Energy meridians

Human energy meridians (Chinese meridians) are a system of human energy channels. According to the ideas of Chinese medicine, they have a connection with the internal organs and systems of a person. Meridian is one of the basic concepts in acupuncture.

Meridians in Ancient China

In ancient China, the area of Qi (Chi) energy circulation in the body of a living person was called a meridian. It was believed that Qi, being a universal substance of the universe, fills the living human body, relates to blood circulation and is the “psychic heart” of a person.

In ancient times, Chinese doctors believed that fatigue, bad mood and illness were associated with a lack of balance in the energy meridians along which Qi energy moves. So they worked with the energy channels of the patient to restore balance.

Overview of the meridian system

Meridians (channels) in the human body often have a complex course. The doctrine of the meridian system was formed in China in the 8th and 9th centuries.

There are 14 lines and 670 points located along them. They are located on the arms, legs, foot, palm, back, head, face. Chinese doctors viewed the human as a microcosm, inseparable from the macrocosm, united by spiritual, moral and physical influences.

Based on natural philosophy, ancient Chinese medicine saw the primordial basis of the universe in the energy of Qi (Chi) manifested in five elements — wood, fire, earth, water, metal.

These elements are in complex interaction with each other: wood generates fire but destroys the earth, fire generates earth but melts metal, earth generates metal but fills up water, metal destroys wood but generates water, water generates wood but puts off fire.

In this interaction and mutual negation, in the struggle of opposites (yin and yang — female and male), the philosophers of antiquity saw the real basis of everything that exists. The systems and organs known in ancient China were divided by meridians. Thus, a map of energy meridians appeared: Yin meridians pass through the inner (hidden) surfaces of the limbs and trunk in accordance with the fact that the yin organs themselves are located more deeply and are parenchymal whereas Yang meridians correspond to hollow organs and are located on the outer surface. The exception is the stomach meridian, located in the inner part of the trunk.

12 main meridians

There are 12 paired meridians corresponding to dense (zhang) and hollow (fu) organs, and 2 unpaired meridians. Yang meridians and yin meridians differ. These 14 meridians are considered permanent in traditional Chinese medicine.

• THE LUNG MERIDIAN
• THE LARGE INTESTINE MERIDIAN
• THE STOMACH MERIDIAN
• THE SPLEEN MERIDIAN
• THE HEART MERIDIAN
• THE SMALL INTESTINE MERIDIAN
• THE BLADDER MERIDIAN
• THE KIDNEY MERIDIAN
• THE PERICARDIUM MERIDIAN
• THE TRIPLE-WARMER MERIDIAN
• THE GALLBLADDER MERIDIAN
• THE LIVER MERIDIAN

Yang organs are places of energy production, and Yin are places of energy absorption. All Yang meridians are related to the head (the hand meridians end, and the foot meridians begin).

The yin meridians end (foot) and the hand meridians begin in the chest area. The 12 main meridians have two symmetrical branches — the left and the right.

It is believed that each channel has a strict localization according to the type of nerve trunks or vessels, dividing into the part projected on the skin and the inner one passing deep into the body. Each channel unites a certain number (from 9 to 67 points), the impact on which leads to a functional change of the organ. Such changes are associated with the redistribution of energy and the restoration of the balance of the meridians.

Meridian activity

Qi energy, as a carrier of life, circulates in a strictly defined way in a closed circle, starting from the heart and returning there.

The greatest influx of Qi energy to the organ makes it as active as possible. It is believed that it is at this time that the organs are most susceptible to both positive and negative influences. All organs are divided into three groups with the maximum activity of the meridian and the corresponding organs:

• Morning: stomach, spleen, pancreas, heart, small intestine;
• Daytime: lungs, colon, bladder, kidneys;
• Nocturnal: pericardium, triple heater, gallbladder, liver.

The maximum energy of the organ is replaced by its passivity at certain time periods due to the flow of Qi energy. The meridian activity hours are shown in the table below.

Innervation

In addition, it is believed that the meridians are related to the peripheral nervous system as well as the central nervous system. It was found that 323 out of 324 meridian points are located near nerve structures. Innervation of the point and its associated organ is carried out in the same or nearby segment of the spinal cord.

The spine serves as a channel through which the signal from the brain reaches the main organs. The quality and quantity of the passage of this signal signals the health of a person. If there is a so-called block in any of the vertebra, then the whole connection is destroyed, and the signal has a completely different quality.

Nutrition of the energy body

The energy passing through the Chinese meridians is not associated with solid nutrition. What we eat is related to energy, which ensures the viability of the cell and all human organs and systems. However, what relates to the energy component of the so-called Chinese meridians is not solid food but the chakras. These are the fields of creation energies that enter a person through 7 main energy centers (in fact, there are many more of them). The balance of Yin and Yang energies is important here, from top to bottom, from right to left. If all the chakras are function properly, then everything is fine, and the person is healthy.