English
In traditional Chinese medicine, the meridian system provides the transportation channels for the fundamental substances of qi, blood, and body fluids. The flow of qi in the meridian system concentrates or “injects” in certain areas of the body surface. These areas, located externally and superficially are very small, and are known as “acupoints”. There are a total of 361 acupoints along the fourteen main meridians (twelve regular meridians, plus Conception Vessel and Governor Vessel), each point belongs to a particular meridian and corresponds to an internal organ. In addition, there are also plenty of a-shi points and extra points that do not belong to any of the meridians but have special therapeutic effects for some diseases. When using acupuncture and moxibustion in clinical treatment, it is essential to know about the locations, corresponding meridians and indications of the acupoints.
Among the 361 acupoints on the fourteen meridians, some of them have special relationships with the organs that make them exert particular therapeutic effects. Since these acupoints are commonly selected clinically, ancient physicians grouped them together based on their common properties, distributions or effects. These are valuable experiences accumulated by ancient physician and are considered essential for selecting and combining points in acupuncture and moxibustion treatment.
>Groups of five transport points
>Source points and connecting points
>Back transport points and alarm points
>Eight influential points
>Cleft points
>Lower sea points
>Eight confluent points of the extra meridians
>Crossing points
