The Gallbladder channel takes the most eccentric course of the twelve. It begins at the outer corner of the eye, doubles back and forth across the side of the head several times before it has left the skull, then descends the side of the neck, trunk and leg to the fourth toe. With forty four points it is second only to the Bladder in length, and its zigzag on the temple is the single most distinctive shape in the whole channel atlas.
The organ it is named for occupies an odd position in the tradition's own taxonomy. The Gallbladder is counted among the six yang organs, which are described as hollow and as transporting rather than storing, and yet it stores bile, so the classical literature also counts it among the curious organs, a small class of items that fit neither category cleanly.
What the classics say about its function is not digestive at all. The Gallbladder is described as the official of decision and judgement, and the tradition attributes courage and the capacity to commit to a course of action to it. That association survives in ordinary Chinese, where the word for gallbladder does duty for nerve or daring in much the way English uses guts.
The Gallbladder pairs with the Liver in the Wood phase, and its horary period runs from eleven at night to one in the morning. The atlas reports the doctrine and asserts nothing about the organ.