原文以古代官职作比，形象地论述了脏腑的功能及其相互协调的关系。此句，把小肠比作“受盛之官”。受盛，即接受、以器盛物的意思。化物，具有变化、消化的意思。小肠将经胃初步消化的饮食物，进一步进行消化，将食物水谷化为精微物质。所以说“小肠者，受盛之官，化物出焉。”

As you probably know already, this is a passage from chapter 8 of the "Basic Questions" (Suwen 素问) version of _Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon_ (Huangdi neijing 黄帝内经). As many passages from the _Inner Canon_, this one can be pretty cryptic. In 小肠者, "者" is just a topic marker. It indicates that the statement that follows will be about the small intestine. 化物 means "transforming things". What you have is a transitive verb [化] followed by its object [物]. 焉 is a particle that replaces the two characters "於之" (simplified Chinese: 于之), where 之 is a third-person object pronoun ("it", "them", and the like) and 於 works as a preposition like "to", "from", etc. 出 means "to come out" or "go out", but also "to originate" 出焉, which in long-hand means "出於之", "originates from it", where "it" stands for the small intestine. And now the hardest phrase: 受盛之官. Guan 官 is simple: it means "an official". Why? Because the _Inner Canon_ described the human body as a state in which organs played the roles of different officials. Here the small intestine is "the official that 受盛." So the problem is 受盛. The general point is that the small intestine receives partially digested food from the stomach and has to transform it further, but even ancient commentators had trouble interpreting 盛! After some research, I found three possible interpretations: (1) "to serve as recipient for something" (the interpretation that is mentioned in the text waiting cut-and-pasted from the internet); (2) "to make prosper" (a causative use of 盛, a character that sometimes means "to prosper"); (3) as an equivalent of 成 (completed, perfected, achieved). Final proposed translation: "The small intestine is the official that (1) receives and serves as recipient; (2) receives what has been made to prosper; (3) receives what has been perfected [by the stomach]. The transformation of things [a reference to digestion, which transforms food into nutrition] originates there." Hope this helps!

Abbie, thank you very much!!! Now I understand!

The small intestine is the place where the digestion and absorption of food take place.