Records of meridians and collaterals can be found in ancient times. It was first recorded in some writings, and then in the illustrations with development of social productivity. Nei Jing and Nan Jing, the earliest medicine book in China, has concrete description of routine of meridians and collaterals but with no diagrams. At Jin Dynasty, there was systematic description of meridians and collaterals and the acupoints to which the meridians were attached in Jia Yi Jing of Acupuncture; however, there were no diagrams in the book, either. Later on, in Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi, there were some drawings about the meridians and collaterals such as Chapter One of Fig.s of Twelve people, Part one of Mingtang Five-organs of Huangdi Twelve Meridians, Acupuncture Fig. by Bian Que and A Book of Acupuncture Fig.s. Nevertheless, all of the above four books were lost during the history. Most of the books with Figs. of meridians we can refer to today were written by the authors living in Song Dynasty.

Take Tongren Shuxue Zhen Jiu Tujing (Illustrated Manual of the Bronze Man Showing Acupuncture and Moxibustion Points) by Wang Weiyi for example, the author collected three meridian diagrams and twelve acupoint diagrams. Hua Boren of the Yuan Dynasty wrote the book Shisi Jing Fa Hui (Exposition of the Fourteen Meridians), explaining the distribution of meridians and points. This book drew out some meridians and collaterals connecting the internal organs by way of scenography. In Qing and Ming Dynasty, medical writers drew diagrams of meridians and acupoints on basis of Shisi Jing Fa Hui. The first whole-length Fig. adopted in my book is from Tongren Shuxue Zhen Jiu Tujing published in 1026; the second and the third are from Lei Jing Tu Yi (The Illustrated Appendix to the Systematized Classic) in 1624. The color diagram of The Fourteen Meridians is collected from Xin Zhen Jiu Xue( New Book of Acupuncture ) printed in 1954, which imitates Shisi Jing Fa Hui. The explanation of the diagrams adopts the original composition of Jing Mai of Nei Jing and the annotations by Wang Weiyi and Hua Boren. Nowadays, there are many mistakes about the Fig.s and narration in the book Shisi Jing Fa Hui in our eyes; however, it is the comparatively comprehensive one in history.