In Chinese medicine the Pericardium is the layer that surrounds and protects the Heart. It is paired with the San Jiao, belongs to the Fire element, and the classical texts describe it as taking the hit so the Heart does not have to.
We capitalize Pericardium when we mean the Chinese medicine system and use lowercase for the anatomical sac around the heart. The overlap is loose. What Chinese medicine adds is a job rather than a structure. The Pericardium is the Heart's minister and its bodyguard, and when the texts say the Heart should not be attacked directly, this is the organ they mean instead.
You will also see this channel written as PC, P, or HP, and called the Heart Protector or the Heart Governor. They are all the same channel.
On this page. At a glance · What it does · The meridian · Common patterns · Herbs · Questions
At a glance
The Pericardium is a yin organ of the Fire element, paired with the San Jiao. In the twelve channel cycle it comes ninth, taking the two hours after the Kidney.
| Chinese name | 心包 (Xīn Bāo) |
| Element | Fire |
| Yin or yang | Yin (zang) |
| Paired organ | San Jiao (Sān Jiāo) |
| Season | Summer |
| Color | Red |
| Climate | Heat |
| Flavor | Bitter |
| Emotion | Joy, shared with the Heart. Out of balance, a guarded or closed quality. |
| Opens into | The tongue, shared with the Heart |
| Governs | Protecting the Heart |
| Qi moves | Inward and settling |
| Peak hours | 7 to 9 p.m. |
| Meridian | Hand Jueyin, 9 points (PC1 to PC9) |
What does the Pericardium do?
It protects the Heart. This is the whole of its classical job. The Heart is described as the Emperor, and the texts hold that anything reaching the Emperor directly is serious. The Pericardium is the outer wall. When a classical case describes heat or phlegm troubling the mind, the texts usually place it in the Pericardium rather than in the Heart itself.
It shares the Heart's work. Because it wraps the Heart, it is described as taking part in governing the blood and in housing the shen. In practice a great deal of what a practitioner does for the Heart is done through Pericardium points, which is part of why this channel is used far more often than its nine points would suggest.
It opens the chest. The channel runs straight down the middle of the inner arm and into the chest, and the classical descriptions of its points are mostly about loosening and settling that area.
The Pericardium meridian
The Pericardium channel is the shortest of the twelve at nine points, and it is one of the most used. It begins at PC1, in the chest just lateral to the nipple, then runs down the middle of the inner arm, exactly between the Lung channel on the thumb side and the Heart channel on the little finger side.
It passes PC6 about two finger widths above the wrist crease, crosses the wrist at PC7, runs through the centre of the palm at PC8, and ends at PC9 at the tip of the middle finger.
Where it falls in the organ clock
| Hours | Organ |
|---|---|
| 5 to 7 p.m. | Kidney |
| 7 to 9 p.m. | Pericardium |
| 9 to 11 p.m. | San Jiao |
The Pericardium hour sits in the early evening, which the traditional texts associate with settling and winding down.
Common Pericardium patterns
These are traditional pattern descriptions, not diagnoses. Working out a pattern is a practitioner's job.
| Pattern | Traditional signs |
|---|---|
| Heat troubling the Pericardium | Restlessness, agitation, a red tip on the tongue, a rapid pulse, disturbed sleep |
| Phlegm clouding the Pericardium | Muddled thinking, a heavy head, a thick greasy tongue coating, a feeling of being at a distance from things |
| Blood not moving in the chest | A fixed feeling of pressure in the chest, a dusky tongue, a choppy pulse |
Herbs traditionally associated with the Pericardium
Chinese herbal medicine describes each herb as entering certain channels. The ones below are traditionally described as entering the Pericardium channel.
These are not recommendations for the patterns above. The sections are separate on purpose, and nothing here is meant to match a product to a sign.
| Product | Traditional description |
|---|---|
| Red Sage or Salvia (Dan Shen Tang) | Enters Heart, Pericardium and Liver. One of the best known blood moving herbs in the materia medica and the clearest Pericardium herb in the catalog. |
| Dan Shen Pian | The tablet form of the same herb. |
The Pericardium has fewer herbs specific to it than any other organ, because most of what enters it also enters the Heart. The Heart page carries the fuller list and this page links across to it.
Questions people ask
Where does the Pericardium meridian run? It starts in the chest beside the nipple, runs down the centre of the inner arm between the Lung and Heart channels, past PC6 above the wrist, through the middle of the palm, and ends at the tip of the middle finger. Nine points, the fewest of any channel.
What is PC6? It is the point about two finger widths above the wrist crease on the inner forearm, also called Neiguan. It is among the most used points in Chinese medicine and is traditionally associated with the chest and the middle of the body.
Which organ is paired with the Pericardium? The San Jiao. They are the yin and yang organs of the second Fire pair.
Why does Chinese medicine have a Pericardium at all? Because the Heart is described as the Emperor and the texts hold that it should not be reached directly. The Pericardium is the layer that takes that on instead, so it exists as much for what it absorbs as for what it is.
Is the Pericardium a real organ? In Chinese medicine it is one of the twelve, with a channel, a set of functions and an hour on the clock. Whether it maps onto the sac around the heart in Western anatomy is a translation question rather than a Chinese medicine one.