The Chinese Body Clock
An interactive map of the 24-hour TCM organ clock (子午流注). In traditional Chinese medicine theory, qi is believed to move through the twelve primary meridians in a two-hour cycle. Click any segment to explore.
The highlighted segment shows the current local time window. Colors group the twelve organs by their traditional yin/yang pairing.
Select a time segment
Click any slice of the clock to see what the classical tradition says about that two-hour window.
How to read the clock
Each two-hour window corresponds to one of the twelve primary meridians in the classical doctrine of zi wu liu zhu (子午流注, "the flow of qi through the meridians at fixed hours"), first systematized in the Song dynasty and rooted in the Huangdi Neijing (黃帝內經, Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, c. 2nd century BCE). For example, 7–9 a.m. belongs to the Stomach meridian — which is why traditional dietary advice often favors a substantial breakfast in that window — while 11 p.m.–1 a.m. belongs to the Gallbladder, and the tradition recommends being asleep before it begins.
This cycle is a traditional framework for thinking about daily rhythm. It is a cultural and historical model, not a medical schedule.