Acupuncture and Zang Fu

The Zang Fu are the internal organs of the body. There are twelve main organs in the Chinese medical system – the lungs, kidney, large intestine, urinary bladder, small intestine, spleen, stomach, liver, gallbladder, pericardium and the ‘triple warmer’ also known as san jiao (the entire torso region). Each organ has a particular kind of chi energy associated with it. Each organ also interacts with particular emotions on a mental level.

With twelve major organs, there are twelve types of chi which move through the main channels or meridians. Chinese medicine aims to heal by connecting symptoms to organs. Symptoms are caused by yin and yang imbalances in the organs or due to an unhealthy flow of chi between organs.

Coming back to the concept of zang fu, this theory also returns us to the concept of yin and yang. ‘Zang’ is related to the yin organs – lungs, heart, spleen, kidneys, liver and the pericardium. The ‘Fu’ on the other hand is related to what are deemed to be the yang organs – gall bladder, both the small and large intestines, stomach, urinary bladder, and the triple warmer or san jiao.
Each zang organ is paired or coupled with a fu organ – except for the pericardium and the triple warmer. These two both describe functions which are not related to any organ.

In this arrangement, all of the organs help to regulate one another. Each fu organ has a corresponding zang organ and while one ‘side’ of this organ balance is responsible for negatively regulating its organ, the other one is responsible for positively regulating. The way in which organs interact with each other is described by the five element theory.