藥食宜简体药食宜

yào shí yí

What is fitting in medicine and food · yao shi yi

Also rendered: What is fitting in medicine and food (this site; 宜 as the case's own requirement, and 食 kept beside 藥) · Dietary and medicinal suitability (standard modern phrasing; it puts one noun where the chapter has two)

Cosmology

Reviewed · 2026-10-14

At a glance

Pinyin: yào shí yí
Simplified: 药食宜
Literal: 藥 yào — medicine (《說文》: 藥，治病艸); 食 shí — food, to eat; 宜 yí — what is fitting, what the case calls for (《說文》: 宜，所安也). The three graphs close every row of the sixty-year table and say the same thing each time: for this year's upper, middle and lower qi, this is what to use, in medicine and in food alike.
Shuowen: **《說文》：藥，治病艸；宜，所安也**。**「藥食宜」本篇30見，六十甲子表三十組，組各一見**；**其式曰「其化上苦熱，中酸和，下甘熱」，上中下各繫一味，味各繫一性**；**「藥」本篇30見，「食」本篇44見，二字連文止此三十處**

In brief

The prescription that ends every year of the table: 其化上苦熱，中酸和，下甘熱，所謂藥食宜也. The upper qi is the 司天, the middle is the year’s 運, the lower is the 在泉, and each is given a flavour (苦、酸、甘、辛、鹹) and a character (熱、和、温、涼、寒) — the two together being what to give the viscus that the qi is oppressing. The phrase is used thirty times, once for each pair of years, and it is the chapter’s practical end: everything before it, the six qi and their governance, arrives here at a prescription that a practitioner can write. 食 is in the phrase for a reason — in this method the same reckoning governs the table as governs the medicine chest.

Senses in the classical corpus

The phrase 藥食宜

藥與食皆依此為宜

所謂藥食宜也 — Suwen 71

Its form 其化上苦熱，中酸和，下甘熱

上中下三氣各繫一味一性

其化上苦熱 — Suwen 71

The three ranks 上、中、下

上為司天，中為中運，下為在泉

中酸和 — Suwen 71

The flavours 苦、酸、甘、辛、鹹

五味配五行以制其氣

其化上苦熱，中苦温，下苦温 — Suwen 71

Food as well 食宜同法

食與藥同依其氣，故曰藥食宜

食宜同法 — Suwen 71

Its place 每組之末

六十組各以其宜收之

所謂藥食宜也 — Suwen 71

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

Suwen 71 Suwen 71 · 六元正紀大論 Read in context →

甲戌、甲辰歲。上太陽水，中太宫土運，下太陰土，寒化六，濕化五，正化日也。其化上苦熱，中苦温，下苦温，藥食宜也。甲戌、甲辰岁。上太阳水，中太宫土运，下太阴土，寒化六，湿化五，正化日也。其化上苦热，中苦温，下苦温，药食宜也。

Jiǎ xū, jiǎ chén suì. Shàng tài yáng shuǐ, zhōng tài gōng tǔ yùn, xià tài yīn tǔ, hán huà liù, shī huà wǔ, zhèng huà rì yě. Qí huà shàng kǔ rè, zhōng kǔ wēn, xià kǔ wēn, yào shí yí yě.

In a jia xu or jia chen year: greater yang water above, greater gong earth circuit in the middle, greater yin earth below. Cold transforms six, dampness transforms five — an upright transformation day. As to what transforms it: bitter and hot above, bitter and warm in the middle, bitter and warm below — what is fitting in drugs and food.

**「藥食宜」本篇30見，此段有其1**；**此段為甲戌、甲辰之歲，其化上苦熱，中苦温，下苦温**；**六十甲子表三十組，組組以此收，無一例外**

Compounds built on this term

正化日

zhèng huà rì

an upright transformation day

本篇11見；藥食宜即其下句

食宜同法

shí yí tóng fǎ

in food the rule is the same

本篇6見；藥與食不別立法

歲榖

suì gǔ

the year's grain

本篇3見；食宜之於穀者

五味

wǔ wèi

the five flavours

苦、酸、甘、辛、鹹，表中所用止此五者

How it has been translated

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

This site	what is fitting in medicine and food	the phrase closes thirty years of the table, and the rendering keeps both halves
Literal	medicine-food fitness	word for word
Gloss	the flavours and natures to be used in medicine and in food for the year's three qi	right, and too long for a table

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-14

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Reading path

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