Abstract: “xu” and “shi” are frequently used in the classics of Traditional Chinese Medicine to describe the healthy qi and the pathogenic qi. Due to their rich meanings, there have been many English versions, including the “deficiency” and the “excess” accepted by WHO. This paper illustrates all the meanings of “xu” and “shi” with focus on in-depth meanings in the sense of TCM, and proposes “solid” and “empty” as the English counterparts for “shi” and “xu”.

Key words: translation of TCM, excess, deficiency