Structure and distribution of the San Jiao and Cou Li – Recognized interstitium in human tissues

• Main Author: Lifang Qu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2018-01-01
• Series: Chinese Medicine and Culture
• Subjects: cavity; cou li (腠理); interstitial; san jiao (三焦); tcm
• Online Access: http://www.cmaconweb.org/article.asp?issn=2589-9627;year=2018;volume=1;issue=2;spage=84;epage=87;aulast=Qu

Since the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon (c. 200 bce), Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has held that the san jiao system is the largest anatomical structure in the human body, and that it consists of a network comprising the large cavities in the body trunk and the small interstitial spaces between the tissues and cells throughout the body. More than 2000 years later, and according to recent scientific reports in America, this network of structures has been recognized by modern medicine. The two theories, TCM's san jiao and its system of spaces(腠còu), and the recent scientific discovery of an interstitial network in the human body, are quite similar in structure, distribution and function.