Channel chart: daimai (Belt Vessel), Chinese woodcut

Woodcut illustration, showing the path of daimai (Belt Vessel), from Jingmai tu kao (Illustrated Study of the Channels), published in 1878 (4th year of the Guangxu period of the Qing dynasty). Daimai is one of the Eight Extraordinary Channels (qi jing ba mai). Originating at jixie (location corresponding to the cartilage of the 11th and 12th ribs), it encircles the body like a belt, hence its name. Pathological changes in this channel are thought to provoke sensations of fullness in the abdomen (fuman), back pain, etc.

Picture title: Chart showing the path of daimai (Belt Vessel) Other lettering: Foot shaoyin; foot taiyang. The diverging branch (bie) of foot shaoyin comes into confluence with taiyang and ascends to the kidney. Ascending to quezhong (Middle of the Watchtower, between the eyebrows), it goes to taiyang. It encircles the body. At the 14th vertebra it emerges as daimai (Belt Vessel).