A Modern Theory of the Jingluo
Sun Kaifei (Researcher, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
1. The doctrine of the jingluo is the foundation and pillar of Chinese medicine
The jingluo (channels-and-collaterals) doctrine is one of the major pillars of Chinese medicine. TCM takes the systemic-integral view as its philosophical foundation: the body is an organic whole, and the human and the outer environment form an organic systemic whole; the jingluo are an important physiological-organizational base of that integrality. The Huangdi Neijing says: "The twelve channels are within attached to the bowels and storehouses and without linked to the limbs and joints." The twelve channels, the eight extraordinary channels, the twelve diverging channels, the twelve sinew-channels, the twelve skin-zones, the fifteen collaterals, and the countless fu-luo and sun-luo, with countless acupoints, knit the body into an organic whole, and the body with the outer environment into an organic whole.
A great difference between Chinese and Western medicine is that TCM has the jingluo doctrine and Western medicine does not. Western medicine has, in the past, not spoken of, not acknowledged, and even opposed jingluo — saying dissection cannot find them. So Western medicine lacks integral view, often head treats head, foot treats foot, fine in analysis, poor in synthesis.
Dissection cannot find them because the jingluo are colorless transparent liquid-crystal tissue, not pipe-form but function-form. So the naked eye does not see them in dissection. But modern instruments can detect their reality.
This concerns the jingluo's function. The body has several large connecting systems: (1) nervous system — chiefly electric-pulse signals, with anatomical nerves; (2) blood system — chiefly fluid transport, water, blood, nutrition, with anatomical vessels; (3) the jingluo system — more important still, but unknown to Western medicine. Its function is to conduct light, electricity, sound-waves, and also fluid — the body's important network of substance, energy, and information. It is greater than the nerve system (only conducting electricity) and the blood system (only transporting fluid). It is function-form, throughout the body, more deeply reaching every part than nerves and vessels, knitting the body into a systemic whole. The points are open to the outside; through points across the body, the body constantly exchanges substance, energy, and information with the outside — more channels of connection than the nine orifices (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and so on).
When a person dies and vital activity stops, the function-form jingluo no longer function; so dissection has difficulty finding them in corpses.
2. The function of the jingluo: conducting light, electricity, sound; carrying fluid
The Neijing says: "The channels move qi and blood, nourish yin and yang, moisten sinew and bone, ease the joints." The jingluo can carry fluid, water, oxygen, and other nutrients. But the chief feature is conducting light, electricity, and sound. Especially light. The jingluo are the body's optical-fiber system; the lines mostly run straight — unlike nerves and vessels, which wind. They can also bend; light can enter at one point and exit at another. Some channels turn corners, but mostly straight. Because they conduct light, they are colorless, transparent, pure liquid-crystal tissue (like a glass tube) — unlike nerves (greenish-blue) and vessels (blood-red).
Electrical-resistance and electrical-potential testing finds low resistance and high potential at the jingluo and acupoints. With acupuncture, massage, and inner-gong leading-and-guiding, the current is stronger — the so-called de qi — proving conduction. The young, the healthy, the qigong master have higher potentials — yuan-qi is full. This is a kind of biological electricity.
Photoelectron-multiplier and biophoton-detection technology find high light intensity at the jingluo and points. With acupuncture, massage, gong-leading, the light grows stronger — the strong xun-feeling — proving the conduction of light. The young, the healthy, the inner-gong adept have stronger biological light — yang-qi is full. The ancient Chinese called the sun's halo xun.
I wrote to Mr. Qian Xuesen and Chen Xin years ago about the conduction of light by the channels and about human laser. The letters may have reached Harbin Institute of Technology, where two teachers wrote back in support. On December 10, 2001, I saw in the paper that Harbin Institute of Technology's Shenzhen International Innovation Technology Research Institute and Guangdong's Provincial Laser Life-Science Key Laboratory had jointly developed a biophoton-imaging detection analyzer, proving every living being spontaneously radiates a photon stream — ultra-weak light emission. I rejoiced for them; this provides scientific instrumentation for research on the body's biological light, of great meaning.
On the channel lines, light is over twice as strong as off the lines. The body has temperature and also infrared radiation. But its biological light, biological electricity, biological wave are very weak — ultra-weak light, ultra-short wave. The human-light spectrum differs by person — a far better identification than fingerprint, blood-type, iris, or voice.
Using channel acoustic-emission detection technology, one can also find that the jingluo and points can carry sound — sound conducts along channels through the points. Inner-body motion can produce stress waves and sound-signals — slow but transmittable along channels. But fiber's transmission of sound has higher sensitivity.
When ren and du channels open, the small circulation forms. Whole-body ordered motion of electrons can form a superconducting phenomenon in the body, producing strong biological electricity and magnetic fields.
When in cultivation the central channel opens — baihui and yongquan connected — the central channel is like a glass laser resonance tube, producing human laser, with high energy, heat, and light.
Around the jingluo and points there are light-fields and electromagnetic fields; around the body there are also light-fields and electromagnetic fields — the human biological field. The biological field regulates the body's biochemistry and even has effect on the surrounding world. After death, when life stops, the field vanishes.
Know Heaven-and-human as one; learn to gather xun; and one can take in cosmic substance and energy — sunlight, moonlight, the substance and energy of forests, flowers, minerals, spring water, sea wave — to fill the body, give health, longevity, strength.
3. The jingluo play a vital role in managing the hundred illnesses, deciding life and death
The Neijing says: "The channels can decide life and death, manage a hundred illnesses, regulate deficiency and excess; they cannot be left unconnected." Life needs unceasing metabolism — breathing in sunlight, air, water, nutrition; expelling CO₂, waste, water. With the channels blocked, metabolism cannot run; sunlight, air, water, nutrition cannot be carried to every part; waste-air, waste-water, waste cannot be carried out — the body becomes a stagnant pool, decay arises, illness and death follow.
I particularly stress the role of light energy in human life — the importance of the optical channel jingluo. As the saying goes: "All things grow by the sun." The light of life — "light overrides everything in the function of biology" — because without light, photosynthesis cannot turn inorganic into organic, into glucose, protein, and amino acids. Photosynthesis is called the most important chemical reaction on earth. Vital activity then runs the reverse — turning glucose, protein, fat back into light, electricity, heat, energy. Humans evolved to eat plants and animals for nutrition and energy; their photosynthetic function has receded (in another sense, advanced), and the reverse-process has flourished. But the opening of the body's life-gate, the regulation of the biological clock, the immune system, the endocrine and energy-conversion systems all need light to start and regulate. Even with eyes closed, light enters the brain through the tianmu and baihui points, activating the pineal gland (the niwan, xinggong, upper dantian), secreting hormones, melatonin, and regulating the biological clock. The skin is the body's largest organ and largest biological clock; surface points and channels are regulated by light. Nearly every cell has its own biological clock, all timed to the sun's rise and set, the strength of light, in protein synthesis. Skin absorbs sunlight to make vitamin D, stimulate red-cell production, and create substances for health and longevity. A few minutes of sun a day can supplement calcium and kill some bacteria and viruses (overexposure harms). Abnormal conditions can also regulate cellular biochemistry abnormally — turning off the light-field and EM-field so they have no effect, or scrambling the cellular biological clock, abnormal telomere division so DNA-RNA cannot fold normally, changing expression and replication — as in cancer and deformity.
The great scientist N. Bohr lectured many times on Light and Life, pointing out light energy's vital meaning.
The quantum-electrodynamics expert R. Feynman held that the interaction of photons and electrons produces the ten-thousand things of the cosmos; all chemistry, physics, biology can be explained by this. The theory behind the biochemistry that explains life is quantum electrodynamics.
In 1998 I proposed:
The law of life and the cosmic rule are: this is, I believe, what Schrödinger sought — the new physical law that holds sway in living matter — the quantum-dynamic principle of vital activity, a fundamental cosmic rule; vital motion's fundamental law is the cosmic rule's concentrated re-expression at a higher level. This is the ancient Chinese sage's non-being (xun) — being (ten-thousand things) — non-being (xun) and Heaven-and-human as one. So the Neijing says: "Qi (xun) is the start and end of ten-thousand things, the root of life and death."
4. The causes of jingluo blockage
Two great kinds, four main causes.
(1) Outer causes
1. Pollution of the natural environment, harsh living conditions, severe weather — bacteria, virus, cold, heat, wind, damp invading. Neijing: "Evil qi is the empty wind; the empty wind's thieving deeply invades the human, it cannot leave of itself." "Bound in the vessel, blood-closure occurs and there is sore." It speaks of binding in sinew, knot, and tumor; deep in bone, bone-tumor; in flesh, flesh-tumor; wei-qi lingering and not returning, body-fluid lingering, knots forming gut-tumor. The jingluo are blocked by evil-qi, blood-pus, tumor — light, electricity, fluid can no longer pass. Disease, tumor, cancer are so formed.
2. Social-environment influence: political turmoil, war, economic crisis, cultural-environment pollution of spirit, family discord, idle strife — these can disorder the body's vital rhythm and lead to blocked channels, illness, even death. As Laozi said: when the great Dao falls, the great hypocrisy comes; when the six relations are at odds and the state is in chaos, people fall ill and die early.
(2) Inner causes — more important; the outer works through the inner.
The same person in the same environment may, by inner cause, fall ill, have cancer, die early — or be healthy and long-lived.
1) Disorder of certain organs, especially the five zang and six fu. TCM, qigong, and inner-alchemy speak of dantian — root of the five zang and six fu, root of the twelve channels. Dantian is the general pivot of the channels, the qihai — the great hub for substance-energy conversion. With dantian and zang-fu sick, conversion fails; channels are blocked, essence-qi falls short, illness or death follows.
2) Inner spirit-injury, mind problems — more important still. The Neijing: "With spirit injured within, the form must perish." The brain, spirit, consciousness are the highest commanding post. With command in disorder, illness follows, channels close, qi-and-blood may rush wild — death in serious cases. TCM: anger injures liver; joy injures heart; thought injures spleen; sorrow injures lung; fear injures kidney. "The heart (brain, spirit) is in the body the place of the ruler; when the upper leaves its way, the lower fails its task."
Psychic health and joy produce substances helpful to health, regulate endorphin, hormones, and immune function. Anger and grief produce toxins and exhaust energy beyond running a long distance. When the person is calm, qi and fluid are colorless and clear; when angry, grieving, regretting, qi and fluid carry toxin and color, with sediment — no longer pure; light cannot pass; channels are blocked.
Neijing: "When disease arises with unpredictable joy and anger, immoderate food and drink, yin-qi insufficient, yang-qi in excess, ying qi failing to move — sore and abscess arise. Yin and yang not connecting, two heats joining, become pus." "Once pus is formed, ten die, one lives." The channels packed with blood-pus, filth, pathogens, knotting into tumors, hard masses, large nodules — light, electricity, fluid, nutrient cannot pass — metabolism fails. How does the person not fall ill, not die?
5. Methods to unblock the jingluo, keep healthy and live long
Because the channels conduct light, electricity, sound and carry fluid — phototherapy, electrotherapy, magnet therapy, sound therapy (music, ultrasound) all act on them. TCM's acupuncture, massage, cupping, gua-sha, stone therapy, qigong-guidance, many Chinese herbs — all aim to open the channels, to free the channels and quicken the blood.
Neijing: "The essential in needling is to regulate the qi", "open the channels, harmonize the qi and blood." "Press and grasp with four fingers, push and disperse." "Break and disperse, to release the knot." "When pus and blood are formed, only stone and needle can take them." Some foods and herbs are to dissolve tumor and open channels. Fire-needle, electric-needle strengthen needle force, increase light-and-electric pulse impact. Daoist Tian-gang needling stresses noon needling, when the sun is directly on the earth — better use of solar light energy. TCM doctors who know qigong have better results in acupuncture and massage than those who do not, because the qigong practitioner's own light, electricity, magnetic field strengthen the work. The true top TCM doctors of the past knew qigong; hence miraculous hands restoring spring, cure at touch.
To know TCM and qigong, regulate the self, mobilize inner causes — better still. The check is simple: press the body — through pass no pain; pain no pass. If there is pain, the channels are blocked; hard lumps mean tumor. No pain, channels clear.
Some technologists have invented channel-opening instruments and machines to help.
The important channels in TCM and qigong are the ren, du, and the central channel. Open the ren and du, open the central channel, and all channels follow. The central channel — the central nervous system, the spine — manages the five zang and six fu, the body's autonomic life-activity; regulating and opening it is fundamental. So the central channel, the central nervous system, the spine, are called the pillar of life.
The Buddha-hand mudra, the mudra of light — the thumb and middle finger making a ring, the other three fingers straight — are also useful for opening the cardiovascular and digestive system, joining Heaven and human, and freeing-the-channels-quickening-blood.
Dantian is the qihai, the root of the twelve channels. Mind-keeping at dantian, abdominal breathing, embryonic breathing — these help open the twelve channels and regulate the five zang and six fu.
Important points — TCM and qigong speak of the six vital points of human life:
1) Baihui: where the hundred channels meet — the heaven gate; the key way for cosmic substance and energy to enter the body — paramount for longevity.
2) Shenque: a vital point of the ren channel, at the umbilicus — the source of life-energy.
3) Mingmen: the sea of yang channels — governing all yang channels.
4) Huiyin: the sea of yin channels — governing all yin channels.
5) Zusanli: latter-Heaven root — the sea of grain.
6) Yongquan: the second heart of the body, former-Heaven root, the earth gate — the way for earth-qi.
TCM also gives six points for the six diseases: heart disease, press shenmen; lung disease, press chize and tianfu; kidney disease, taixi; liver disease, taichong; spleen disease, chongyang; and so on.
Most important, most fundamental — is regulating spirit and consciousness — the command center. TCM: "All disease originates in the heart (brain, spirit)"; "to cure disease first cure the heart (brain, spirit)". The Neijing: "In calm, empty stillness, the true qi follows; the spirit guards within — whence then can illness come?" "Thus their desire could not weary their eyes, lewdness could not delude their hearts, foolish and wise alike unafraid of things; so accord with the Dao, and so reach a hundred years with movement undiminished — because their virtue was whole and they were not in peril." That is Laozi's constant virtue not departing, return to the infant; constant virtue not erring, return to the limitless; constant virtue full, return to the simple. Pile virtue and there is nothing one cannot overcome — this is the Way of Long Life and Long Vision. Otherwise, not the Dao, early gone — illness, early decline, death follow. So the great physician Sun Simiao: "If virtue and conduct do not measure up, even drinking jade-fluid and golden elixir will not lengthen life."
Doing good, piling virtue, forgiveness, love, lofty spirit, firm will — these make great strength, conquer disease and death, remove the wrinkles of the heart, give long life. They also conquer life's difficulties and lead to success. Meeting the unpleasant, take it well — see through, set down, be magnanimous, optimistic. Turn ill into good; know misfortune is the leaning-place of fortune; fortune is where misfortune hides. To bear a little loss and grievance is not bad. Contribute more, take less. Know: the more one gives to others, the more one has; the more one shares, the more one's own. The way of being human is to act and not contend. Contribute to humankind, to society, do not compete for fame and gain. Such a person is naturally healthy and long-lived — the humane have long life.
In sum: Dao patterns nature; observe Heaven's way and execute Heaven's motion — that is all. Follow the four seasons and adapt to cold and heat, harmonize joy and anger and live at peace, regulate yin and yang and balance hard and soft — and form and spirit will be in health, passing a hundred without decline, fulfilling Heaven-allotted years. As the Huangdi Neijing says: "He who knows the Dao patterns himself by yin and yang, harmonizes by the arts and numbers, eats and drinks in measure, rises and rests in regularity, does not toil recklessly — so form and spirit are together, fulfilling his Heaven-allotted years."
January 20, 2003
Originally published in Yisheng Wenhua, vol. 2, 2003
References
Huangdi Neijing; Daodejing
Qian Xuesen, On Human-Body Science and Modern Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, 1998
N. Bohr, Light and Life and Light and Life Revisited, Commercial Press, 1978
R. Feynman, QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, Commercial Press, 1996
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Sun Kaifei, The Systemic Structure and Functional State of the Human Body — for the Twentieth Anniversary of Human-Body Science, Chinese Human-Body Science, vol. 10, no. 2
A New Physical Law That Holds Sway in Living Matter, Chinese Qigong Science, 1998 no. 7
On the Law of Life and the Cosmic Rule, Once More, ibid., 1999 no. 6
Light and Life — Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Qigong Science and Human-Body Science, ibid., 1999 no. 12
TCM and Daoist Yangsheng Arts, Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy New World, 2002 no. 1; Yisheng Wenhua, 2002 no. 3
The Dao and Cosmic Rules, Laws of Life, Yisheng Wenhua, 2002 no. 11