Qi Meridians and Acupuncture points

[Immortal4life]

Qi meridians and resevoirs

 

8 pieces of brocade Chi Kung video clip

 

Video of the real 6 healing sounds-

 

5 animal frolic Chi Kung video-

 

Dragon and Tiger Medical Chi Gung-

 

 

Here are 2 really good sites about acupuncture points

http://www.pachentaiji.com/index11.html

http://www.wujimind.com/2008/08/accupoints-chart/

 

site about meridians

Wing Chun Kwoon

 

 

Basic heavenly circuit meridians, Ren and du, or cenception and governing, circulating/orbiting in the front and the back

 

 

The Large meridian orbit circulates along the arms and legs, along the yin side to the yang side, inside arms and legs, and outside arms legs. Along the inside of the arms to the finger tips along the back of the arms to the head and around down the outside of the legs and up the inside of the legs.

 

 

meridian circulation/orbit, from the Yin side to the Yang side of the body-

 

 

And actually, there are more circuits than just the small circuit (back and front channels along the very center of the body), and large circuit (circulation along the three yin channels and 3 yang channels in the arms and legs, 12 total), but those are the base ones.

 

Also there are 8 special meridians. One circulates in a path around the waist and is called the "belt" meridian vessel.

 

daimai

torso

 

 

Hui Yin energy gate

Dantian or Tan t'ien (Chinese: Dāntián 丹田; Japanese: Tanden 丹田; Korean: 단전 DanJeon 丹田; Thai Dantian ตันเถียน ; English: One-Point) which literally means "cinnabar or red field" and is loosely translated as "elixir field". It is described as an important focus point for internal meditative techniques, and refers specifically to the physical center of gravity located in the abdomen three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel. It is important in qigong, neigong, tao yin and other breathing techniques, as well as for traditional Chinese medicine and is also widely used throughout East Asian meditation and martial arts theory, especially the neijia school of Chinese martial arts.

 

The Dan Tian is sometimes divided into sections. The lower Dan Tian (at the navel as described above) is associated with physical energy, and sometimes sexuality. The middle Dan Tian (at the Solar plexus) deals with respiration and the health of internal organs. The upper Dan Tian (at the Third eye) relates to your consciousness, or shen, and your brain.

 

It is often used interchangeably with the Japanese word hara (腹; Chinese: fù), which literally means simply "belly". In Chinese and Japanese tradition, it is considered the physical center of gravity for the human body and by extension the seat of one's internal energy (qi). A master of calligraphy, swordsmanship, tea ceremony, martial arts or the like is said to be "acting from the hara" in Japan. Buddhist teachers often instruct their students to center their mind in dantian, said to aid control of thoughts and emotions. Acting from the dantian is said therefore to be related to the state of samadhi.

 

The Dantian also correlates to the Indian concept of the Manipura, or third Chakra in Yoga Philosophy, thought to be the seat of prana that radiates outwards to the entire body. Of other note, the [Japanese Yoga] teachings of [Tempu Nakamura] were derived from these Indian concepts, and later influenced Koichi Tohei's ideas about One-Point, and Ki Aikido.

Dantian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Energy centeres

 

Yongquan

 

Lao Gong

 

There can be internal circulations developed that just circulate internally, and there can be external ones developed too.

 

Another circulation goes from top of the head point down to the ear and along the very sides of the arm, the sides in between the fingers, down the side of the body, side of leg , between toes, and to the hui yin, back up the other side to the top of the head again. Those can take some exercises.

 

Actually there are hundreds of circuits eventually and they all intersect and communicate I think

Edited December 30, 2010 by Immortal4life

[Immortal4life]

Important acupoints in Taiji and Qigong

[Immortal4life]

A lot of good info and resources here

[cheya]

 

 

A lot of good info and resources here

Yes! Especially that last bit.
Thank you for posting it!

 

[Immortal4life]

[henro]

Quick correction. .. somewhere up there it says that Bai hui (GV20) is the meeting place of all the Yang Meridians. All of my textbooks say something different:

 

Bai hui is the Intersecting Point of the Governing Vessel, Urinary Bladder, Gall Bladder, Triple Heater & Liver Channels.

 

Da zhui (GV-14) located between C7 and T1 is the meeting place of the six yang channels of the hand and foot.

[Apech]

Just to say - excellent thread - keep it going.

[Immortal4life]

Quick correction. .. somewhere up there it says that Bai hui (GV20) is the meeting place of all the Yang Meridians. All of my textbooks say something different:

 

Bai hui is the Intersecting Point of the Governing Vessel, Urinary Bladder, Gall Bladder, Triple Heater & Liver Channels.

 

Da zhui (GV-14) located between C7 and T1 is the meeting place of the six yang channels of the hand and foot.

 

That is cool. What kind of textbooks do you have? Do you do TCM?

 

In really old, old school teachings, the Bai Hui is often called the meeting of a thousand meridians. Some schools of Qi Gong or Martial Art, Tai Chi for example, consider it to not only be the meeting of all Yang Meridians, but the meeting point of all meridians in the body.

 

It may be literal, or perhaps have an esoteric or poetic meaning.

 

The method is that when most of the bodies energy is sunk and relaxed, energy will rise up the spine to the Bai Hui.

Edited January 2, 2011 by Immortal4life

[Immortal4life]

Another version of Ba Duan Jin-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71MN9sX-tWs

[Aetherous]

.

Edited February 24, 2011 by center

[Immortal4life]

All the points are important....if I had to pick some....I would say Qi Hai and Ming Meng....I would have to pick Ming Men as my number one pick. Of course the Bai Hui, Lao Gong, and bubbling springs on the feet are 5 important points too.....

 

Filling the Kidneys and Ming Men with energy is always good and powerful.

[taofish]

Has anyone of you here used one of those Accupressure Mats? Are they legitimate healing tools? should i start stimiluting the front of the body or back first? Also chi kung and breathing excercises before or after? Any advice appreciated...

[henro]

That is cool. What kind of textbooks do you have? Do you do TCM?

 

In really old, old school teachings, the Bai Hui is often called the meeting of a thousand meridians. Some schools of Qi Gong or Martial Art, Tai Chi for example, consider it to not only be the meeting of all Yang Meridians, but the meeting point of all meridians in the body.

 

It may be literal, or perhaps have an esoteric or poetic meaning.

 

The method is that when most of the bodies energy is sunk and relaxed, energy will rise up the spine to the Bai Hui.

 

 

I'm in school now studying TCM. The main text we use are these:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Acupuncture-Peter-Deadman/dp/0951054651/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294021620&sr=8-1

 

http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Acupuncture-Moxibustion-Third-2010/dp/7119059947/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294021644&sr=8-1

 

http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Chinese-Medicine-Comprehensive-Acupuncturists/dp/0443074895/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1294021661&sr=8-3

 

One of the frustrating aspects of learning Chinese medicine is the inconsistency of points and meridian locations in all the different text. Everyone seems to have a little different take on things. I'm building a pretty big library so I can cross-reference everything as I learn. . . I'll keep looking to see if there are any references to all the meridians meeting there. Off hand, certain meridians, like the heart, don't go anywhere near bai hui. Even their internal, divergent or luo-connecting pathways do not go there.

 

Here's some additional info on bai hui from the Deadman text:

 

bai hui is the meeting point of all yang qi of the body (notice it doesn't say yang meridians).

 

Also named Sanyangwuhui (three yang five meetings) as it is the meeting point of the governing vessel with the 3 yang channels of the bladder and gall bladder, and san jiao.

 

Also called niwangong (mud ball palace) in qigong theory. Refers to the material aspect of the spirit located in the brain. Can sometimes be considered the upper dantien.

 

Has also been called Tianshan (mountain of heaven), and Guimen (Ghost gate). ..

[Immortal4life]

Thank you for the contributions and corrections to the thread.

[David 62]

Hi,

This thread is what brought me to this site... that and the wonder that is google.

Just really wanted to add a couple points if I may (and will anyhow).

I recognize the meridian flow charts from the green book, of touch for health... cool stuff good enough for meridian message, but not completely accurate go here: http://www.acupunctureproducts.com/ they have free links of the meridians and points and somewhere on their site they have a free mini pdf book.

I know of two points where meridians have major convergences Stomach 12, this point activates all the yin meridians of the arms. and Spleen 6 this activates all the yin points of the legs. (sorry don't know the Chinese names of the points)

I don't believe Gallbladder 20 is such a point, but am not sure.

There are a wack of other minor crossings GB/Liver, GB/Spleen, Liver/spleen.... etc, etc....

Have a great day.

[David 62]

OOPS sorry misread.... GV 20 as GB 20.... don't I fee silly.

Bed time...

good night.

[Spotless]

Thank you all here - great stuff for us newbies to the specifics on this.

[Anoesjka]

I never knew about the belt meridian. Interesting, reminds of de fleur de luce.

[David 62]

Again cool stuff and thanks.

Thought I would share this bit, it is an ad of sorts, but is kinda cool.

It is my Isshenryu (a type of karate) and kyusho (pressure point work) instructor, who also teaches Yang 24 Tai Chi.

 

 

Hope you all enjoy.

D.

[kevin_wallbridge]

If anyone has any specific questions about meridian theory (經絡學) I would be glad to try to field them. I have been a professor of Chinese medicine for 19 years and I teach the meridians course at our college (along with fundamentals, mental emotional disorders, ethics, history, Chinese language and physical culture).

 

One thing to keep in mind when considering meridians is to get the images with lines connecting points out of your head. Everything that isn't an internal organ is meridian. Your arms and legs do not have meridians on them, they are your meridians. We know from ancient texts dating to the Zhou Dynasty that meridian theory pre-dates point theory. While a minor point it can be significant cognitively when we learn points first and meridian afterwards. I see that most often people try to approach it like connect the dots, but it is actually the opposite. More like learning river systems then identifying where the towns are.

 

This brings us to points and the discrepancies about point location. Most often we only look at the first half of point location, especially if we are not thinking about needling. The description of the point location in terms of surface anatomy is only half the information. You need to them look at the depth and angle of insertion of the needle to see the location of the actual point itself, which is not on the surface, rather buried deep into the tissue of the meridian. Two different texts may consider two different entry points for the needle and so not give the same surface location. As well, there is the issue of cellular individuality, we are all unique and you always need to palpate and locate the point. No matter what the texts say, your acupoints will be where they are and you have to poke at them to find them.

 

I am glad to see people keen to learn.

[Uroboros]

If anyone has any specific questions about meridian theory (經絡學) I would be glad to try to field them. I have been a professor of Chinese medicine for 19 years and I teach the meridians course at our college (along with fundamentals, mental emotional disorders, ethics, history, Chinese language and physical culture).

 

One thing to keep in mind when considering meridians is to get the images with lines connecting points out of your head. Everything that isn't an internal organ is meridian. Your arms and legs do not have meridians on them, they are your meridians. We know from ancient texts dating to the Zhou Dynasty that meridian theory pre-dates point theory. While a minor point it can be significant cognitively when we learn points first and meridian afterwards. I see that most often people try to approach it like connect the dots, but it is actually the opposite. More like learning river systems then identifying where the towns are.

 

This brings us to points and the discrepancies about point location. Most often we only look at the first half of point location, especially if we are not thinking about needling. The description of the point location in terms of surface anatomy is only half the information. You need to them look at the depth and angle of insertion of the needle to see the location of the actual point itself, which is not on the surface, rather buried deep into the tissue of the meridian. Two different texts may consider two different entry points for the needle and so not give the same surface location. As well, there is the issue of cellular individuality, we are all unique and you always need to palpate and locate the point. No matter what the texts say, your acupoints will be where they are and you have to poke at them to find them.

 

I am glad to see people keen to learn.

 

Excellent points, Kevin. It is easy to forget that the channels are not so....contained.

 

Palpation is an art that is not learned and practiced enough, I feel.

 

I have a book called Applied Channel Theory In Chinese Medicine by Wang Ju Yi, have you read it?

 

Are there any books you recommend as vital to learning the channels?

[joeblast]

Quick correction. .. somewhere up there it says that Bai hui (GV20) is the meeting place of all the Yang Meridians. All of my textbooks say something different:

 

Bai hui is the Intersecting Point of the Governing Vessel, Urinary Bladder, Gall Bladder, Triple Heater & Liver Channels.

 

Da zhui (GV-14) located between C7 and T1 is the meeting place of the six yang channels of the hand and foot.

correct....baihui, hundred meetings. but sometimes that gets overlooked and correlated to yang since its top of the head. the meeting of all yang meridians is at gv 14 - also the same spot for all the yangs in the MCO

 

 

baihui has a yin at the bottom

[Aetherous]

If anyone has any specific questions about meridian theory (經絡學) I would be glad to try to field them. I have been a professor of Chinese medicine for 19 years and I teach the meridians course at our college (along with fundamentals, mental emotional disorders, ethics, history, Chinese language and physical culture).

 

One thing to keep in mind when considering meridians is to get the images with lines connecting points out of your head. Everything that isn't an internal organ is meridian. Your arms and legs do not have meridians on them, they are your meridians. We know from ancient texts dating to the Zhou Dynasty that meridian theory pre-dates point theory. While a minor point it can be significant cognitively when we learn points first and meridian afterwards. I see that most often people try to approach it like connect the dots, but it is actually the opposite. More like learning river systems then identifying where the towns are.

 

This brings us to points and the discrepancies about point location. Most often we only look at the first half of point location, especially if we are not thinking about needling. The description of the point location in terms of surface anatomy is only half the information. You need to them look at the depth and angle of insertion of the needle to see the location of the actual point itself, which is not on the surface, rather buried deep into the tissue of the meridian. Two different texts may consider two different entry points for the needle and so not give the same surface location. As well, there is the issue of cellular individuality, we are all unique and you always need to palpate and locate the point. No matter what the texts say, your acupoints will be where they are and you have to poke at them to find them.

 

I am glad to see people keen to learn.

 

Excellent information, which I was not totally aware of...please feel free to share everything you know! I've just begun studying at a school, and have read Applied Channel Theory...so am one of the very interested.

[kevin_wallbridge]

Quick correction. .. somewhere up there it says that Bai hui (GV20) is the meeting place of all the Yang Meridians. All of my textbooks say something different:

 

This is one of those "lost in translation" moments. Dazhui (GV 14) is "the meeting of all 12 Yang meridians" (this phrase counts left and right sides/ so 3 in each limb). Baihui (GV 20) is the meeting of all Yang, hence the name of "100 meetings" where "100" stands for "lots and lots." They are both the meeting of all Yang meridians, even though the phrasing is slightly different. Dazhui is often used for issues that are within the meridians themselves (though not exclusively); and Baihui is often used for non-channel specific issues of Yangqi (though not exclusively).

 

 

I have a book called Applied Channel Theory In Chinese Medicine by Wang Ju Yi, have you read it?

 

Yes I have it. It is a great book and I think it makes an important contribution to the field. I don't know of a better work in English. When I teach meridians the students get a handout of the relevant sections of the Lingshu (completely in characters) and we go through the text translating it word by word.

 

My teacher said to me, "I want you cast this material out over your cerebral cortex and fill it in as you go along. This is not a study that is ever finished." Or something to that effect.

[kevin_wallbridge]

Off hand, certain meridians, like the heart, don't go anywhere near bai hui. Even their internal, divergent or luo-connecting pathways do not go there.

 

This is an interesting issue and I can suggest a way to understand this. One of the keys is "divergent" pathways you mention. The term being translated is 經別 jīngbié, where 經 is "meridian" and 別 is "to part from" or "diverge." The Jīngbié are very important observations of meridian behaviour that help us understand distribution of influences throughout the body.

 

The 手少陰心經/ hand-lesser-Yin-heart-meridian is an interesting case in point. Without grasping the Jingbie one cannot see how the heart can so clearly show in the complexion, a basic feature of classical and modern diagnosis. An observed characteristic of the Jingbie is that they diverge from the main meridian pathway, typically on the limbs, and re-unite usually higher on the body, but always on a Yang meridian. Therefore, the Yang meridians branch and re-unite with the same meridian; while the Yin meridians branch and re-unite with the 表里 biāolǐ or interior/exterior pair.

 

So in the case of the "heart meridian" it branches from the upper arm, enters the body at the well of the armpit, connects to the heart, rises along the windpipe, exits at the surfaces of the face, and finally unites with 手太陽小腸經/hand-greater-Yang-small-bowel-meridian at the inner canthus if the eye (near the tear ducts). The Jingbie of the "small intestine meridian" is a funny one. As an exception to the rule of Jingbie rising it is called "points to the ground" and is only partially described in the 靈枢 Língshū with only the branching (shoulder joint), entering (armpit) and organ connections (heart and small bowel) being mentioned. We have inferred in the subsequent 22 centuries that the exiting point and re-uniting point are the same as for the "heart meridian."

 

So this only gets us up to the eyes but not the crown where we find Baihui. The thing is we have risen up to the mid-point of the 太陽 Tàiyáng meridian complex. It is commonly understood that the 足太陽膀胱經/foot-greater-Yang-urinary bladder-meridian rises from the eyes, over the forehead to reach the crown where it enters to knit the brain. This means that if you were to take off a person's head at the level of the eyes there is nothing that is not connected to by 太陽 Tàiyáng. To reach the crown via Taiyang one only needs to reach the eyes and you are already there.

 

This brings me to explain a phrasing that I have chosen to use. Above, where I referred to 手少陰心經 I called it the "heart meridian" with a very conscious use of quotation marks. This is because in meridian theory we don't refer to the meridians by their associated organs, we refer to them by their associated phase of Yin-Yang. So I would prefer to say that "the way by which the influences of the heart reach the crown is because of the connections between shǒushàoyīn and zútàiyáng through the pathways of the shǒutàiyáng."

 

It can be extremely useful to grasp that different levels of organization and differentiation are at work here. Sometimes we see the meridians as being strongly related to organ functions and systems, this view is typical when strongly versed in 臟象 Zàngxiàng organ differentiation theory (what one of my teachers called "the tyranny of Zàngxiàng"). However, there are times when you only need to look at the framework of the six divisions of Yin-Yang and interior-exterior pairings. Sometimes we think "heart meridian" and "kidney meridian" but often the frame of "they are both Shaoyin" is far more useful clinically.

 

There will always be lots of five-phase math involved when looking at lung and spleen issues if you do not grasp that at a certain level and from a certain perspective they are simply what 太陰 Tàiyīn is. It does not take cognitive gymnastics of metal and earth to see the connection between the spleen and the large intestine if you can see that they are paired as Taiyin/Yangming. Why, when treating issues of the gastro-intestinal system are the "small and large intestine merdians" hardly used? Because it is through 陽明 Yángmīng that we have the strongest connections to the whole system.

 

Just another small excursion into meridian theory.

Edited September 1, 2014 by kevin_wallbridge