[The meanings of 'Zong Mai'].

'Zong Mai' firstly appeared in Ling Shu of Inner Cannon of the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di Nei Jing). Its meanings are complicated and controversial. This paper examined 'Zong Mai' in terms of semantics, critical interpretation of ancient texts and the theories of traditional Chinese medicine. The paper aims to clarify two things. One is that ZONG () is not similar to ZHONG () and ZONG () in meanings. Another is that 'Zong Mai' is different from 'the centralised focus' (). It was found that 'Zong Mai' does not refer to 'numerous meridians' but specifically stands for an important major meridian closely related to the San Jiao (formed by the aggregation of various meridians). This might provide an active guide for current clinical practice.