meridian

The meridian system (, also called channel network) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) concept that alleges meridians are paths through which the life-energy known as "qi" (ch'i) flows. Meridians are not real anatomical structures: scientists have found no evidence that supports their existence. One historian of medicine in China says that the term is "completely unsuitable and misguided, but nonetheless it has become a standard translation." Major proponents of their existence have not come to any consensus as to how they might work or be tested in a scientific context. History The concept of meridians are first attested in two works recovered from the Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan tombs of the Han-era Changsha Kingdom, the Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Foot and Arm Channels Zúbì Shíyī Mài Jiǔjīng) and the Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Channels Yīnyáng Shíyī Mài Jiǔjīng). In the texts, the meridians are referenced as mài rather than jīngmài.