These channels include the arterio-vascular system, the lymphatic system and the nervous system familiar to modern medicine, but at the same time neither is it entirely equivalent to these systems. It is a type of insight into the workings of the human body that transcends modern anatomical knowledge, a kind of sublime wisdom of the ancients.
中醫的經絡學說，近世以來在西洋醫界造成莫大震撼，研究報告指出，經絡路線包涵現代醫學的血管、淋巴、神經系統，但又不等於這些系統，那是一種超越現代解剖學的形而上的人體認識，一種不可思議的智慧。