sī qì
Also rendered: The qi that governs the year (this site; 司 is an office and 氣 its occupant, and the chapter uses both) · The governing qi (shorter, and it does not say the year, which is what separates it from 司天)
Reviewed · 2026-10-14
At a glance
The qi that has charge of the year itself, and the colour that year takes: 厥陰司氣爲蒼化、少陽爲丹化、陽明爲素化、太陽爲玄化、太陰爲黅化 — while 少陰 alone is given as 不司氣化. The chapter uses the word in two ways and holds them together. As a position it stands third in the list of four, between 在泉 and 間氣. As an office it is asked about directly: 帝曰：司氣者何如？歧伯曰：司氣者主歲同，然有餘不足也 — the qi that governs a year is the same qi as that year’s 司歲之物, and what varies is only whether it comes in excess or in want. The 不司氣化 of 少陰 is what marks 君火 off from the other five: it takes no colour of its own.
Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.
Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.
| This site | the qi that governs the year | the third of four positions, and the colour the year takes |
| Literal | the governing qi | exact, and ambiguous beside 司天 |
| Descriptive | the qi in charge of the year's own transformation | clear, and too long for a list that names four in one line |
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