前谷 : Qiangu : Front Valley

Classifications:

Ying-Spring and Water point
Father point of the Small Intestine channel

One of the "59 piercings" for clearing Heat in Ling Shu Ch. 23

Location:

On the ulnar border of the little finger, in a depression just distal to the metacarpo-phalangeal joint.

Needling:

Oblique distal insertion 0.2 - 0.3 cun, or perpendicular-oblique insertion towards the palm, 0.5 cun

Classical Needling:

"The Taiyang usually has much Blood and little Qi" (Su Wen 素問 ch. 24) implying this channel should normally be bled.
"The hand Yin and Yang receive their Qi via nearby paths so their Qi arrive swiftly. The depth of piercing must not exceed 2 fen and must not remain inserted for longer than one exhalation" (Ling Shu 靈樞 ch. 12).
"It is needled to a depth of one fen, (the needle) is retained for a duration of three 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:

Clears Wind-heat and reduces swelling
Benefits the eyes, ears and throat
Activates the channel and alleviates pain

TCM Indications:

• Mumps, swelling and pain of the neck, swelling of the cheek radiating to the ear, Throat Painful Obstruction (喉痹, Hou Bi), pain of the throat that prevents swallowing.
  
• Superficial Visual Obstruction, eye pain with lacrimation, bursting eye pain, red eyes, congested nose, nosebleed, tinnitus.
  
• Cough with fullness of the chest, coughing blood, febrile disease with absence of sweating, Malarial (瘧, Nue) Disorders, thirst, difficult urination with dark urine, epilepsy, post-partum absence of lactation.
  
• Stiffness and pain of the neck and back, pain of the scapula, pain and inability to raise the arm, wrist pain, heat of the palms, hear and pain of the little finger, itching and numbness of the fingers.

I Ching Hexagram:

䷿ Wei Ji 未濟 Before Crossed

Shared with Shaohai He-3 and balanced by ䷾ (Rangu Kid-2 or Kunlun Bl-60).

Hexagram attributions are my own with an explanation given in the glossary.

Neuroanatomy:

Superficial Innervation: Ulnar nerve (digital branch) from C8 and T1

Dermatome Segment: C8

Martial Applications & Effects of Injury:

More of a lock controlling point in a little finger lock causing extreme pain, but striking here can theoretically cause Heat to rise in the body causing Warm Diseases such as Heart problems, sores on the lips and tongue and general ill health (Montaigue, Dim Mak Locations, Taijiworld.com).

Major Combinations:

• Swelling of the throat with inability to swallow:
    Qiangu SI-2 with Zhaohai Kid-6 and Zhongfeng Liv-4
    (Sun Simiao, 孫思邈, 625: Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang, 備急千金要方, Essential Prescriptions Worth A Thousand Gold).
  
  
• Tired throat, swelling of the neck with inability to turn the head, swelling of the cheek that radiates into the ear:
    Qiangu SI-2 with Wangu GB-12 and Tianyou SJ-16
    (Sun Simiao, 孫思邈, 625: Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang, 備急千金要方, Essential Prescriptions Worth A Thousand Gold).
  
  
• Deafness:
    Qiangu SI-2 with Houxi SI-3 and Pianli LI-6
    (Wang Zhizhong, 王執中, 1220: Zhen Jiu Zi Sheng Jing, 針灸資生經, Classic of Supporting Life with Acupuncture and Moxibustion).
  
  
• Tinnitus:
    Qiangu SI-2 with Pianli LI-6, Yangxi LI-5, Shangyang LI-1, Luoque Bl-8 and Wangu SI-4
    (Wang Zhizhong, 王執中, 1220: Zhen Jiu Zi Sheng Jing, 針灸資生經, Classic of Supporting Life with Acupuncture and Moxibustion).
  
  
• Eye pain:
    Qiangu SI-2 with Yangxi LI-5, Erjian LI-2, Daling Pc-7, Sanjian LI-3, Shangxing Du-23
    (Yang Jizhou, 杨继洲, 1601: Zhen Jiu Da Cheng, 針灸大成, Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion).
  
  
• Superficial Visual Obstruction:
    Qiangu SI-2 with Jinggu Bl-64
    (Sun Simiao, 孫思邈, 625: Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang, 備急千金要方, Essential Prescriptions Worth A Thousand Gold).
  
  
• Nue (Malaria) with chills and fever:
    Qiangu SI-2 with Lieque Lu-7, Houxi SI-3 and Shaoze SI-1
    (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:

In five element acupuncture, as father point of the Small Intestine channel this can control excesses in the Small Intestine.

Ling Shu Ch. 19, on the Four Seasonal Qi, advises selecting the Jing-Well and Ying-Spring openings in winter, piercing deeply and retaining for a while. However, the character for "retain" 留 is a combination of 田 "a field," possibly referring to the idea of waiting for things to grow, and 卯 which is the 4^th Earthly Branch (Mao, Rabbit, ䷡, 5-7 am, Large Intestine) and said to derive from a Shang Dynasty glyph, originally referring to a blood sacrifice (a person or animal cut in half) before coming to mean bloodletting and "pouring out" (Smith, 2011). This might suggest it was actually referring to bleeding these points, and maybe even letting the points bleed for a time rather than retaining the needle.

Ling Shu Ch. 23, On Heat Diseases, gives a different list of points for the "59 Piercings" to Su Wen Ch. 61. They include three on the outer and three on the inner side of the hands which most likely includes this point.

In the Maoshan Daoist tradition, when the 12 earthly branches, I Ching trigrams and elements are mapped onto the hand this section of the finger equates to the branch 戌 Xu and the element of Earth with no Trigram association. The middle segment of the little finger relates to the branch 酉 You and the element of Metal with no Trigram association (Read, 2020, FB Post; 17QQ.com, 2020, Eight trigrams and twelve Branches of the earth palm).

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