The Yin and Yang Qiao Vessels in Chinese Medicine and Daoism by Will Ceurvels

The Yin and Yang Qiao Vessels in Chinese Medicine and Daoism

The following is a guest posts for Purple Cloud Institute by Will Ceurvels, a Chinese medicine scholar-practitioner living in Taiwan and currently undertaking his masters in Qing Dynasty Jing Fang Materia Medica research, including physicians such as Zou Run‘an [鄒潤安], Zhang Zhicong [張志聰], and Huang Yuanyu [黃元禦]. The article revolves around the Yin and Yang Qiao vessels, as elucidated by the ancient classics; medical and Daoist.
Our aim with this article excerpt is to gauge interest and reception in the community of Chinese medicine practitioners, enthusiasts and and scholars for a full-fledged publication on the eight extra channels, a subject next to nothing has been written on, in regards to their traditional sources, tying in scholarly efforts with practical applications:

Overview:
Accounts of Yin and Yang Qiao vessel pathophysiology throughout the vast corpus of Chinese medical literature have been markedly abstruse, contradictory and indeterminate. This indeterminacy has created a kind of ontological vacuum into which, in modern times, all manner of theories with a varying but typically minimal degree of academic and medical rigor have poured. Yet for all the ink spilled on the vessels, few have ventured to ask, “How did the ancients conceive of and use them? What was the actual terrain of the Qiao Vessels and what spaces did they inhabit and interact with in the ancient conception?” To that end, this essay attempts to reconstruct a complete and coherent picture of Qiao vessel pathophysiology as it was rendered in the earliest textual accounts: those of the Internal Canon, The Classic of the Bright Hall, The Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion and several other pre-Song dynasty texts. Only once a clear picture emerges of the pathophysiology of Qiao vessels is it possible to provide, lucid, intentional, and targeted treatments. The following essay argues that the Qiao vessels are best understood as special collateral channels of the Foot Lesser Yin Kidney Channel and Foot Greater Yang Bladder channel that circulate through the “oceans” or extra channel spaces of the cranium and abdomen and can thus be deployed to treat diseases associated with yin-yang disharmonies originating in these areas.
From the chapter “The Centrality of the Eye and Qiao Channels in Wei Qi Pathophysiology”
Several passages describe the meeting place of the Qiao vessels at the eye as the locus of the channel qi’s transition to the extra-channel space:

《靈樞•脈度》陰蹺…屬目內眥。合於太陽陽蹺而上行。氣並相還。則為濡目。氣不營。則目不合。此節論流溢之精氣。從蹺脈而布散於脈外。脈外之血氣。從蹺脈而通貫於脈中。氣並相還。內外交通者也。
Spiritual Pivot17: The Yin Qiao vessel connects with the inner canthus, links up with the Foot Greater Yang channel and Yang Qiao Vessel before moving upward. If qi circulates between these vessels, the eye remains moist, if not, the eye does not close. Zhang Zhi-cong: This is referring to overflowing channel qi, which travels into the extra-channel space via the Yin Qiao vessel, just as extra-channel blood and qi move into the channels via Qiao vessels.
Here, Zhang Zhi-cong notes how the Qiao vessel connection at the eye is a site of extra-intra channel qi/blood exchange.

《靈樞•大惑論》衛氣留於陰。不得行於陽。留於陰則陰氣盛。陰氣盛則陰蹺滿。不得入於陽。則陽氣虛。故目閉也。
Spiritual Pivot 80: Wei qi is unable to enter the yang phase and abides in yin. Abiding in yin, the wei qi of the yin phase is replete and the Yin Qiao vessel becomes full/distended. Unable to enter yang, the qi of the yang phase is vacuous and the eye remains closed.
Zhang Zhi-cong and Zhang Jing-yue both read this line as an expression of the fact that wei qi enters and exits the channels via the Qiao channels at the eye. However, in the Spiritual Pivot author’s conception, the eye and Qiao channels were not just surface structures, but formed a three-dimensional complex reaching into the depths of the cranium:

《靈樞•寒熱病》足太陽有通項入于腦者，正屬目本，名曰眼系…入腦乃別陰蹻、陽蹻，陰陽相交，陽入陰，陰出陽。交于目銳眥。
Spiritual Pivot 21: The Foot Greater Yang channel enters into the brain at the root of the eye through what is called the “eye complex”. Entering into the brain, it splits off into the yin and yang Qiao channels which interpenetrate and connect at the inner canthus.)
Here, the eye-brain complex serves as the meeting point of the Yin/Yang Qiao and bladder channels as well as the locus of transfer between yin qi (that is, internal, circulating qi/blood) and yang qi (extra-channel qi blood).
The Spiritual Pivot author saw the yin/yang Qiao junction at the eye (and brain) as an important pivot in the exchange of intra and extra-channel qi. Yet this all begs the question, why the Qiao channels? The Qiao channels barely appear at all in the Internal Cannon and when they do they are more or less always associated with the eye pathologies mentioned above. … The next section will attempt to restore some clarity to this puzzling issue.
From the post-script “Yin Qiao Mai and the Spagyric Anatomy of the Internal Alchemists”
In the Spiritual Pivot’s theory of the Qiao vessels, the eyes serve as the central pivot between the yang Qiao channel and the brain and the Yin Qiao channel and abdomen. Interestingly, the same brain-eye-abdomen axis can be found within Daoist texts. The Qing Dynasty Dragon-Gate practitioner Min Yi-de (閔一得)described the following practice:

神光下照海底會陰 , 谷道上提。吸氣用目光 , 摄取海底之金 , 以意提氣上升乾頂 , 目光轉動 , 上視泥丸。
Shine the spirit’s light (of the eyes) upon the ocean’s bottom (perineum) and lift the perineum. Breathe in and use the eyes’ light to gather the gold of the ocean’s bottom, then use intention to raise qi up to the top of the head and shift the eyes to the brain.

The spirit light (神光) mentioned above is a source of pure yang qi. From very early on in the history of Daoism, the importance of the eye as a source of yang qi is apparent. The Tang Dynasty internal alchemy text Book of the Hidden Period and the Causal Body of the Yellow Court 《黄庭遁甲缘身经》states “The eye embodies brightness and pertains to yang”. The Qing dynasty Daoist text Lectures in the Hall of Blissful Learning (樂育堂) goes even further, stating, “The entire body is all yin, only the eye is yang.” Thus, the eye was seen as the key to breaking up the yin concretions blocking the apertures and restoring the circulation of the Ren-Du channels. Sheng Ke-qi（盛克琦） a modern Daoist scholar vividly describes the action of the eye as such: “The two eyes look inward, tracing along the Ren channel down into the lower elixir field, concentrating on the qi point (sometimes interpreted as the perineum, sometimes as a point deep to RN3 (Zhong-ji,中極) or RN6 (Qi-hai,氣海)). The spirit light is like the sun’s rays shining down upon the earth, rending the thick yin concretions of the lower abdomen. Suddenly a golden light irradiates forth from the lower elixir field and one is transported to the realm of no-self…warmed by the spirit light, the primordial essence steams upwards.” The eye, as conduit of yang, is the key to breaking through the bolted gates and apertures of the Ren and Du channels and restoring the circulation through the low and high points of accumulation in the brain and abdomen. Thus, just as in the medical conception of the Qiao vessels, the Daoist vision of the eye is the key linking point between the spaces of the Yin and Yang Qiao, the brain and the abdomen.

Post-Scriptum: The final script will contain extensive footnotes to further explicate terms and terminology appearing within the text.