Meridian-based frameworks
How the atlas describes meridian frameworks: as frameworks, in their own vocabulary, neither endorsed nor debunked — the framework note ratified at History Plate IV.
The techniques in this family describe their work in the channel vocabulary of East and Southeast Asian medicine: meridians, points, energy, balance. An honest reference has exactly one job here — to record that vocabulary accurately, as the framework’s own account, without converting it into biomedical claims and without sneering at it.
So the rule, set at History Plate IV and applied verbatim on every member record: framework descriptions are typed TRADITION / LINEAGE in the claim register. “Shiatsu styles describe pressure along channels” is a documented fact about what practitioners say and teach; “pressure along channels rebalances energy” would be an efficacy claim this atlas does not make in either direction. The records stay on the first side of that line.
The family is genuinely a family: anma is the Edo-period Japanese organization of Chinese anmo; shiatsu emerges from anma in the early 20th century; tui na is the same classical root institutionalized inside modern TCM. Thai massage is cross-listed — its sen-line vocabulary is meridian-shaped, but its lineage runs through Thai tradition and the Wat Pho record, and its origin narratives carry low source confidence, which its record states in the lineage line itself.
Every member carries the SPECIAL TRAINING flag: the profession treats each of these as requiring instruction beyond entry-level scope, through separate credential systems or substantial post-graduate study. Named programs are not listed here; training listings live on the Education wing and arrive only through an UNDER REVIEW door until vetting rules for traditional trainings are set.