懸厘 : Xuanli : Suspended Hair

Location Guides:

Meetings:

Meeting of Gall Bladder with Stomach, San Jiao and Large Intestine

Location:

In the temporal region, within the hairline, three quarters of the distance between Touwai St-8 and Qubin GB-7.

Needling:

Transverse insertion 0.5 - 1.5 cun in the direction of symptoms or to connect with other points.

Classical Needling:

"The Shaoyang usually has little Blood and much Qi" (Su Wen 素問 ch. 24) implying this channel should normally be needled.
"The foot Shaoyang is to be pierced 4 fen deep and remain inserted for five exhalations" (Ling Shu 靈樞 ch. 12).
"It is needled to a depth of three fen, (the needle) is retained for a duration of seven exhalations, and it is moxaed with three cones" (Huangfu Mi 皇甫謐, 3rd Century, Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing 針灸甲乙經).

TCM Actions:

Expels Wind and clears Heat
Activates the channel and alleviates pain

TCM Indications:

• One-sided headache, one-sided headache extending to the outer canthus, pain of the outer canthus, sneezing, tinnitus, swelling and redness of the skin of the face.
  
• Febrile disease with absence of sweating, agitation of the Heart with no desire to eat, heat in the middle jiao.

Neuroanatomy:

Superficial Innervation: Auriculo-temporal nerve from posterior division of mandibular branch of trigeminal nerve (CN V3)

Dermatome Segment: CN V3 mandibular branch of trigeminal

Martial Applications & Effects of Injury:

See Montaigue, Dim Mak Locations, Taijiworld.com for explanation of effects.

Major Combinations:

• Febrile disease with one-sided headache:
    Xuanli GB-6 with Jiuwei Ren-15
    (Sun Simiao, 孫思邈, 625: Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang, 備急千金要方, Essential Prescriptions Worth A Thousand Gold).

Notes:

懸 Xuan in the name of both this point and Xuanlu GB-5 contains the character for Heart and can also mean "anxious, unsettled, unresolved" with an implication of dangling precariously which the English translation of "suspended" does not transmit.

厘 Li also translates more accurately as a "measure, division" and originally derived from measures of land (literally 田, "field", and 土, "earth" with 厂 "a habitable dwelling on a cliff", so the overall implication of this point's name is that of awaiting a judgement regarding a share of habitable land.

The Su Wen Ch. 20, Discourse on the Three Sections and Nine Indicators, describes "the moving vessels on the two [sides of the] forehead" as the "The heaven [indicator] of the upper section... The heaven [indicator] serves to examine the qi at the corners of the head". Wang Bing's commentary says this means "The movement of the qi of the foot minor yang vessels [can be felt] there" suggesting it indicates the health of the Gallbladder channel (Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen, trans. Unschuld & Tessenow, 2011). The sides of the forehead indicate somewhere in the temporal region, but the fact that it is the "heaven of the upper section" implies it must be above the "man" indicator "in front of the ear", at Erheliao SJ-22 and so among the Shaoyang points of the upper temple.

Among the Gall Bladder points of the head, there appear to be some that indicate they are special points for influencing the Zangfu and Channels, similar to the Front or Back Shu points. The meeting with the San Jiao and indications for febrile diseases for this point would make it a suitable candidate for the head-Shu for the San Jiao. This point, with indications of Heat in the Middle Jiao agitating the Heart, loss of appetite, and swelling of the face, suggesting Damp along with the inference of earth and fields in its name would suggest this point is specifically indicated for issues of the Middle Jiao.

Reference Notes:

Basic information on location, needle depth, TCM actions, indications and combinations is taken from Deadman et al (2001): A Manual of Acupuncture with additional anatomical information researched by reference to Gray's Anatomy (38th Ed., 1995) unless otherwise referenced. Images were found on acupunctureschoolonline.com and can be traced back to Claudia Focks (2008) Atlas of Acupuncture originally. I cannot claim any credit or rights over them. Other sources should be quoted in the text.

For some of the more unusual terms I have created a glossary here