Fwd: The Herbs of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians

October 21, 2000

Here is a list of herbs that specifically target some of the Extraordinary

meridians. Note: The herbs also target the 12 regular meridians. In a few

of the entries, this is spelled out, but it's not for most of the herbs.

For those of you new to TCM, whenever you look up a herb (or other healing

substance) in a TCM materia medica (book which lists healing substances and

their properties), the entry will tell you which meridian(s)/ organ system

the herb (or other substance) has an affinity for. For example, if there's

Damp Heat in the Bladder, one wants not just any Clear Damp Heat herb, but

one that will specifically target the Bladder. An herb is not going to do

the person much good if the Damp Heat is in the Bladder and the herb is

working specifically on say the Liver but not on the Bladder.

Most books do not list any of the Extraordinary meridians, not even the

Conception and Governor channels. They list only the 12 basic meridians/

organ systems that the herb targets. So this list is a good supplement for

those of you who are working with the Strange Flows.

Part of the terms I can't find the translations for. I'm sure that ren is

Conception Vessel and du is Governor Vessel. You'll see these two so often

in various texts, you may as well memorize them now. Also, another term for

the Conception Vessel is Directing Vessel. (I don't know of anyone who

likes the translation Conception Vessel for the ren channel, the one that

runs up the midline of the front of the body.) I believe chong mai (or

ch'ang mo) is the Penetrating Vessel, and dai mai (or tai mo) is the Girdle

or Belt channel. I'm very unsure about Wei and Qiao. Perhaps some of the

readers with more knowledge of the Extraordinary Vessels than I have can

translate these and give alternative English terms that other authors use.

I've been using Maciocia primarily for the posts on the Extraordinary

Vessels. I also get some information from Acupressure Way of Health: Jin

Shin Do by Iona Marsaa Teeguarden, and the Teegaurdens are known for using

spellings of Chinese terms and English translations of the terms that most

other authors do not use.

Victoria

_______________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at

Recommended Posts