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The Organ System: The Zang Fu

This is an excerpt from The Pocket Atlas of Acupuncture Points by Lynn Pearce.

There are 12 organs, each with a meridian named after it; Qi flows through these organs in a set pattern (figure 1.2). Each organ is paired with another to give a potent and dynamic function which helps drive health when everything is working smoothly and harmoniously. One organ is Yin in its action—preparing—and the other is Yang, putting that preparation into action. If there is an organ where there is movement involved, that too is usually a Yang organ. The Chinese word for this entire system is Zang Fu, with the Zang organs being Yin and generally more solid and internal, whilst the Fu organs are hollower and involve a more dynamic function.

In addition to a physical function, each organ, in the Chinese medical model, is imbued with an emotion or a behavior (table 1.1). Consequently, if there is an excess of an emotion seen as part of an illness, knowing the organ responsible for a balanced expression of that emotion, and which organ will be affected by an excess or a deficiency of that emotion, can help direct the practitioner to what might be needed in an acupuncture recipe (see Chapter 19).

Table 1.1: Each organ and associated emotions.

More Excerpts From The Pocket Atlas of Acupuncture Points

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