬱發之五段（木鬱之發、火鬱之發、土鬱之發、金鬱之發、水鬱之發），一在篇末治則（木鬱逹之、火鬱發之、土鬱奪之、金鬱泄之、水鬱折之）；「鬱」本篇30見；五者之治各不相同：木宜逹，火宜發，土宜奪，金宜泄，水宜折，然必調其氣而後用之

In brief

The five kinds of pent-up qi, and the five ways out. 木鬱逹之，火鬱發之，土鬱奪之，金鬱泄之，水鬱折之，然調其氣，過者折之，以其畏也，所謂冩之 — each element gets a different verb, which is the point: wood is to be opened up, fire let out, earth taken away, metal drained, water bent aside. The treatment follows what the element does when it is stuck. Each of the five also has its own paragraph earlier in the chapter, saying when it breaks out and what it does to the weather and to men, so that the last page of the chapter is a coda to a passage hundreds of graphs long.

Senses in the classical corpus

The five 木鬱、火鬱、土鬱、金鬱、水鬱

五者各以其藏之氣言

Each of the five is spoken of by the qi of its viscus.

木鬱逹之 — 素問·六元正紀大論

Wood 木鬱逹之

木喜條逹，鬱則開而通之

Wood likes to spread and reach; when pent, open and free it.

木鬱逹之 — 素問·六元正紀大論

Fire 火鬱發之

火鬱於内，發而散之

Fire pent within: release and disperse it.

火鬱發之 — 素問·六元正紀大論

Earth 土鬱奪之

土鬱成實，奪而去之

Earth pent and grown solid: take it away and remove it.

土鬱奪之 — 素問·六元正紀大論

Metal and water 金鬱泄之，水鬱折之

金宜疏泄，水宜折其衝

Metal should be coursed and drained; water's charge should be broken.

水鬱折之 — 素問·六元正紀大論

The rule over them 然調其氣

五治雖異，必先調其氣

Though the five treatments differ, one must first harmonise the qi.

過者折之，以其畏也 — 素問·六元正紀大論

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·六元正紀大論 Read in context →

歧伯曰：大積大聚，其可犯也，衰其太半而止，過者死。帝曰：善。鬱之甚者，治之柰何？歧伯曰：木鬱逹之，火鬱發之，土鬱奪之，金鬱泄之，水鬱折之，然調其氣，過者折之，以其畏也，所謂冩之。帝曰：假者何如？歧伯曰：有假其氣，則無禁也，所謂主氣不足，客氣勝也。歧伯曰：大积大聚，其可犯也，衰其太半而止，过者死。帝曰：善。郁之甚者，治之奈何？歧伯曰：木郁达之，火郁发之，土郁夺之，金郁泄之，水郁折之，然调其气，过者折之，以其畏也，所谓写之。帝曰：假者何如？歧伯曰：有假其气，则无禁也，所谓主气不足，客气胜也。

Qí bó yuē: dà jī dà jù, qí kě fàn yě, shuāi qí tài bàn ér zhǐ, guò zhě sǐ. Dì yuē: shàn. Yù zhī shèn zhě, zhì zhī nài hé? Qí bó yuē: mù yù dá zhī, huǒ yù fā zhī, tǔ yù duó zhī, jīn yù xiè zhī, shuǐ yù zhé zhī, rán tiáo qí qì, guò zhě zhé zhī, yǐ qí wèi yě, suǒ wèi xiè zhī. Dì yuē: jiǎ zhě hé rú? Qí bó yuē: yǒu jiǎ qí qì, zé wú jìn yě, suǒ wèi zhǔ qì bù zú, kè qì shèng yě.

Qi Bo said: great accumulations and great gatherings may be offended; lessen them by more than half and stop — to go beyond is death. Huang Di said: good. When what is pent is severe, how is it treated? Qi Bo said: when wood is pent, reach through it; when fire is pent, disperse it; when earth is pent, take from it; when metal is pent, drain it; when water is pent, break it; and then tune their qi. What is over is broken with what it fears — this is what is called draining. Huang Di said: what of a pretext? Qi Bo said: when the qi is borrowed there is no prohibition — this is what is called the governing qi falling short and the guest qi prevailing.

「木鬱逹之，火鬱發之，土鬱奪之，金鬱泄之，水鬱折之」為篇末治則五句；「五鬱」二字本篇無連文，五者各見於鬱發五段與此段；另一處在鬱發之五段，各有其時、其兆與所病

Compounds built on this term

鬱發

yù fā

pent-up and breaking out

本篇2見；五鬱之發即其疏解

化源

huà yuán

the source of transformation

本篇6見；治鬱必先取之

有故無殞

yǒu gù wú yǔn

there being a cause, no death

本篇一見；與五鬱之治同為篇末治法

甚紀五分

shèn jì wǔ fēn

in the worst case, a difference of five parts

本篇一見；論氣之盈虚

How it has been translated

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

This site	the five pent-up qi	five one-word names and five different verbs for their relief, which is the whole of the treatment
Literal	five pent-up things	exact and empty; the terms are the five phases
Gloss	the five phases' qi when held back, and the five ways to release them	right, and too long to stand in a sentence

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2026-10-14

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Reading path

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