Ancestral sinew

1. The gathering point of the three yīn and three yáng channel sinews at the pubic region.

2. The penis. See slackness of the ancestral sinew.

Etymology

Chin 宗 zōng, ancestor; gathering, convergence; jīn, sinew. The notion of convergence appears to derive from the idea of lines of lineage converging on an ancestor. Whether in the second meaning the notion of ancestor highlights the reproductive significance of the penis is unclear; in the analogously composed terms ancestral vessel and ancestral qì, this notion is absent.