五脉

wǔ mài

The five pulses · wu mai

Also rendered: the five pulses (Plain) · the five pulse images (Adds 象, which the heading has) · the five vessels (Confuses the pulse with what is felt) · wu mai (Bare transliteration)

Vessels

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: wǔ mài
Simplified: 五脉
Literal: 脉 is written with the flesh radical and a graph for flowing water; 說文 describes it as the dividing lines of the blood that run through the body. This chapter writes it 脉 and never 脈, thirteen times over. 應 is read yìng here — to answer to — and 象 is the image a thing presents.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：脈，血理分衺行體中者。从肉𠬤聲（本篇作「脉」，十三見，見本篇校勘）；應，當也。从心𩁹聲（本篇讀 yìng）；象，南越大獸（引申為形象之義）。

In brief

The chapter closes with the five pulses and the season each answers to: liver string-like, heart hooked, spleen intermittent, lung downy, kidney stony. Four of these are the images chapter 18 gave for the pulses of the four seasons, and the fifth — 代, the intermittent pulse — belongs to earth, which has no season of its own and so takes the turning points between them. That is the whole claim: a pulse is an image, and the image tells you which season the body is living in.

Senses in the classical corpus

Five pulses, five images 肝脉絃，心脉鈎

五臟之脈各有一象

五脉應象：肝脉絃，心脉鈎，脾脉代，肺脉毛，腎脉石 — Suwen 23

String-like 肝脉絃

底本作「絃」，今作弦；第十八篇已立「弦」條

肝脉絃 — Suwen 23

Hooked 心脉鈎

底本作「鈎」，第十八篇已立「鈎」條

心脉鈎 — Suwen 23

Intermittent 脾脉代

土無專時，故其脈代更

脾脉代 — Suwen 23

The same images out of season 春得秋脉

本篇下文五邪所見，即以此為斷

春得秋脉 — Suwen 23

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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2 passages

素問·宣明五氣 Suwen 23 · 宣明五氣 Read in context →

五脉應象：肝脉絃，心脉鈎，脾脉代，肺脉毛，腎脉石，是謂五藏之脉。五脉应象：肝脉弦，心脉钩，脾脉代，肺脉毛，肾脉石，是谓五藏之脉。

Wǔ mài yìng xiàng: gān mài xián, xīn mài gōu, pí mài dài, fèi mài máo, shèn mài shí, shì wèi wǔ zàng zhī mài.

The images the five pulses answer to: the liver pulse is string-like, the heart pulse hooked, the spleen pulse intermittent, the lung pulse downy, the kidney pulse stony. These are the pulses of the five viscera.

本篇末條「五脉應象」，以五脈配五臟而各予以一象：肝絃（底本作絃）、心鈎、脾代、肺毛、腎石。四者即第十八篇四時之脈（弦鈎毛石），惟「代」為本篇所特舉——土無專時而居四季之交，故其脈代更而不居一象。「應」讀 yìng，謂脈之象與四時之氣相應；不相應者即下文「五邪所見」（春得秋脉之屬），本篇斷之曰「皆同命，死不治」。第十八篇已立弦、鈎、毛、石四條，本篇則合五臟而總為一表，為後世五臟脈法之所本。

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

帝曰：夫子言虚實者有十，生於五藏，五藏，五脉耳。夫十二經脉，皆生其病，今夫子獨言五藏。夫十二經脉者，皆絡三百六十五節，節有病，必被經脉，經脉之病，皆有虚實，何以合之？帝曰：夫子言虚实者有十，生于五藏，五藏，五脉耳。夫十二经脉，皆生其病，今夫子独言五藏。夫十二经脉者，皆络三百六十五节，节有病，必被经脉，经脉之病，皆有虚实，何以合之？

Dì yuē: fū zǐ yán xū shí zhě yǒu shí, shēng yú wǔ zàng, wǔ zàng, wǔ mài ěr. Fú shí èr jīng mài, jiē shēng qí bìng, jīn fū zǐ dú yán wǔ zàng. Fú shí èr jīng mài zhě, jiē luò sān bǎi liù shí wǔ jié, jié yǒu bìng, bì bèi jīng mài, jīng mài zhī bìng, jiē yǒu xū shí, hé yǐ hé zhī?

The Emperor says: you say the deficiencies and excesses are ten and arise in the five depots – yet the five depots are only five vessels. The twelve channels all give rise to disease, and you speak only of the five depots. The twelve channels all network the three hundred and sixty-five joints; when a joint is diseased the channel must be reached, and the diseases of the channels all have their deficiency and excess. How do these two fit?

「夫子言虚實者有十，生於五藏，五藏，五脉耳」——**「五脉」本篇1見，在末章黄帝之問中**：**十者之有餘不足生於五藏，而五藏之病見於五脉——即本目所收五藏之脉**；**此處之「五脉」是五藏之脉的和稱，與第五十八篇「三百六十五脉」之末二字偶然成文者不同，故掛而不剔**；**「脉」讀 mài，底本从「脉」，不从「脈」**

Compounds built on this term

脉

mài

the pulse

底本作「脉」，不作「脈」，本篇十三見

應象

yìng xiàng

answering to the image

「應」讀 yìng

絃

xián

string-like

「弦」之異體，見本篇校勘

代

dài

intermittent

脈來中止而更代，一說軟弱之義

石

shí

stony

第十八篇已立「石」條

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 five pulses	They keep pulse for 脉 wherever it is something being felt at the wrist.
Unschuld	the five [movements in the] vessels	He keeps the vessel, since that is what the graph literally is.
This site	the five pulses	Here 脉 is what the finger finds, not the tube itself; chapter 18 already established these five as names for qualities under the hand, and vessels would lose the hand.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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