Origin 1945 to 1963
The Governing Vessel (Du Mai) is one of the eight extraordinary vessels. It runs up the midline of the back from the perineum over the crown to the upper lip and is the sea of all Yang channels, commanding the Yang Qi of the whole body and the spinal column. It is not paired with a single organ. Along with the Conception Vessel it forms the Microcosmic Orbit of internal alchemy.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period1945 to 1963 1Tradition: Traditional Chinese Medicine as standardised in the People's Republic Origin Period200 BCE to 168 BCE 2Tradition: Mawangdui medical manuscripts Origin Periodc. 100 BCE - 100 CE 3Tradition: Huangdi neijing Origin PeriodThe twelve-conduit system, paired yin and yang, circulating in a daily round and tied to the viscera, is set out in the Huangdi neijing corpus 3Tradition: Huangdi neijing Origin PeriodThis is the layer the classical theory belongs to 3Tradition: Huangdi neijing Origin of the NameThe English "meridian" is a translator's term, not a rendering of the Chinese. Jingmai and jingluo mean conduits, channels and the vessels branching from them; scholarly translation gives conduits or vessels, and "meridian" imports a cartographic image the Chinese does not carry. 2 Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceThe Suwen calls the governing vessel the sea of the yang channels, running along the spine and the midline of the skull, and describes it as connecting directly to the brain, a claim made of no other channel in the classical scheme. 3Tradition: Huangdi neijing Learn More
The Governing Vessel (Du Mai)
The Governing Vessel, Du Mai, is one of the eight extraordinary vessels of Chinese medicine, and one of the two, with the Conception Vessel, that have their own points rather than borrowing those of the twelve principal channels. It runs up the midline of the back, from the base of the spine over the crown of the head to the upper lip, and is classed as Yang.
The sea of the yang channels
In the theory of the channels the Governing Vessel is called the sea of the yang channels, gathering and governing the yang qi of the whole body; the six yang principal channels are held to meet it. Together with the Conception Vessel it forms the circuit used in the breathing and energetic practices of Daoist inner cultivation, the so-called microcosmic orbit.
It is described here as a concept of traditional Chinese medicine, with its long documented history, rather than as a structure of Western anatomy.
The Sea of Yang, and the Orbit of Internal Alchemy
The Governing Vessel is not one of the twelve principal channels. It belongs to the eight extraordinary vessels, a separate class the tradition describes as reservoirs rather than as circuits: they do not pair with an organ, they do not take a place in the horary clock, and the classical image for them is of ditches that take the overflow when the twelve rivers run high.
Two of the eight are exceptions to their own class, and the Governing Vessel is one. Along with the Conception Vessel it carries its own points rather than borrowing points from the twelve, which is why it is usually listed alongside them and why the atlas holds it here. It runs up the midline of the back from the coccyx, over the crown, to the upper lip, and the tradition calls it the sea of yang, the vessel that governs all the yang channels.
Its second life is in Daoist internal alchemy, neidan, where the Governing Vessel and the Conception Vessel together form the circuit known as the microcosmic orbit: breath and attention are described as being circulated up the back and down the front in a closed loop. That practice is a meditative discipline within a living religious tradition, described here rather than instructed, and the atlas records it as practice rather than as technique to be attempted from a reference entry.
Connections
Associated With
Acupuncture points lie along the twelve primary meridians and two extraordinary vessels, including the Governing Vessel meridian; needling a point is meant to affect qi flow along its meridian.
Source Huangdi Neijing (The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic)Traditionally attributed to Huangdi; actual authorship unknown
TCM organizes diagnosis and treatment, including acupuncture point selection, around the twelve primary meridians and two extraordinary vessels along which qi is held to flow, including the Governing Vessel meridian.
Source Huangdi Neijing (The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic)Traditionally attributed to Huangdi; actual authorship unknown
Disciplines That Use This
The meridians the practice claims to move qi along.
Source Lost T'ai-chi Classics from the Late Ch'ing DynastyDouglas Wile
Originates in Language
Source Medicine in China: A History of IdeasPaul U. Unschuld
Related To
One of the two extra vessels; qi is said to pool and circulate along it.
Source The Foundations of Chinese Medicine: A Comprehensive TextGiovanni Maciocia
Sources
1. Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China, 1945-1963: A Medicine of Revolution
Kim Taylor, RoutledgeCurzon, 2005On the standardisation of Chinese medicine as a national system
2. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas
Paul U. Unschuld, University of California Press, 1985On the doctrine of the conduits, the circulation of qi, and the system of the five phasesView the Source 3. Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: An Annotated Translation of Huang Di's Inner Classic - Basic Questions
Paul U. Unschuld and Hermann Tessenow, University of California Press, 2011- on the Suwen's sea of the yang channels description of the governing vessel
- The Su wen on the conduits and the organ functions assigned to them
View the Source Essays About This Entity (1 essay)
Qigong and the Meridian System
Governing Vessel, one of the eight extraordinary vessels running alongside the twelve primary meridians.
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