Milestone of the meridian science──970th anniversary of the Chinese Bronze Statue of Meridian

For more than a thousand years, Chinese people were aware of the transmitted sensations by the application of needles on the body surface. This practice is called acupuncture. Acupuncture had been recorded and transcribed in writings and in drawings, until finally the acupoints were inscribed onto a bronze statue. The bronze statue was called the Meridian Figure. Deeply embodied in the bronze statue is a tripartite confrontation-prism representation of the humans body. This concept was a great scientific achievement in ancient China. The author traces the history of Meridian science described in traditional Chinese medical terms. Then he explores a clear analogy of the meridian pathway (MP) phenomenon. In a model system, by using a simple segmental in vertebrate, certain parallels can be demonstrated with the meridian concept. For example, the author demonstrated a clear correlation rule among the central mechano-sensory channels, and characteristics of positional discrimination in individual nerve cells from different receptive field inputs. The evidence suggests that the MP phenomenon is an objective neurobiological response. To clarify the research objective in this paper, the author suggests that the MP is a bi-directional pathway along which a positional message signal is transmitted. This phenomenon is evoked by physical stimulation, transmitted linearly across the human body segments, and is perceived by the brain. The MP consists of low resistance paths, is connected by the liquid media contained in the apposite membranous structure. At the cellular level, the regulation functions of MP must pass through along this low resistance path. Two aspects of the modern Meridian research are the functional regulation and the mechanism of intercellular liquid modulation at the nanometer level.