Zang and Fu in Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine organises the organs into five zang, the solid or storing organs, heart, lung, spleen, liver and kidney, and six fu, the hollow or transmitting organs, gall bladder, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, bladder and the san jiao or triple burner, which has no anatomical referent at all. Each zang is paired with a fu and with one of the five phases, and each carries functions that do not map onto the organ of western anatomy: the Chinese spleen governs transformation of food and the holding of blood in the vessels, the liver governs the smooth flow of qi and the emotions, and the kidney stores the jing or essence and governs the bones and the will. Paul Unschuld has argued at length that these are systematic correspondences within a coherent theoretical scheme rather than descriptions of anatomy, and that translating them with western organ names is itself a source of confusion.