The Lungs in Chinese Medicine

In Chinese medicine the Lungs govern qi and breathing and rule the body's outer defenses. They're paired with the Large Intestine, belong to the Metal element, and open into the nose. The classical texts call the Lung the delicate organ, because it sits highest in the body and opens directly onto the outside world, which makes it the first thing weather and season reach.

A quick note on plurals and on spelling. Chinese medicine usually treats the Lungs as one system and we capitalize Lung when we mean it. The overlap with the anatomical lungs is closer than for most of the twelve, since both are about breathing. The Chinese medicine Lung also takes in the skin, the body hair, the sense of smell, the movement of fluids downward, and the layer of protective qi that sits at the body's surface. None of that appears in a Western respiratory textbook.

On this page: At a glance · What it does · The meridian · Common patterns · Herbs · Questions

At a glance

The Lung is the yin organ of the Metal element, paired with the Large Intestine. In the twelve channel cycle it comes first: the sequence begins at the Lung at 3 a.m. and runs through all twelve before returning.

What do the Lungs do?

They govern qi. Not just the qi of breathing. The Lung takes the air you breathe, combines it with what the Spleen makes out of food, and that combination becomes the qi the whole body runs on. Chinese medicine treats the Lung and the Spleen together as the two sources of everything the body builds after birth, which is why weakness in one is so often described alongside the other.

They disperse and descend. Two directions at once. Dispersing sends qi and fluids outward to the surface of the body, including the protective layer the texts call wei qi. Descending sends qi and fluids down to the Kidney and the Bladder. Most Lung patterns are described as a failure of one direction or the other. Qi that should go down and instead goes up is the traditional explanation for coughing.

They rule the exterior. Wei qi is the defensive layer at the body's surface, and the Lung is what puts it there and keeps it there. It controls the opening and closing of the pores, which is the classical link between the Lung, sweating and how easily weather gets to you.

They govern the skin and body hair. The condition of the skin is read as Lung information in this system, which is why respiratory and skin presentations are so often grouped together in the classical texts.

They open into the nose. Smell, the state of the nose and the throat above it.

They regulate the water passages. The Lung is described as the upper source of water, sending fluid downward through the body. When that fails, the traditional picture is puffiness in the upper body and face.

They house the po. The po is the corporeal soul, the bodily, instinctive side of a person, tied to sensation and to the physical. Grief is the Lung emotion and the texts describe it as settling in the chest.

The Lung meridian

The Lung meridian is a yin channel with 11 points, running from the upper chest to the tip of the thumb.

Like the Heart channel it begins internally. It starts in the middle jiao, around the stomach, descends first to connect with the Large Intestine, then turns back up past the upper opening of the stomach, crosses the diaphragm and enters the Lung. From the Lung it rises to the throat, then turns outward and downward to surface at LU1 (Zhōng Fǔ) in the outer upper chest, in the first intercostal space.

From there it runs down the front outer edge of the upper arm, in front of the Heart and Pericardium channels, through the crease of the elbow, down the thumb side of the forearm, past the bony bump at the wrist and over LU9 (Tài Yuān) where the pulse is taken, across the thenar eminence at the base of the thumb, and ends at LU11 (Shào Shāng) at the outer corner of the thumbnail. A branch leaves at LU7 above the wrist and crosses to the index finger to meet the Large Intestine channel, where the cycle continues.

The pathway explains the symptom map. Tightness in the upper chest, discomfort at the front of the shoulder, a sore throat, and tension along the thumb side of the forearm all sit on one channel. In Chinese medicine that isn't a coincidence. It's the same system reporting in from different points along its length.

That the channel starts near the stomach and touches the Large Intestine before it ever reaches the Lung is not an accident either. It's the structural version of the same point the texts make in words, that breathing and digestion are one system.

Where it falls in the organ clock

The Lung peaks between 3 and 5 a.m., which is where the twelve organ cycle starts. Waking consistently in that window is traditionally read as a Lung sign, and the classical association with grief is why the texts connect that particular hour with sadness.

Common Lung patterns

Chinese medicine works in patterns rather than diagnoses. A pattern is a practitioner's read on how a system is behaving overall. It isn't a medical diagnosis and it isn't something a product treats.

Four of the more commonly identified ones are below. There are others, including phlegm damp obstructing the Lung and phlegm heat in the Lung.

Lung qi deficiency is the pattern behind the whole defensive picture, and it's the section worth reading closely. When the Lung doesn't put enough qi at the surface, the classical description is a body whose doors don't close properly. Sweating without exertion and catching things easily are treated as the same problem seen from two angles, and both are traditionally read at the surface rather than in the chest.

The wind patterns are the classical model of what happens when something external gets in, and the split between the cold version and the heat version is the single most practical distinction in this part of Chinese medicine, because the traditional responses to them go in opposite directions. The distinguishing question in the texts is which is stronger, the chills or the fever.

On the Lung and the Large Intestine. The pairing looks arbitrary until you notice that both organs handle letting go, one of air and one of waste, and that both are described as needing to move downward. Chinese medicine treats chronic dryness in one as connected to dryness in the other, which is the reasoning behind formulas that address the chest and the bowel together.

Herbs traditionally associated with the Lungs

Chinese herbal medicine describes each herb as entering certain channels. The ones below are traditionally described as entering the Lung channel, grouped by their traditional action.

These are not recommendations for the patterns above. The sections are separate on purpose. Working out a pattern is a practitioner's job, and nothing here is meant to match a product to a symptom.

Traditionally used to strengthen the exterior

Traditionally used to settle phlegm and damp

Traditionally used to moisten

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Talk to a qualified Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner or your physician before starting any herbal regimen.

Questions people ask

Are the Chinese medicine Lungs the same as the anatomical lungs? More closely than most of the twelve, but still not the same. Both handle breathing. The Chinese medicine Lung also governs the skin and body hair, the sense of smell, the downward movement of fluids, and the protective layer of qi at the body's surface.

What is lung qi deficiency? It's the traditional description of a Lung that isn't producing or holding enough qi. The usual picture is a weak or quiet voice, getting short of breath on mild exertion, sweating without effort, tiredness, and picking up whatever is going around. It's a pattern, not a medical diagnosis, and a practitioner identifies it rather than a test.

What is wei qi? Wei qi is the defensive layer of qi at the surface of the body. Chinese medicine describes the Lung as producing it and spreading it outward, and as controlling the opening and closing of the pores. It's the traditional explanation for why some people feel weather more than others.

Where does the Lung meridian run? It begins internally near the stomach, connects downward with the Large Intestine, comes back up through the diaphragm into the Lung and the throat, then surfaces at LU1 in the upper outer chest. From there down the front outer arm, over the wrist at LU9 where the pulse is taken, to LU11 at the outer corner of the thumbnail. Eleven points total.

Which organ is paired with the Lungs? The Large Intestine. They're the yin and yang organs of the Metal element and share the same associations: autumn, white, dryness, the pungent flavor. Both are described as organs of letting go and both are supposed to move downward.

Why is grief the Lung emotion? Each organ is paired with an emotion, and the Lung takes grief and sadness, with the ability to let go as its balanced form. The texts describe grief as sitting in the chest and as consuming qi, which is the traditional explanation for why sustained sadness leaves people short of breath and tired.