Transforming vomiting · bian ou

Also rendered: Transforming vomiting (literal, and it is strange in English) · Changed vomiting (plain, and it keeps 變) · Transforming vomiting (the site's convention for a symptom-name)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-10-25

At a glance

Pinyin: biàn ǒu
Simplified: 变呕
Literal: 變 biàn — a turn, a change into something else; 嘔 ǒu — to vomit. Together: vomiting that has changed — what comes up is no longer what went down.
Shuowen: 《說文》：變，更也。嘔，吐也。變嘔者，所吐非穀，胃氣爲苦所迫而改其常。

In brief

What too much bitter food does. Bitter enters the lower stomach, the five grains’ qi cannot overcome it, the three burners’ roads all close and do not pass, so the qi turns upward and the man vomits. 變 is the precise word: what is brought up has changed, and the change is the evidence. The chapter adds that bitter goes to bone, that the teeth are where bone ends, and that it goes in and comes out again — which is how one knows it travelled to the bone.

Senses in the classical corpus

The symptom 令人變嘔

使人變嘔

It makes a man vomit changed matter.

令人變嘔 — 靈樞·五味論

Its mechanism 三焦之道皆閉而不通

三焦的道路都閉塞不通

The three burners' roads all close — that is why it turns upward.

三焦之道皆閉而不通 — 靈樞·五味論

Why it is called 變故入而復出，知其走骨也

所以入而復出，可知它走骨

It goes in and comes out again: the proof that it reached the bone.

故入而復出，知其走骨也 — 靈樞·五味論

Its flavour 苦走骨

苦味走骨

Bitter moves into bone.

苦走骨 — 靈樞·五味論

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·五味論 Read in context →

少俞曰：苦入于胃，五穀之氣皆不能勝苦，苦入下脘，三焦之道皆閉而不通，故變嘔。齒者，骨之所終也，故苦入而走骨。故入而復出，知其走骨也。少俞曰：苦入于胃，五谷之气皆不能胜苦，苦入下脘，三焦之道皆闭而不通，故变呕。齿者，骨之所终也，故苦入而走骨。故入而复出，知其走骨也。

shào yú yuē: kǔ rù yú wèi, wǔ gǔ zhī qì jiē bù néng shèng kǔ, kǔ rù xià wǎn, sān jiāo zhī dào jiē bì ér bù tōng, gù biàn ǒu. chǐ zhě, gǔ zhī suǒ zhōng yě, gù kǔ rù ér zǒu gǔ. gù rù ér fù chū, zhī qí zǒu gǔ yě.

Shao Yu said: When bitter enters the stomach, none of the qi of the five grains can overcome it. Bitter enters the lower opening, and the roads of the three burners all close and do not pass, and therefore he turns to vomiting. The teeth are where the bones end; that is why bitter enters and goes to the bones. Hence when it enters and comes out again, one knows that it has gone to the bones.

「變嘔」本篇3見，苦味多食之所致。苦入下脘，三焦之道閉而不通，氣逆而嘔；所吐已非穀食，故曰變。

Compounds built on this term

下脘

xià wǎn

the lower stomach

胃之下口

三焦之道

sān jiāo zhī dào

the roads of the three burners

三焦通行之路

How it has been translated

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

This site	transforming vomiting	the text's own word
Literal	altered retching	exact, and it misses the food
Clinical	bilious vomiting after bitter food	clear, and interpretive

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-25

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