十二節简体十二节

shí èr jié

The twelve joints · shi er jie

Also rendered: the twelve joints (Follows the reading that takes them as limbs) · the twelve divisions (Neutral between joints, channels and months)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin: shí èr jié
Simplified: 十二节
Literal: 十二 is simply twelve and 節 is a joint — 說文 takes it from the nodes of bamboo, the places where a stem is divided and stops. Chapter 25 sets the twelve joints of the body against the yin and yang of heaven and the cold and heat of heaven, which is the chapter's usual move: the body is countable in the same way the year is. What the twelve are is not said, and the commentaries do not agree — the twelve great joints of the limbs, the twelve channels, or the twelve divisions of the year have all been proposed. The text only insists on the number, and on the claim that knowing the principle of the twelve puts you beyond deception.
Shuowen: 《說文解字》：節，竹約也。从竹即聲。竹節之「約」為束，引申為骨節、時節、法度。本篇之目：天有陰陽，人有十二節；知十二節之理者，聖智不能欺也。

In brief

The body’s twelve divisions, whatever exactly they are, set against heaven’s yin and yang and heaven’s cold and heat. The commentaries read them as the twelve great joints, as the twelve channels, or as the twelve months; the text itself does not choose, and this site does not choose for it. What matters for reading is the pairing: heaven is divisible and so is the person, and the second half of the sentence is the claim — the one who knows the principle of the twelve cannot be deceived even by sagely wisdom, because there is nothing left in the body he has not counted.

Senses in the classical corpus

Set against heaven's yin and yang 人有十二節

天有陰陽，人亦有十二節以配之

天有陰陽，人有十二節 — Suwen 25

Set against heaven's cold and heat 天有寒暑，人有虚實

四句兩兩相對，皆以天配人

天有寒暑，人有虚實 — Suwen 25

The twelve great joints 十二節

舊注一說：兩腕、兩肘、兩肩、兩髀、兩膝、兩踝

天有陰陽，人有十二節 — Suwen 25

The twelve channels 十二節

舊注一說：即十二經脈

知十二節之理者 — Suwen 25

The twelve months 十二節

舊注一說：一歲十二月之分

不失四時 — Suwen 25

What knowing them buys 聖智不能欺也

知十二節之理，則聖智亦不能相欺

知十二節之理者，聖智不能欺也 — Suwen 25

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·寶命全形論 Suwen 25 · 寶命全形論 Read in context →

天有陰陽，人有十二節。天有寒暑，人有虚實。能經天地陰陽之化者，不失四時。知十二節之理者，聖智不能欺也。天有阴阳，人有十二节。天有寒暑，人有虚实。能经天地阴阳之化者，不失四时。知十二节之理者，圣智不能欺也。

Tiān yǒu yīn yáng, rén yǒu shí èr jié. Tiān yǒu hán shǔ, rén yǒu xū shí.Néng jīng tiān dì yīn yáng zhī huà zhě, bù shī sì shí. Zhī shí èr jié zhī lǐ zhě, shèng zhì bù néng qī yě.

Heaven has yin and yang; the human being has twelve joints. Heaven has cold and heat; the human being has emptiness and repletion. One who can traverse the transformations of the yin and yang of heaven and earth does not lose the four seasons. One who knows the principle of the twelve joints cannot be deceived even by sagely wisdom.

「天有陰陽，人有十二節。天有寒暑，人有虚實」——四句兩兩相對，是本篇天人相配之法：陰陽配十二節，寒暑配虚實。十二節究指何物，舊注三說：一謂人身十二大關節（兩腕、兩肘、兩肩、兩髀、兩膝、兩踝），一謂十二經脈，一謂一歲十二月之分。三說皆通而未有定論，本站照錄底本而並存之，不敢偏主一說。「節」讀 jié，《說文》訓「竹約也」，引申為骨節、時節、法度，三義本篇實兼之。下文「知十二節之理者，聖智不能欺也」：十二節之理既明，則身無不數之處，雖聖智亦不能相欺。「虚」不作「虛」。

素問·生氣通天論 Suwen 3 · 生氣通天論 Read in context →

黄帝曰：夫自古通天者，生之本，本於陰陽。天地之間，六合之内，其氣九州、九竅、五藏、十二節，皆通乎天氣。其生五，其氣三。數犯此者，則邪氣傷人，此壽命之本也。黄帝曰：夫自古通天者，生之本，本于阴阳。天地之间，六合之内，其气九州、九窍、五脏、十二节，皆通乎天气。其生五，其气三。数犯此者，则邪气伤人，此寿命之本也。

Huáng dì yuē: fú zì gǔ tōng tiān zhě, shēng zhī běn, běn yú yīn yáng. tiān dì zhī jiān, liù hé zhī nèi, qí qì jiǔ zhōu, jiǔ qiào, wǔ zàng, shí èr jié, jiē tōng hū tiān qì. qí shēng wǔ, qí qì sān. shuò fàn cǐ zhě, zé xié qì shāng rén, cǐ shòu mìng zhī běn yě.

The Yellow Emperor said: from of old, communicating with heaven is the root of life, and this root is itself rooted in yin and yang. Between heaven and earth, within the six directions, the qi of the nine regions, the nine orifices, the five viscera and the twelve joints all communicate with the qi of heaven. Its generating is five and its qi are three – the five phases and the three yin and three yang. To transgress this again and again is to let the evil qi wound the person; this is the root of the allotted span.

「其氣九州、九竅、五藏、十二節」——十二節之義，注家或以為十二大節、或以為十二經、或以為十二月，本篇未嘗自定；**「十二節」本篇1見**

Compounds built on this term

十二節

shí èr jié

the twelve joints

本篇與陰陽、寒暑對舉

節氣

jié qì

the seasonal nodes

「節」之時令一義，可與此相參

六六之節

liù liù zhī jié

the sixfold cycle

本站第九篇已立目（id 372）

骨節

gǔ jié

the joints of the bones

「節」之形體一義

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 twelve joints	They take the anatomical reading without comment, as most translators do.
Unschuld	the twelve sections	'Section' avoids committing to a joint, which is more honest to a text that never says what the twelve are.
This site	the twelve joints	We follow the majority reading but say plainly in the entry that the commentaries differ and the text does not settle it. Readers who take them as channels or months lose nothing of the argument, which is about countability rather than anatomy.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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