Untying confusion · jie huo

Also rendered: Loosing bewilderment (literary, and 惑 is not quite bewilderment) · Resolving confusion (plain, and it loses the knot) · Untying confusion (the site's convention, keeping 解 as a loosening)

Physiology

Reviewed · 2026-10-26

At a glance

Pinyin: jiě huò
Simplified: 解惑
Literal: 解 jiě — to loosen, to untie; 惑 huò — to be led astray, to be unable to tell one thing from another. Together: the fifth method, for the man whose body is sound and whose orientation is gone.
Shuowen: 《說文》：解，判也，从刀判牛角。惑，亂也。从心或聲。此篇以「解惑」名刺法，所解者非結也，乃心之惑：傾側宛伏，不知東西，不知南北。

In brief

Untying confusion is the last of the five joints. The case is not weakness but wind throughout the body with the blood vessels empty on one side: 血脉偏虚，虚者不足，實者有餘 — one side deficient, the other in excess — so that the body cannot keep its level, 傾側宛伏, and the man does not know east from west or south from north, is now up and now down, now face up and now face down, 顛倒無常，甚於迷惑. The method is the plainest of the five and the hardest: 寫其有餘，補其不足，陰陽平復 — drain the excess, fill the deficiency, and let yin and yang come back level. Do that and the cure is quicker than the confusion: 疾於解惑. Its interest is that the chapter names no point and no needle, only a principle, as if to say that the fifth joint is the first one understood.

Senses in the classical corpus

名目五曰解惑

五叫解惑

The fifth of the five: untying confusion.

五曰解惑 — 靈樞·刺節真邪

病狀傾側宛伏，不知東西

身體偏斜俯伏，不知東西

Leaning and stooping, not knowing east from west — the body that has lost its level.

傾側宛伏 — 靈樞·刺節真邪

治法寫其有餘，補其不足，陰陽平復

瀉其有餘，補其不足，使陰陽平復

The whole method: drain the full, fill the empty, restore the level.

寫其有餘，補其不足 — 靈樞·刺節真邪

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·刺節真邪 Read in context →

黃帝曰：刺節言解惑，夫子乃言盡知調陰陽，補寫有餘不足，相傾移也，惑何以解之？歧伯曰：大風在身，血脉偏虚，虚者不足，實者有餘，輕重不得，傾側宛伏，不知東西，不知南北，乍上乍下，乍反乍覆，顛倒無常，甚於迷惑。黃帝曰：善。取之奈何？歧伯曰：寫其有餘，補其不足，陰陽平復，用鍼若此，疾於解惑。黃帝曰：善。請藏之靈蘭之室，不敢妄出也。黄帝曰：刺节言解惑，夫子乃言尽知调阴阳，补写有余不足，相倾移也，惑何以解之？歧伯曰：大风在身，血脉偏虚，虚者不足，实者有余，轻重不得，倾侧宛伏，不知东西，不知南北，乍上乍下，乍反乍覆，颠倒无常，甚于迷惑。黄帝曰：善。取之奈何？歧伯曰：写其有余，补其不足，阴阳平复，用针若此，疾于解惑。黄帝曰：善。请藏之灵兰之室，不敢妄出也。

Huáng Dì yuē: cì jié yán jiě huò, fū zǐ nǎi yán jìn zhī tiáo yīn yáng, bǔ xiè yǒu yú bù zú, xiāng qīng yí yě, huò hé yǐ jiě zhī? Qí Bó yuē: dà fēng zài shēn, xuè mài piān xū, xū zhě bù zú, shí zhě yǒu yú, qīng zhòng bù dé, qīng cè wǎn fú, bù zhī dōng xī, bù zhī nán běi, zhà shàng zhà xià, zhà fǎn zhà fù, diān dǎo wú cháng, shèn yú mí huò. Huáng Dì yuē: shàn. qǔ zhī nài hé? Qí Bó yuē: xiè qí yǒu yú, bǔ qí bù zú, yīn yáng píng fù, yòng zhēn ruò cǐ, jí yú jiě huò. Huáng Dì yuē: shàn. qǐng cáng zhī líng lán zhī shì, bù gǎn wàng chū yě.

The Emperor said: The needling joints speak of dissolving bewilderment; the Master says it is knowing how to tune yin and yang and to tonify and drain excess and insufficiency, so that they lean from one to the other. How is bewilderment dissolved? Qi Bo said: When great wind is in the body, the blood vessels are empty on one side; the empty is insufficient and the solid is excessive; light and heavy lose their balance; he leans and lies bowed, not knowing east from west or south from north, now up, now down, now reversed, now overturned, upside down without constancy — worse than bewilderment. The Emperor said: Good. How is it taken? Qi Bo said: Drain what is excessive, tonify what is insufficient, and yin and yang return to level. Using the needle thus is faster than dissolving bewilderment. The Emperor said: Good. Pray keep it in the Orchid Chamber and do not let it go out rashly.

「解惑」本篇4見，黃帝問惑何以解，歧伯言大風在身血脉偏虚、傾側宛伏，末以寫餘補不足收之，故引四段。

Compounds built on this term

傾側宛伏

qīng cè wǎn fú

leaning, tilting, bowed down

解惑所治之狀

顛倒無常

diān dǎo wú cháng

overturned without constancy

甚於迷惑

How it has been translated

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

This site	untying confusion	the knot in the name
Literal	untying delusion	exact, and it sounds psychiatric
Clinical	restoring balance in a giddy patient	clear, and it explains the case

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-26

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