Classica Sinica Medica

風消 简体 风消

fēng xiāo

Wind-dispersion · feng xiao

Also rendered: The melting away by wind (this site; literal, and it keeps 消 as dispersal rather than as consumption, which is a later clinical category) · Feng xiao (transliteration; how the name appears wherever the chapter's transmissions are listed out)

Pathology

Reviewed · 2026-10-11

At a glance

Pinyin
fēng xiāo
Simplified
风消
Literal
風 fēng — wind (《說文》: 風，八風也); 消 xiāo — to melt away, to be used up, to come to nothing (《說文》: 消，盡也). 風消 is the two in one word: the flesh melting as wind dries the moisture out of it. It is the name this chapter gives to the first thing disease of the second yang transmits into, and the chapter's own sentence says why the word has the shape it has — the disease begins in the heart and the spleen, and what the spleen governs is the flesh.
Shuowen
**「風消」本篇1見，止在此句**；**「風」讀 fēng，本篇2見，皆在「風消」「風厥」二詞內**；**「消」讀 xiāo，本篇3見**；**《說文》：風，八風也；消，盡也**；**「風」不單見，本篇無單用之「風」字，與他篇不同**

In brief

The first of the two transmissions of disease of the second yang, and the chapter’s name for it: 二陽之病發心脾，有不得隱曲，女子不月，其傳爲風消. The second yang is the yangming; the disease begins in the heart and the spleen — the spleen governs the muscles, the heart governs the blood — and what it transmits into is a wasting in which the flesh disperses. 消 is the melting away, and 風 is what does it: the dryness of the qi working on flesh the spleen can no longer fill. The paragraph does not stop there. The same sentence sends the disease on again into 息賁, and of that it says 死不治 — wind-dispersion is the stage at which the patient may still be treated.

Senses in the classical corpus

1
The graphs 風消
風者風氣，消者消散；形肉日消如風之散
其傳爲風消 — Suwen 7
2
What produces it 二陽之病發心脾
二陽之病本在心脾，脾主肌肉，故肌肉消
二陽之病發心脾 — Suwen 7
3
The transmission 其傳爲風消
由心脾而後傳，故曰傳
其傳爲風消 — Suwen 7
4
What it looks like 形肉消散
非水腫之脹，乃形肉日削
其傳爲風消 — Suwen 7
5
What follows it 其傳爲息賁者，死不治
由風消再傳息賁，則死不治
其傳爲息賁者，死不治 — Suwen 7
6
The other wasting 其傳爲索澤
三陽之病亦有一傳，名索澤，同為燥化
其傳爲索澤 — Suwen 7

Occurrences in the classics

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

Display
1 passages
素問·陰陽别論 Suwen 7 · 陰陽别論 Read in context →
曰：二陽之病發心脾，有不得隱曲，女子不月。其傳爲風消，其傳爲息賁者，死不治。 曰：二阳之病发心脾，有不得隐曲，女子不月。其传为风消，其传为息贲者，死不治。
yuē: èr yáng zhī bìng fā xīn pí, yǒu bù dé yǐn qū, nǚ zǐ bù yuè. qí chuán wéi fēng xiāo, qí chuán wéi xī bēn zhě, sǐ bù zhì.
It is said: in disease of the second yang, the illness arises in the heart and spleen; there is something that cannot be spoken of, and in women the menses stop. If it transmits into wind-wasting, and then transmits into rushing breath, death follows and there is no cure.
**「風消」本篇1見，止在此句**；**「二陽之病發心脾」以下凡二傳：風消、息賁（死不治）**；**「消」本篇3見，止此一句者唯「風消」；第十九段「陰氣乃消亡」、第二十五段「二陽結謂之消」各一見**；**「女子不月」之「不月」指月事不行，本篇1見**；**本站新立此目，與「息賁」（第三二六條）同出一句**

Compounds built on this term

風
fēng
wind
本篇2見，皆在「風消」「風厥」二詞內
消
xiāo
to melt away
本篇3見：一在「風消」，一在「陰氣乃消亡」，一在「二陽結謂之消」
息賁
xī bēn
rushing breath
本篇1見；本站第三二六條
二陽
èr yáng
the second yang
本篇4見；二陽之病、二陽一陰發病、二陽結、二陽俱搏

How it has been translated

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

This sitewind-dispersion風 is the agent and 消 the effect; ‘wasting’ alone would drop the drying, and ‘consumption’ would put the reader in a later clinic
Transliterationfeng xiaohow the term is written in lists of this chapter's transmissions; right about the referent, and it explains nothing about flesh
Descriptivewasting by windexact about the process, and it turns the chapter's name for the condition into a description of its cause

Entry status

Review pending — who reviews this?

2026-10-11

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Reading path

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