The Heart, East and West

The Heart in Chinese medicine

Among the five zang organs the Heart comes first. The Inner Classic compares it to the ruler of the body, the source of clear spirit and insight.

The Heart holds the office of sovereign, from which the light of the spirit emerges.Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, Plain Questions (Suwen), chapter 8, Linglan Midian Lun

Governing blood and vessels

Heart qi drives blood through the vessels to nourish the whole body. When Heart qi is ample the pulse is even and strong. When it is weak the pulse turns thin, faint or irregular. This is why pulse reading holds such a central place in Chinese diagnosis.

Housing the spirit

The spirit covers the whole of mental life, consciousness, thought, memory and sleep. Classical Chinese medicine places it in the Heart. With enough Heart blood the mind is clear and sleep is sound. Without it come forgetfulness, palpitations and shallow sleep.

Tongue and complexion

Chinese medicine calls the tongue the sprout of the Heart. Its color, its suppleness and the clarity of speech are all read as signs of the Heart. The face is rich in blood vessels, so a rosy or pale complexion also mirrors Heart blood.

Emotion and fluid

The emotion of the Heart is joy. Moderate joy relaxes qi and blood, while excessive joy scatters the spirit and harms the Heart. Its fluid is sweat, which Chinese medicine sees as sharing a source with blood.

The Pericardium as a shield

Around the Heart lies the Pericardium. In Chinese medicine the Heart, as ruler, does not receive pathogens directly. The Pericardium takes them in its place.

The heart in anatomy

The heart is a hollow muscle in the chest, between the lungs and slightly to the left. It has four chambers, two atria above and two ventricles below, and four valves, the tricuspid, mitral, pulmonary and aortic, which keep blood moving one way.

The right side takes oxygen-poor blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs. The left side takes oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to the whole body. The heart muscle itself is fed by the coronary arteries.

What the heart does every day

• Beats steadily, usually 60 to 100 times a minute at rest in adults.
• Sets its own rhythm through the sinoatrial node, a small cluster of tissue in the right atrium that acts as a pacemaker.
• Pumps blood through the lungs to pick up oxygen and through the body to supply the tissues.
• Releases a hormone from the atria that helps the kidneys shed salt and water, which helps regulate blood pressure.

Common heart conditions include coronary artery disease, heart failure, arrhythmia and valve disease. They are named here for reference only. Diagnosis and treatment belong to doctors.

Comparing the two

The Heart is the clearest case of one word carrying two meanings. The blood and vessel side matches the anatomical heart almost completely. The spirit side was placed in the Heart by classical Chinese medicine and is placed in the brain by modern medicine. Some later Chinese physicians also moved the spirit to the brain, a debate covered on the Brain page. English keeps a trace of the old view too, as when we speak of learning something by heart.

The Heart in the Five Elements

Wood generates Fire. The Liver, of Wood, stores blood and supplies it to the Heart, of Fire.

Fire generates Earth. The Heart is the mother of the Spleen. Heart yang warms the Spleen so it can transform food, and the Spleen in turn produces the blood that feeds the Heart, so the two are often considered together.

Fire controls Metal. The Heart restrains the Lung. When Heart fire is excessive it overacts on the Lung and scorches it.

Water controls Fire. The Kidney, of Water, restrains the Heart. When Water rises too far it overacts on the Heart, a pattern Chinese medicine calls water qi assailing the Heart. When Heart fire is too strong it insults Water in return.

Heart and Kidney in communication

The Heart sits above as Fire and the Kidney below as Water. Heart fire should descend to warm the Kidney and Kidney water should rise to cool the Heart. When the two meet, this is called Heart and Kidney in communication, or Water and Fire in balance, a name borrowed from the Book of Changes hexagram After Completion, with Water above and Fire below. When they drift apart, Chinese medicine speaks of a Heart and Kidney disconnect, often seen with insomnia and palpitations.

The Heart meridian and the Wu hour

The Heart meridian of Hand Shaoyin has 9 points. It starts inside the Heart, surfaces at Jiquan (HT1) in the center of the armpit, runs down the inner edge of the front of the arm and forearm, passes Shenmen (HT7) at the wrist crease and ends at Shaochong (HT9) at the corner of the little fingernail. From there qi passes to the Small Intestine meridian on the same finger.

Its peak is the Wu hour, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at midday when the yang of the day is at its height. It takes over from the Spleen meridian in the Si hour and hands on to the Small Intestine meridian in the Wei hour.

Feng shui links

Fire corresponds to the Li trigram in the South. The Discussion of the Trigrams assigns Li to the eyes. Li has one yin line between two yang lines, bright outside and empty within.

In Flying Star feng shui the Fire star is 9 Nine Purple, linked in classical texts to the eyes, the heart and blood. The stars 1 One White, of Water, and 9 Nine Purple, of Fire, form the Kan and Li pair, the same Water and Fire pairing as Kidney and Heart. Flying Star practice reads this pair sometimes as balance and sometimes as conflict, depending on the period and the house, so it is never read one way only.

This is classical knowledge for study, not diagnosis.

Feng shui compass

Destiny reading links

In Four Pillars the Ding stem corresponds to the Heart and Bing to the Small Intestine. Ding is yin Fire and goes with a zang organ, Bing is yang Fire and goes with a fu organ.

For health, the reader checks whether Fire in the chart is excessive, deficient or heavily controlled by Water before turning to the Heart, circulation and sleep.

In Zi Wei Dou Shu health is read in the Health Palace, from both its stars and its element.

Four Pillars chartZi Wei chart

Channel and related pages

The Heart meridian (HT) has 9 points on each side and peaks at the Wu hour. It begins in the Heart, emerges into the vessels around the heart, descends through the diaphragm to connect with the Small Intestine. A branch rises beside the throat to the eye. The main line goes from the heart to the Lung, emerges in the armpit at Jiquan, runs down the inner back of the arm, passes the elbow at Shaohai, follows the ulnar edge of the forearm to the wrist at Shenmen, enters the palm and ends at the tip of the little finger.

Show the channel on the modelChannel page: Heart meridian, Hand ShaoyinTongueVesselsFeng shui, Fire

Questions and answers

Other organ systems

Back to the Body and Five Elements Atlas

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Sources

1. Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, Plain Questions and Spiritual Pivot.
2. Book of Changes, Discussion of the Trigrams and the hexagram After Completion.
3. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, How the Heart Works. www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart/blood-flow
4. UCSF Health, How the Heart Works. www.ucsfhealth.org/education/how_the_heart_works
5. Mayo Clinic, Heart rate, What's normal. www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/heart-rate/faq-20057979
6. 3D model: Z-Anatomy (CC BY-SA 4.0), built on BodyParts3D, The Database Center for Life Science.

Compiled and reviewed by Master Ung Khiem

© 2026 Master Ung Khiem · UK MASTER CORP. The text of this library is protected by copyright. Reposting all or part of it without written permission is not allowed. Short quotations must credit the source and link back to the original page. The 3D model is from Z-Anatomy and BodyParts3D (The Database Center for Life Science) under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

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