The four streets · si jie

Also rendered: The four avenues (elegant, and it is the same image) · The four thoroughfares (exact, and it is a mouthful) · The four streets (keeps the plainness of 街)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-10-25

At a glance

Pinyin: sì jiē
Simplified: 四街
Literal: 四 sì — four; 街 jiē — a street, a thoroughfare where roads cross. Together: the four thoroughfares through which qi runs.
Shuowen: 《說文》：街，四通道也。从行圭聲。四街者，氣行四達之徑，非一經一穴之謂。

In brief

The four streets are the great roads of qi, set against the four ends: 四末 is where yin and yang meet, 四街 is the course they travel. The image is a city’s crossroads — not one channel but a place where several arrive and pass on. It is not the same as 氣街, the single qi street at the groin: that is one site, this is a network in four quarters. The pair explains the chapter’s closing figure, the ring without an end.

Senses in the classical corpus

The four 四街者，氣之徑路也

四街是氣行的徑路

The four streets are the paths of qi.

四街者，氣之徑路也 — 靈樞·動輸

Street as image 街

四通之道

A street is what four roads make by crossing.

街 — 靈樞·動輸

Against the four ends 夫四末陰陽之會者

四末是陰陽會合之處

Set against the four ends, where yin and yang meet.

夫四末陰陽之會者 — 靈樞·動輸

Why it matters 故絡絶則徑通

所以絡脈斷絕時徑路仍通

When a network is cut, the street still carries — that is why the ring closes.

故絡絶則徑通 — 靈樞·動輸

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

靈樞·動輸 Read in context →

歧伯曰：夫四末陰陽之會者，此氣之大絡也。四街者，氣之徑路也。故絡絶則徑通，四末解則氣從合，相輸如環。歧伯曰：夫四末阴阳之会者，此气之大络也。四街者，气之径路也。故络绝则径通，四末解则气从合，相输如环。

Qí Bó yuē: fū sì mò yīn yáng zhī huì zhě, cǐ qì zhī dà luò yě. sì jiē zhě, qì zhī jìng lù yě. gù luò jué zé jìng tōng, sì mò jiě zé qì cóng hé, xiāng shū rú huán.

Qi Bo said: The meeting of yin and yang at the four extremities — these are the great networks of qi. The four streets are the direct roads of qi. Hence when the networks are cut, the direct roads run; when the four extremities are released, the qi joins again from its meeting places, and transport goes on like a ring.

「四街」本篇1見，與四末對舉：四末爲陰陽之會，四街爲氣之徑路。與《衛氣》篇氣街之一處者不同，此四處之通衢也。

Compounds built on this term

氣之徑路

qì zhī jìng lù

the paths of qi

氣所行之大路

四末

sì mò

the four ends

四肢之端

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 four streets	the graph, plainly
Literal	four crossroads	exact, and it loses the count of places
Clinical	the four routes of qi	clear, and interpretive

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-25

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Reading path

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