How many acupuncture meridians in Chinese medicine

Condition analysis:
Chinese medicine suggests that good health requires a balance of forces in the body. Illnesses, pain and discomfort arise when the flow is blocked. The primary therapeutic intent of traditional acupuncture is to remove these blockages and restore the proper balance.

The acupuncturist inserts hair thin needles into the skin at acupuncture points distributed along meridians, or channels, along which the Qi flows. Points used may be local or distal to the site of the complaint.

WHO Standard International Acupuncture Nomenclature
The 14 Main Meridians: lung meridian (LU), large intestine meridian (LI), stomach meridian (ST), spleen meridian (SP), heart meridian (HT), small intestine meridian (SI), bladder meridian (BL), kidney meridian (KI), pericardium meridian (PC), triple energizer meridian (TE), gallbladder meridian (GB), liver meridian (LR), governor vessel (GV), conception vessel (CV)

Instructions:
The Small Intestine Channel Pathway, Acupuncture Points, and Internal Trajectories

This channel starts on the other corner of the little fingernail from the heart channel and follows the edge of the hand to the wrist, where it turns slightly to flow up the forearm, close to the outer edge of the (ulna) bone.  Passing the elbow at the "funny bone", it continues up the back of the arm, behind the shoulder joint.  It then curves across the shoulder blade to connect with the governing vessel at GV-14 as do all yang channels.  It crosses forward to the hollow above the collarbone where the internal branch penetrates, first to the heart, then along the esophagus to the stomach, before connecting with its own organ, the small intestine.  From the collarbone region the superficial path continues up behind the muscle on the side of the neck (sterno-cleido-mastoid), then over the cheek to the ear.  Two internal branches separate on the cheek.  They lead to the gallbladder channel on the outer corner of the eye, and to the bladder channel at BL-1 on the inner corner.