Cauterisation Classic of the Eleven Channels of Foot and Arm
One of the earliest channel texts, from Mawangdui: eleven channels, all treated by moxibustion.
Mawangdui Manuscripts (马王堆帛书)Origins and Lineages
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
The English is translated from the Chinese vernacular. The original text and its pinyin sit beneath each sentence in smaller type; hide them whenever you prefer to read the translation alone.
The arm taiyin vessel runs along the upper border of the sinew, passes up the inner upper arm, emerges at the inner side of the axilla and enters the heart. Its illnesses are pain of the heart and vexation of the heart with sighing. For all disorders of this kind, moxa the arm taiyin vessel.
The arm taiyang vessel emerges at the little finger, runs up along the lower border of the bone, emerges at the lower edge of the upper arm and at the outer shoulder, emerges at the nape and goes up to the head. Its illness is pain of the outer side of the arm. For all disorders of this kind, moxa the arm taiyang vessel.
Recovered from a Han dynasty tomb at Mawangdui in 1973, this text records eleven channels rather than twelve, with pathways that do not yet form a closed circuit and no mention of acupuncture points. Its treatments are exclusively by cauterisation, the direct burning of moxa on the body.
Its importance is historical. It shows that channel theory and moxibustion existed before the systematic point theory and before needling became the dominant technique. The absence of points, and the absence of the heart channel, are among the strongest evidence that the meridian system developed gradually rather than being revealed whole.
ANNOTATION
Tai (泰): the same as 太. The arm taiyin vessel is the hand taiyin lung channel.
Zou (奏): the same as 走, to run.
Lian (廉): edge or border.
□: a character lost from the silk manuscript.
COMMENTARY
The great lesson of reading the silk manuscripts is that “classics” are not made in a single act. The system of twelve channels now treated as authoritative was built up over several centuries. This genetic view explains the nature of channel theory better than reciting the received text alone.