Moxibustion in Early Chinese Medicine and Its Relation to the Origin of Meridians: A Study on the Unearthed Literatures

Table 3

The comparison between Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Vessels of the Foot and Forearm, and Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Vessels.

Name of book	Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Vessels of the Foot and Forearm	Cauterization Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Vessels	The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine
Nomenclature	Foot/hand Yin/Yang meridians	Yin/Yang meridians or regional anatomy position meridians	Affiliated viscus foot/hand Yin/Yang meridians
Writing form of a character of meridian	“Mai” ()	“Mai” (脉)	“Jingmai” (经脉)
Direction of meridians circulation	Centripetal	Shoulder meridian and hand Taiyin meridian: axofugal; Others: centripetal	Hand Yin meridian: thorax to hand; Hand Yang meridian: hand to head; Foot Yin meridian: feet to thorax; Foot Yang meridian: head to feet
Number of meridians	11	11	12
Relationship between meridians	No correlation	No correlation	Junction by head-tail in regular sequence
Amount of acupoints	None	None	160 points
Amount of diseases	78	Shidongbing: 60; Suoshengbing: 87	Shidongbing: 74; Suoshengbing: 143
Treatment for diseases	Moxibustion	Moxibustion	Acupuncture; moxibustion; decoction
Relations to viscera and bowels	Only two meridians connected with viscera and bowels	Only three meridians connected with viscera and bowels	12 meridians all have their own affiliated viscera and bowels