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The five viscera refer to the heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney. The six bowels are the small intestine, large intestine, gall bladder, urinary* bladder, stomach and triple energizers. Extraordinary organs are the brain, marrow*, bone, vessel, gallbladder and uterus (also called blood chamber*). They are called extraordinary because their morphological* and physiological properties* are different from the bowels and viscera. Body constituents are the sinews*, vessels, flesh*, skin and bones. And sense organs are the eyes, tongue, mouth, nose and ears. The pericardium* which is a viscus and triple energizers which is a bowel are not physical organs. Though the names in anatomy* of TCM organs are similar to those of Western human anatomy, there are a lot of differences physiologically. For example, the physical heart in TCM is the same as the physical heart in Western medicine but the functions of the heart in TCM not only include the functions of the heart itself but also include many functions of the brain of Western medicine. Though internal organs are deep inside the body, they have organic connections with the body surface and external organs, such as sense organs and their orifices; therefore their physiological functions and pathological changes reflect externally.

The physiological functions of five viscera are to generate and store essence and qi, but they do not discharge them. Six bowels are hollow organs and their functions are to receive, transport and discharge things, but they do not store essence and qi.

Except for marrow, the extraordinary organs store things. Brain and bone store marrow, vessels hold blood and gallbladder keeps bile, uterus can hold and nourish a fetus. The extraordinary organs do not form external and internal relations with any organs (except for gallbladder).