mibale

I know it says its Hellenistic but it is actually Medieval from Ashmolean 399 which is 13th Century

Thanks for the information.

Even so its interesting and if the Greeks thought in terms of internal structures like this then the most likely origin for this way of thinking was Egypt, simply because Egypt was already ancient when the Greeks first came on the scene.

That was what I was thinking about the connection with Greek and Egypt. The Egyptians had connections to Greek world before they had connections with the China. So even if that picture happens to be that much later than I thought it might be possible to find something from Greeks as lot of their ideas might originate from Egypt. I think it might be worth checking.

"All come to his heart. They distribute to his nose and all unite at his anus".

This unite might be more similar to the Chinese concept than the idea of ending.

In a way all channels unite near anus. Point Huiyin (Ren 1 at the perineum) is also called Haidi (bottom of the ocean) and Xiaji (lower extremity). It is the point where all 8 extraordinary channels are said to unite. The ren is sea of all yin, the du is sea of all yang and the chongmai is channel of blood (all all the channels). It is not an ending but an union.

In some texts there is an idea that (like hindu muladhara) the knot where these all channels are born is inside an up from this point below the navel area (true dantian or mingmen). Some other text give different places of birth for these channels but in any case they meet at the ren 1.

Because we do not have the main books of the Egyptians there are no maps or diagrams of the metu. I am sure they existed but they have been lost for centuries - prob since the burning the library at Alexandria.

 

My approach in studying all this is to take what is known factually as a base and then use intuition/insight or comparison to other systems to make predictions which can be verified in some way. The problem for most main stream Egyptologists is that they probably don't know about the meridians and also probably wouldn't find them credible if they did because they do not practice cultivation.

Article titled Seeing the body might interest you. Look at the Greek picture of human in the article. It shows the idea of meridians in Hellenistic period. It might be possible to get more information about Egyptians by looking at the Greeks.

As regards the 'ending' of the metu in the anus - I am wondering about the muladhara chakra ... or perhaps the perineum is meant. Maybe when they say 'end' - and I'll have to check the actual word but maybe this is seen as a nexus point like the heart.

It is quite possible. Please keep me informed about the actual word. It is very common to loose lot of meaning and accuracy while translating.

-mibale

ps. Sorry...am very slow at responding. (been bit short of time nowadays)

@Juho

Glad to hear about another Finn here

Do you live in in Espoo area? I live in Jollas, Helsinki.

I studied in Taoist Neijing -school.

@Others....

I understand that my introduction might have been bit too general

I guess that most people here are interested in Daoist cosmology and anatomy. Here is something general in addition to the first one.

I am studying cosmology and cultivation in relation with acupuncture. I am striving to understand better the acupuncture (and points) by studying Daoism as I believe that Daoist practices are the way to gain real understanding and skill of acupuncture. The reason I found this forum was that my friend told that someone here also did an translation of Xiuzhentu. It is perfect example about the connections I am looking for. My version of translation is available from here in case that anyone is interested: Xiuzhentu.

Hello from a new member from Finland.

I have been lurking here for some months and finally decided to write this very short introduction to obtain the knowledge of what is the full membership

I am a Chinese medicine practitioner working in Finland and studying Daoist and medical texts. I am most interested in ancient anatomy and its relation to Chinese cosmology.

You seem to have a nice forum with lot of interesting information and sharing. Thanks for the forum.

-mibale