New Standards for Measurement in Meridians & Acupoints by Taking the Size of Normal Male Legs

摘要

Objective Standard of measurement in Korean Medicine has been changed in dynasty and location. Thus, cun (寸) and chi (尺) as unit of measurement for meridians and acupoints could be recognized as the length of equally divided portions of a certain long bone or the distance between two anatomical landmarks and as an symbolical meaning to date. The goal of this study is to propose a new standard measurement in the metric system for the relative measurement of cun and chi as unit of measurement for meridians and acupoints in normal male legs. Methods This study was conducted by gauging each parts of normal male legs in the metric system and comparing to the relative measurement of cun and chi as follows; to calculate 1 cun, the length of each parts was divided into the unit of cun referred to Measurement of the Bone in Neijing Lingshu (靈樞·骨度篇); it was compared the unit of cun referred to Measurement of the Bone in Neijing Lingshu with cun which was calculated by dividing subject's height into 75 cun, respectively. Result : There has no significant difference in length of 1 cun among each leg's areas based on a standard of subject's height. The unit of cun by the metric length in the legs was similar to the unit of cun referred to Measurement of the Bone in Neijing Lingshu based on each subject's height. Conclusion It is suggested that an unit of cun as the measurement for meridians and acupoints in the male legs should be considered to the ranges from 2.4㎝ to 2.6㎝.