MERIDIANS OR ACUPUNCTURE OR ENERGY PATHWAYS FORM PART OF THE COMPLEX SYSTEM OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE.

These are not specific isolated areas of the body, but rather a closed “energy” cycle of the organism as a whole. Each acupuncture pathway carries the name of a certain functional group, either represented by a yang (hollow) or yin (solid) internal organ. Apart from these 12 “proper” acupuncture pathways, we also distinguish 8 “special” pathways, of which we will examine the governor and conception pathways in more detail.

THE COMMON BASIS OF MERIDIAN DIAGNOSTICS IS THAT SYMPTOMS OF DISEASE ARE ASSOCIATED WITH BOTH THE LINE OF THE ACUPUNCTURE PATHWAY ITSELF AND THE DISEASE OF THE GIVEN INTERNAL ORGAN ASSIGNED TO THE PATHWAY IN QUESTION.

Chinese medicine uses a highly ingenious system to describe the location of points and meridians. This system enables one to derive the distance between two sites in each person individually. This unit of measurement is termed a cun and is further divided into 10 so-called fens. This is an ancient Chinese unit of measurement, which respects the various proportions of the body of a concrete individual. One cun is generally considered to correspond to the width of the thumb.