Just my point: LU 9

Peter Firebrace

BAcC Fellow: Denmark

I don’t know a better point to help a patient cry than LU 9 tai yuan. It seems somehow able to open up a path to a deep pool of unresolved sadness and allow that sadness to be expressed. That is a fantastic quality. Those tears can save many wasted years and even save a life.

LU 9 is a point to remember where grief is the central aspect of the case, whether that is long buried or recent, whether from loss of a loved one through separation or death, whether from loss of personal identity through being fired or resigning from work, whether from loss of a home or from financial instability, whether from the spectre of abuse that has haunted and blighted a life. Grief has many causes and many faces, some known and acknowledged, some hidden and locked away. LU 9 gives breath to the breathless, restores qi in those tired, weakened and exhausted, empowers the disempowered. I think in restoring the proper functioning of the lungs, it restores the functioning of the po 魄that are responsible for the automatic, homeostatic, regulatory functioning of the body, seen primarily in deep and uninterrupted breathing, a regular heartbeat and a harmonious digestive system.

LU 9 works effectively on both heart and lungs. It tonifies the lung qi, frees the lung from oppression and helps the qi to circulate, which helps the blood to move again, thereby refreshing the heart and allowing a reconnection to the brightness and positivity of the shen 神 spirit. Its title of hui 會 reunion point of the mai 脈 vessels points to its power to invigorate circulation and get things moving again. As such it is a point for all circulatory disorders, cold hands, cold feet, varicose veins. It is useful particularly in xu 虛deficient conditions, therefore where there is ongoing weakness and tiredness. It is definitely a point to use for those who do not recover well from respiratory disorders, including influenza or Covid-19, for example with BL 43 gao huang shu 膏 肓 兪, Sun Simiao’s deepacting pick-me-up point in exhaustion.

The traditional view of the lungs was that, as the prime minister beside the sovereign power of the heart, it receives the one hundred mai 脈 vessels in morning audience, both gathering and regulating them. We remember here the lungs as the first meridian in the 12-fold cycle, active at the start of the day, 3 to 5 am, a time when the qi is pure and fresh. I remember once, nearly 40 years ago now, getting up very early in Xian to go and watch people do their qigong exercises. I arrived just before 5 am, in time to see most people, including some particularly sprightly elderly practitioners with swords, packing up and leaving. Initially disappointed, it made me realise the importance they attached to precise timekeeping as I trudged back to my hotel, a little chastened, a would-be surfer who’d missed the wave.

LU 9 is in an interesting and important location at the wrist. The area on the radial artery at the cun 寸 inch position, just beside where Lu 9 is located, is known as qi kou 氣 口, the mouth of the qi. It is here that the qi ‘speaks’ through the pulse where the mai 脈 vessels come to the surface from the depths of the body, allowing the qi to be accessed and assessed in the subtle art of pulse diagnosis. Lu 9 itself gives a link to these depths. The wrist is encircled here by a bracelet of six powerful points, the three yin heavyweight yuan 原source points LU 9 tai yuan 太 淵Great Abyss, P 7 da ling 大 陵Big Mound and HT 7 shen men 神 門Spirit Gate and the three yang points of TH 4 yang chi 陽 池 Yang Pool, LI 5 yang xi 陽 溪 Yang Stream and SI 5 yang gu 陽 谷Yang Valley. The yang trio are key local points for the strength and flexibility of the wrists, while the three yin points are very effective in emotional disturbance. I often combine LU 9 on one side with P 7 on the other in those going through the difficulties of separation or divorce.

LU 9’s name tai yuan 太 淵is rich in meaning and helpful for us to understand the nature of the point. Tai 太 is great and is applied to many of the yin yuan 原source points, for example KID 3 tai xi 太 溪Great Stream, LIV 3 tai chong 太 衝Great Rushing and SP 3 tai bai 太 白Great White. These are all important deep-acting points. Yuan 淵 shows three drops of water on the left side, indicating the presence of fluids, important for the lung as upper source of water in the body and for the essential nourishment of lung yin. Note that we find further water images in LU 2 yun men 雲 門Cloud Gate, LU 5 chi ze 尺 澤Cubit Marsh and LU 8 經 渠jing qu Meridian Gutter. The lungs cannot function without being properly hydrated. The right side of yuan 淵 shows water swirling between two steep banks.

In Hokusai’s woodblock print, three men prepare a picnic while the Amida waterfall plunges into the abyss below

The meaning of yuan 淵 is an abyss or a whirlpool. The philosopher Guanzi says that yuan 淵, the abyss, is one of the five forms of water on earth and that it never dries up. It is impenetrable, unfathomable, and the precious pearl of knowledge is hidden at the bottom. For the alchemist Ge Hong writing in the Baopuzi, tai yuan 太 淵is the abyss of the north, the hidden origin of life. Daoist texts used tai yuan 太 淵 to express the ascent to the sources of life. ‘To drink at the great abyss, tai yuan 太 淵’ is to swallow the saliva again, to recuperate the refined and essence-laden body fluids in order to regenerate and restore one’s authentic nature. All of these uses of the term tai yuan 太 淵 indicate its profoundly regenerative qualities, something it is important to understand, especially when for us the name Great Abyss may evoke only feelings of danger and uncertainty.

LU 9 is the yuan 原source point and the character yuan 淵abyss can be used for yuan 元 source. As a source point it is used when the organ of the lungs is diseased (Lingshu chapter 1). It is the tu 土 earth point and therefore the tonification point, a quality helpful in exhaustion and tiredness, for which it is excellent. Interestingly the fourth century acupuncture points text the Jiayijing lists it as a water point, rather than earth. This is taken to be a scribe’s error, but with all the links with water that we have seen above, it is an interesting one! LU 9 is also called tai quan 太 泉Great Spring, again emphasising its refreshing, restorative, fluid-filled quality. Finally it is also called gui xin鬼 心 Demons or Ghosts in the Heart (in common with P 7 and LU 11). Although not one of Sunsimiao’s 13 gui 鬼 ghost points, LU 9 can also be used for those haunting states of mental and emotional instability, such as a potent mix of deep sadness, fear and fury. Profoundly revitalising to both body and mind, this point heals on several levels, reaching into the depths to restore health.