虛

• Physical/Spatial: Hollow, empty, a gap or void. In some contexts, this implies instability or fragility (something that should be solid but is not).
• Epistemic/Moral: False, baseless, illusory, or insincere. This applies to deceptive speech (empty promises) or fraudulent claims and reputations.
• Medical (Somatic): A technical term for deficiency—the insufficiency of qi, blood, yin, or yang.
• Philosophical/Cultivation: Receptivity and openness. In Daoist and Buddhist contexts, denotes the deliberate emptying of the mind or ego (e.g., 心虛) to achieve non-attachment or capacity.
• Astronomical: The 11th lunar mansion (determinative star β Aquarii).

The glyph typically operates in binary opposition with 實 (shí):

• Physical: Hollow vs. Solid.
• Epistemic: False/Illusory vs. True/Substantial.
• Medical: Deficiency vs. Excess.

// Tang-period reading: //xiu (Fanqie: 朽居 / 去魚).

• Simplified variant: U+865A.

In ambiguous passages, the most reliable way to determine the specific sense of 虛 is to identify whether it is being contrasted with 實.