Classica Sinica Medica

淖澤 简体 淖泽

nào zé

Thin and glossy · nao ze

Also rendered: thin and glossy (Keeps both words; glossy is what 澤 does to a surface) · slack and shiny (More colloquial than the Chinese; loses the mud in 淖)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-09

At a glance

Pinyin
nào zé
Simplified
淖泽
Literal
淖 is mud — 說文 glosses it as 泥 — the soft wetness of ground that has taken water, and 澤 is gloss, the sheen on something wet; 說文 glosses it as 光潤. Neither word is pathological on its own. Together in chapter 27 they describe what heat does to the qi: it thins it and makes it slick. The chapter needs this word because it is the other half of the pair that governs entry — cold congeals the blood and drags it, heat thins the qi and makes it glossy, and it is precisely in the loosened state that the empty evil slips in.
Shuowen
《說文解字》：淖，泥也。从水卓聲；澤，光潤也。从水睪聲。淖者濡軟，澤者光潤，二字連言，狀暑熱之氣濡潤滑利之態。本篇之目：暑則氣淖澤。與第二十六篇「淖液」之淖同字同讀，彼狀天温日明之血，此狀暑熱之氣。

In brief

Thinned and made glossy by heat. Chapter 27 uses the word once, in the sentence that explains how an evil actually gets in: cold makes the blood congeal and drag, heat makes the qi thin and glossy, and the empty evil enters and lodges on the strength of that loosening. The term belongs with 淖液 of chapter 26, where the same 淖 describes blood thinned by warm bright weather; here it is the qi, and it is not an advantage but an opening.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
What heat does to the qi 暑則氣淖澤
暑熱則氣濡潤滑利
夫邪之入於脉也，寒則血凝泣，暑則氣淖澤 — Suwen 27
2
The state that lets the evil in 虚邪因而入客
氣既淖澤，虚邪乃得乘之而客
虚邪因而入客 — Suwen 27
3
Set against congealing 寒則血凝泣
寒凝暑澤，兩兩相對
寒則血凝泣，暑則氣淖澤 — Suwen 27
4
The river image it belongs to 亦如經水之得風也
血氣之凝與澤，猶水之凍與沸
亦如經水之得風也 — Suwen 27
5
The same 淖 in chapter 26 淖液
彼狀血，此狀氣，字同讀同
天温日明，則人血淖液而衛氣浮 — Suwen 26
6
Not a humour, a state 淖澤
非津液之名，乃形容氣血濡軟之狀
暑則氣淖澤 — Suwen 27

Occurrences in the classics

Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.

Display
2 passages
素問·離合真邪論 Suwen 27 · 離合真邪論 Read in context →
夫邪之入於脉也，寒則血凝泣，暑則氣淖澤，虚邪因而入客，亦如經水之得風也。經之動脉，其至也亦時隴起。 夫邪之入于脉也，寒则血凝泣，暑则气淖泽，虚邪因而入客，亦如经水之得风也。经之动脉，其至也亦时陇起。
Fú xié zhī rù yú mài yě, hán zé xuè níng sè, shǔ zé qì nào zé, xū xié yīn ér rù kè, yì rú jīng shuǐ zhī dé fēng yě.Jīng zhī dòng mài, qí zhì yě yì shí lǒng qǐ.
Now when an evil enters the pulse: cold makes the blood congeal and drag, heat makes the qi thin and glossy, and the empty evil takes advantage of this to enter and lodge — exactly as a river meets the wind. In the beating pulse of the channel, its arrival too sometimes swells up like a ridge.
此句是本篇「邪何以得入」的答案，而答案分作兩半：寒則血凝泣，暑則氣淖澤——一凝一澤，看似相反，其實同為虚邪入客之資：血凝則行遲而邪得留止，氣澤則疏泄而邪得乘入。**「淖」讀 nào**，與第二十六篇「淖液」之淖同讀；「澤」讀 zé；**「泣」讀 sè，通「澀」**，不讀 qì；「客」讀 kè，本篇三見（此處、「此邪新客」、「邪之新客來也」）。下一句「經之動脉，其至也亦時隴起」（「動」讀 dòng，「脉」讀 mài）把話頭從經水轉回到脉：水得風則波隴起，脉得邪則其至亦時隴起——譬喻與實事至此完全合一。
素問·經絡論 Suwen 57 · 經絡論 Read in context →
熱多則淖澤，淖澤則黄赤。 热多则淖泽，淖泽则黄赤。
Rè duō zé nào zé, nào zé zé huáng chì.
When heat predominates there is wetness and smoothness; where it is wet and smooth the colour is yellow and red.
「熱多則「淖」讀 nào「澤」讀 zé，淖澤則黄赤」——**本篇「淖澤」2見，讀 nào zé**；**「淖」「澤」各2見，皆在此一句之重文**；**本目為第二十七篇所立：熱則氣淖澤而邪因之入**；**本篇同文具其一端而進一解：熱甚則絡淖澤而色黄赤**；**王冰注「淖，濕也；澤，潤液也，謂微濕潤也」，《太素》楊上善音注「丈卓反」，則當讀 zhuó，此從王冰**；「熱」讀 rè、**本篇「熱」2見**；「黄」讀 huáng、「赤」讀 chì、**淖澤之色為黄赤**

Compounds built on this term

淖澤
nào zé
thin and glossy
本篇惟此一見，狀暑熱之氣
淖液
nào yè
thin and slippery
本站已立目（id 817），狀天温之血
凝泣
níng sè
congealed and dragging
與淖澤對舉，泣讀 sè
入客
rù kè
entering and lodging
邪氣客居之謂，本篇三見客字

How it has been translated

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

Wiseman & Fengthin and glossyThey pick glossy for 澤, which keeps the word on the surface of things rather than turning it into a fluid.
Unschuldslimy and glossyUnschuld renders 淖 as slimy, which brings out the mud in the word but sounds more pathological in English than the Chinese intends.
This sitethin and glossyWe avoid 'slimy' because the chapter is describing a state that makes entry possible, not a morbid product; 'thin' carries the loss of body that 淖 implies without importing disgust.

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-09

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Reading path

Guided routes through the corpus, each built on a handful of chapters and their key terms.

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