Source원문
內經曰, 脾主肉. 又曰, 脾在體爲肉.
Translation영역
The Neijing says: the spleen governs the flesh. It also says: the spleen in the body is the flesh.
Naegyeong 內經
Formulas · Text · Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑
Flesh
Yuk
한글 육 · Pinyin Rou
The flesh is the body's soil — why one person is fat and another thin, the man who eats well and gains nothing, the numb limb that cannot feel the quilt, and the warts taken off with spider's thread
肉
The flesh belongs to the spleen, and Dongwon puts it plainly: a person's flesh is as the earth's soil — how should a person be without it? When the flesh is wholly gone, they die. From there the chapter asks the question everyone asks. Why is one person fat and another thin? The Lingshu answers by looking at the sheen as well as the bulk: stout and glossy means qi and blood both in surplus, stout and dull means qi in surplus and blood short, thin and dull means both short. Liu Wansu adds that the fat bear cold and not heat and the thin the reverse, and explains why. Then two disorders worth the name: 食㑊, where food passes through and makes no flesh, and 肉苛, where the flesh is so numb and heavy that a quilt laid on it is still felt as a weight. The last third turns practical and slightly strange — growths of proud flesh taken down with sulphur, and warts tied off with spider's thread, rubbed with milkweed sap, or charmed away by planting seven soybeans on the seventh day of the seventh month. The twenty-four simples divide cleanly: twenty to make a thin person stout, and five to make a stout person thin.
19.1 The Flesh Belongs to the Spleen and Stomach 肉屬脾胃
Source원문
邪在脾胃則病肌肉痛, 是也. 《入門》
Translation영역
Where evil is in the spleen and stomach the disease is aching flesh — such is the case.
Immun 入門
Source원문
人之肉如地之土, 豈可人而無肉. 故肉消盡則死矣. 《東垣》
Translation영역
A person's flesh is as the earth's soil — how should a person be without flesh? So when the flesh is wholly wasted away, they die.
Clinical note임상 주석
The image the chapter is built on. Soil is what everything else grows out of and stands in, and the Spleen chapter made the spleen earth; here the consequence is drawn — a body without flesh has nothing left to stand on.
Dongwon 東垣
19.2 The Flesh Has Streams and Valleys 肉有谿谷
Source원문
黃帝曰, 願聞谿谷之會也. 岐伯曰, 肉之大會爲谷, 肉之小會爲谿. 肉分之間, 谿谷之會, 以行榮衛, 以會大氣. 《內經》
Translation영역
The Yellow Emperor said: I should like to hear of the meetings of streams and valleys. Qi Bo said: the great meetings of the flesh are valleys, the small meetings are streams. Between the divisions of the flesh, at the meetings of streams and valleys, the construction and defence move and the great qi gathers.
Clinical note임상 주석
谿谷 — the clefts between muscle bellies, named as though the body were a landscape: the large ones valleys and the small ones streams. It is where the acupuncture points are found, and the metaphor is exact enough that a hand looking for a point is looking for a hollow.
Naegyeong 內經
19.3 The Muscle-Masses Are the Flesh's Mark 䐃爲肉標
Source원문
䐃者, 肉之標也. 䐃謂肘膝後肉如塊者. 《內經》
Translation영역
The 䐃 are the mark of the flesh; 䐃 means the flesh behind the elbows and knees that lies in masses.
Naegyeong 內經
Source원문
五臟傷損, 䐃破肉脫, 皆爲不治之證也. 《內經》
Translation영역
Where the five viscera are damaged and detrimented, the muscle-masses broken and the flesh deserting, these are all untreatable patterns.
Clinical note임상 주석
破䐃脫肉 — the muscle-masses broken, the flesh deserting. The Liver chapter's 2.7.6 used the same phrase among the signs of the true viscus appearing, and it is the tradition's term for the wasting of the limb girdles that marks a terminal illness.
Naegyeong 內經
19.4 The Flesh Governs Fatness and Thinness 肉主肥瘦
Source원문
脾虛則肌肉削. 《東垣》
Translation영역
Where the spleen is vacuous the flesh is pared away.
Dongwon 東垣
Source원문
肥而澤者, 血氣有餘. 肥而不澤者, 氣有餘血不足. 瘦而無澤者, 血氣俱不足. 《靈樞》
Translation영역
Stout and glossy means qi and blood are in surplus; stout without gloss means qi in surplus and blood insufficient; thin and without gloss means qi and blood both insufficient.
Clinical note임상 주석
Not bulk alone but bulk with sheen. The Lingshu is separating a well-nourished stoutness from a puffy one, and a dull skin over a heavy body is still what a clinician looks at.
Yeongchu 靈樞
Source원문
血實氣虛則肥, 氣實血虛則瘦. 所以肥耐寒而不耐熱, 瘦耐熱而不耐寒者, 由寒則傷血, 熱則傷氣. 損其不足則陰陽愈偏, 故不耐也. 損其有餘者方得平調, 故耐之矣. 《河間》
Translation영역
Where the blood is replete and the qi vacuous one is stout; where the qi is replete and the blood vacuous one is thin. That the stout endure cold and not heat, and the thin endure heat and not cold, is because cold injures the blood and heat injures the qi. To reduce what is already insufficient makes yin and yang the more one-sided, and so it is not endured; to reduce what is in surplus brings things level, and so it is endured.
Clinical note임상 주석
Liu Wansu explaining an ordinary observation — that heavy people suffer in summer and thin ones in winter — by which of the two, qi or blood, each has to spare. Whatever one makes of the mechanism, the observation is right and he is the first to ask why.
Hagan 河間
Source원문
人之言曰, 血氣未動者, 瘠甚而不害. 血氣旣竭者, 雖肥而死矣. 則身之羸瘦, 若未足爲人之害者. 殊不知人之羸瘦必其飮食不進, 飮食不進則無以生榮衛, 榮衛無以生則氣血因之以衰, 終於必亡而已. 《資生》
Translation영역
People say: where the blood and qi are not yet stirred, one may be very lean without harm; where the blood and qi are already exhausted, one dies though stout — as if a wasted body were not enough to harm a person. What they fail to see is that a person's wasting must come of food and drink not going in; food and drink not going in, there is nothing to engender construction and defence; construction and defence not engendered, the qi and blood decline accordingly, and it ends in death, and that is all.
Jasaenggyeong 資生經
Source원문
羸瘦固瘵疾, 若素來淸臞者, 非有疾也. 惟病後瘦甚, 久不復常, 謂之形脫. 與夫平昔充肥, 忽爾羸瘦, 飮食減少, 此爲五勞六極之疾, 宜服滋補藥, 兼灸勞法. 《資生》
Translation영역
Wasting is indeed a consumptive disease — but one who has always been lean and spare is not diseased by it. It is where after an illness one is very thin and does not return to normal for long that it is called the form deserting; and where one was always full and stout and suddenly wastes with the appetite falling off, that is the disease of the five taxations and six exhaustions: enriching and supplementing medicines should be taken, with the moxa method for taxation as well.
Clinical note임상 주석
素來淸臞者, 非有疾也 — a person who has always been lean is not ill of it. The distinction is between constitution and change, and it is the right one: what matters is unintended weight loss in someone who was not thin before.
Jasaenggyeong 資生經
19.5 The Pattern of Food Passing Through 食㑊證
Source원문
內經曰, 大腸移熱於胃, 善食而瘦, 又謂之食㑊. 胃移熱於膽, 亦曰食㑊. 註云, 食㑊者, 謂飮食移易而過, 不生肌膚, 亦易飢也. 宜服參苓元. 《河間》
Translation영역
The Neijing says: where the large intestine moves heat to the stomach, one eats well and is thin — this too is called 食㑊. Where the stomach moves heat to the gallbladder, it is likewise called 食㑊. The commentary says: 食㑊 means that food and drink shift and pass through without engendering flesh and skin, and one is easily hungry as well. Ginseng and Poria Pill should be taken.
Clinical note임상 주석
飮食移易而過 — the food shifts and passes through. A good appetite, frequent hunger, and no weight gained: thyrotoxicosis and untreated diabetes both present this way, and the Suwen gives the syndrome a name and locates it in heat.
Hagan 河間
19.6 The Pattern of Numb Heavy Flesh 肉苛證
Source원문
黃帝曰, 人之肉苛者, 雖近於衣絮, 猶尙苛也, 是謂何疾. 岐伯曰, 榮氣虛, 衛氣實也. 榮氣虛則不仁, 衛氣虛則不用. 榮衛俱虛則不仁且不用, 肉如故也. 人身與志不相有, 曰死. 《內經》
Translation영역
The Yellow Emperor said: where a person's flesh is numb and heavy, so that even with a quilt of wadding close upon it it is still heavy — what disease is this? Qi Bo said: the construction qi is vacuous and the defence qi replete. Where the construction is vacuous there is no feeling; where the defence is vacuous there is no use of the part; where both are vacuous there is neither feeling nor use, and the flesh is as it was. Where a person's body and their will no longer possess each other, it is called death.
Clinical note임상 주석
雖近於衣絮, 猶尙苛也 — a quilt laid against it is still felt as a weight. Numbness with a sense of heaviness, and the Suwen separates the two components exactly: 不仁, loss of sensation, and 不用, loss of use. Any modern examination of a limb asks the same two questions.
Naegyeong 內經
Source원문
宜前胡散.
Translation영역
Peucedanum Powder is appropriate.
Donguibogam · Yuk
19.7 The Pattern of Flesh Wilting 肉痿證
Source원문
詳見足部.
Translation영역
Treated in detail in the Foot chapter.
Donguibogam · Yuk
19.8 A Woman Thin and Haggard 婦人瘦瘁
Source원문
宜服谷靈丸. 歌曰, 氣不充時血不榮, 肌肉不長瘦其身. 谷靈丸子服兩月, 頰紅肥大長精神.
Translation영역
Valley Spirit Pill should be taken. The verse says: when the qi does not fill, the blood does not flourish; the flesh does not grow and the body wastes. Take Valley Spirit Pill two months, and the cheeks redden, the body fills out and the spirit grows.
Clinical note임상 주석
A four-line verse instead of an indication. The Bogam does this where a formula came into Korea already attached to its jingle, and the verse is how a physician who could not read much would have remembered it.
Donguibogam · Yuk
19.9 Untreatable Signs of the Flesh Deserting 肉脫不治證
Source원문
形肉已脫, 九候雖調, 猶死. 《內經》
Translation영역
Where the form and flesh have already deserted, though the nine indicators are harmonious, death still follows.
Clinical note임상 주석
A normal pulse in an utterly wasted body is not reassurance. The Suwen's rule overrides its own diagnostics, and it is the reason the Pulse chapter tells a physician to look at the patient before feeling the wrist.
Naegyeong 內經
Source원문
皮膚着者死. 《內經》
Translation영역
Where the skin clings to the bone, death.
Naegyeong 內經
Source원문
脫肉身不去者死. 註曰, 穀氣外衰則肉如脫盡, 天眞內竭故身不能行, 去謂行去也. 《內經》
Translation영역
Where the flesh has deserted and the body cannot move, death. The commentary says: when the grain qi fails without, the flesh is as if wholly gone; when the heavenly truth is exhausted within, the body cannot walk — 去 meaning to walk away.
Naegyeong 內經
Source원문
形瘦脈大, 胸中多氣者死. 《內經》
Translation영역
A thin body with a large pulse and much qi in the chest — death.
Naegyeong 內經
Source원문
虛勞肉脫甚者難治. 《丹心》
Translation영역
In vacuity taxation, where the flesh has deserted severely, it is hard to treat.
Dansim 丹心
19.10 The Signs of the Flesh Expiring 肉絶候
Source원문
肉絶六日死. 何以知之. 耳聾, 舌背腫, 尿血, 大便赤泄, 是也. 《脈經》
Translation영역
The flesh expiring, death in six days — how is it known? Deafness, swelling of the back of the tongue, blood in the urine, and red diarrhoea.
Maekgyeong 脉經
19.11 Proud Flesh 贅肉
Source원문
亦曰努肉.
Translation영역
Also called straining flesh.
Donguibogam · Yuk
Source원문
諸瘡中努肉如蛇出數寸, 用硫黃細硏, 於肉上薄塗之, 卽便縮. 《本草》
Translation영역
Where proud flesh comes out of a sore like a snake, several chon long, grind sulphur fine and spread it thinly on the flesh, and it shrinks at once.
Clinical note임상 주석
Granulation tissue overgrowing a wound — proud flesh, and the name is the same in English farriery. Sulphur is caustic enough to take it down, and the tradition's other method, tying it off, is the next passage.
Boncho 本草
Source원문
瘡凸出寸許, 如小豆或大如梅, 取花脚蜘蛛絲, 以纏其根, 則漸乾而自脫落. 《綱目》
Translation영역
Where a sore protrudes about a chon, like a small bean or as large as a plum, take the thread of a flower-legged spider and wind it round the base: it dries by degrees and falls off of itself.
Gangmok 綱目
Source원문
贅疣以蜘蛛網絲纏之, 自落. 《本草》
Translation영역
A wart or growth wound round with spider's web thread falls off of itself.
Clinical note임상 주석
Ligation of a pedunculated growth — tie the base, cut off its blood, and it necroses and drops. It is still how a skin tag is removed, and the spider's thread is simply the finest ligature a household had.
Boncho 本草
Source원문
贅肉ㆍ努肉, 取初生小兒臍中屎塗之, 卽蝕盡. 《本草》
Translation영역
For proud flesh and straining flesh, take the matter from a newborn child's navel and smear it on: it eats it entirely away.
Boncho 本草
Source원문
諸瘡凸出, 烏梅肉搗爛作餠, 貼肉上, 立盡, 極妙. 《本草》
Translation영역
Where a sore protrudes, pound mume flesh to a pulp, make a cake and stick it on the flesh: it is gone at once — excellent.
Boncho 本草
Source원문
白梅肉同功, 貼贅肉ㆍ努肉, 幷佳. 《本草》
Translation영역
Salted plum flesh has the same effect; applied to proud flesh and straining flesh it is good for both.
Boncho 本草
19.12 Warts 疣目
Source원문
亦曰瘊子. 是人手足忽生, 如豆或如結筋, 或五箇或十箇相連而生, 皆由風邪搏於肌肉而變生也. 《類聚》
Translation영역
Also called 瘊子. These suddenly grow on a person's hands and feet, like beans or like knotted sinew, five or ten of them growing joined together; all arise when a wind evil strikes the flesh and changes it.
Clinical note임상 주석
Warts, described well enough to recognize: hard, bean-like, on hands and feet, and appearing in crops of five or ten together. That they spread is exactly what a viral wart does, and 風邪 is the tradition's word for a cause that travels.
Yuchwi 類聚
Source원문
多患於手足背及指間, 拔之則絲長三四寸許. 《入門》
Translation영역
They are commonest on the backs of the hands and feet and between the fingers; pulled out, a thread three or four chon long comes with them.
Immun 入門
Source원문
取苦菜折之, 有白汁出, 常點瘊子, 自落. 《本草》
Translation영역
Break a sow-thistle stalk so that the white sap comes out, and dab it on the wart repeatedly: it falls off of itself.
Clinical note임상 주석
The milky latex of a broken stalk, dabbed on daily. Several such saps — sow-thistle, spurge, fig, dandelion — have been used for warts everywhere, and the tradition's instruction is the same as the folk one: keep at it until it goes.
Boncho 本草
Source원문
取活螳螂放於疣上, 令蝕啖肉平爲度. 《醫林》
Translation영역
Set a live mantis on the wart and let it eat the flesh away until it is level.
Uirim 醫林
Source원문
七月七日, 取大豆一合, 拭疣目上三遍, 自手種豆於南屋東頭第二廡中. 豆生四葉, 以湯沃殺, 卽疣落. 《類聚》
Translation영역
On the seventh day of the seventh month take a hop of soybeans and wipe them over the warts three times; then with your own hand plant the beans in the second bay from the east end of the south house's eaves. When the beans have grown four leaves, scald them dead with hot water, and the warts fall off.
Clinical note임상 주석
A charm rather than a remedy, and the Bogam prints it without comment among the ointments. Warts resolve by themselves often enough, and slowly enough, that a method requiring weeks and a dead bean plant will seem to work.
Yuchwi 類聚
Source원문
蜘蛛網絲纏之, 自落. 《本草》
Translation영역
Wound round with spider's web thread, they fall off of themselves.
Boncho 本草
Source원문
烏鷄膽汁, 日三塗之, 妙. 《本草》
Translation영역
The bile of a black chicken, smeared on three times a day — excellent.
Boncho 本草
Source원문
牛口中涎, 數塗自落. 《資生》
Translation영역
The drool from an ox's mouth, smeared on repeatedly, and they fall off.
Jasaenggyeong 資生經
Source원문
杏仁燒硏塗之. 《資生》
Translation영역
Apricot kernel burnt, ground and smeared on.
Jasaenggyeong 資生經
19.13 Simple Medicinals 單方
Source원문
凡二十四種.
Translation영역
Twenty-four kinds in all.
Clinical note임상 주석
Twenty-four simples, and the chapter sorts them by which way they are meant to work. Nineteen make a thin person stout — dried rehmannia, dioscorea, fleeceflower, acanthopanax bark, pine nut, carp, turtle, taro, sesame, soybean flour, barley, turnip seed, leek and scallion, human milk, placenta, cow's milk, yellow hen, mutton and black ox marrow. Five make a stout person thin — tea, adzuki bean, wax gourd, mulberry-twig tea and kelp. The wax gourd entry states the rule for both halves: eat it long to grow light and thin, and if you wish to be stout, do not eat it.
Donguibogam · Yuk
19.14 Moxibustion 灸法
Source원문
疣目, 支正灸之卽差. 《綱目》
Translation영역
For warts, moxa Jijeong (支正, SI7) and they mend.
Gangmok 綱目
Source원문
凡贅疣諸痣, 當其上灸三五壯, 卽差. 《綱目》
Translation영역
For any wart, growth or mole, moxa three to five cones directly on it and it mends.
Clinical note임상 주석
Moxa burnt on the lesion itself — cautery under another name, and the last of the chapter's several ways of removing a growth: caustic, ligature, sap, and finally fire.
Gangmok 綱目
About this translation 凡例
Base text: Donguibogam (東醫寶鑑, 1613 first edition), Outer Form, Volume 3, Flesh chapter. The Chinese text is collated against the public-domain Wikisource transcription and a printed edition; original character forms (脉, 人參) are retained. Terminology follows Wiseman & Feng, A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine. Translation and clinical notes are original to this site. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.