wáng yáng
Also rendered: Yang collapse (This site) · Flight of yang (Literal) · Yang exhaustion (Clinical, implies a state not an event)
Reviewed · 2026-10-31
At a glance
The loss of yang, understood as flight rather than extinction. The chapter shows three ways it happens. A tight pulse in both yin and yang that nonetheless produces spontaneous sweat means the yang is leaking through the surface; the same passage says a sore throat and vomiting will follow. A faint pulse in lesser yin forbids sweating altogether, because the sweat would carry away the little yang that remains. And a floating pulse treated with fire to force a sweat drives the yang out violently, so the spirit loses its hold and the patient becomes frightened, restless and wild. In each case the treatment is to hold and warm, never to disperse.
Passages where the term does real work, with the original, pinyin and English on the same line.
Every rendering below is a decision about which reader is being addressed. There is no neutral option.
| This site | yang collapse | standard clinical English |
| Literal | the flight of yang | keeps 亡 as fleeing |
| Clinical | yang exhaustion | common, but names a state rather than an event |
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