Just my point: LIV 13

Peter Firebrace

BAcC Fellow: Denmark

LIV 13 is zhang men 章 門. Men 門is a gate. As in many points, such as DU 4 ming men Gate of Destiny or HT 7 shen men, Spirit Gate, it is a place of privileged access that can be opened to release and liberate or closed to protect and nurture.

Zhang 章 has multiple meanings and the main ones are discussed here. The character is made up of yin音, a sound or musical note above and shi 十, the number ten indicating perfection below, giving the idea of the perfect emission of a sound or note. Zhang 章 then is a complete and well-ordered whole, something beautiful, elegant and clearly expressed, such as a chapter in a book, a stanza in a poem or a piece of music.

Zhang is also 樟 camphor wood, a valuable timber, a perfect blending of wood and earth. Zhang 章 is also a 19-year (Metonic) cycle, a period of 235 months, after which the sun and moon return to the same relative places. The cycle of the 12 meridians that starts with the lung – and some sources say with LU 2 yun men 雲 門Cloud Gate – ends fittingly with the two gates of LIV 13 zhang men 章 門Completion Gate and LIV 14 qi men 期 門Cycle Gate, before the meridian cycle seamlessly starts another yin yang rollercoaster round.

Located on the border of the middle and lower heaters, its primary places of action, and on the sides of the body, where the liver and gall bladder meridians meet, LIV 13 zhang men is a very woody point. Its position as start of the dai mai, the belt vessel, reinforces the link with the lower abdomen. As mu 募collecting point of the spleen it is the archetypal point for liver-spleen or more broadly woodearth disharmonies; particularly wood invading earth from an unruly liver or too weak a spleen, or both, giving poor digestion, bloating, abdominal gurgling and pain, watery diarrhoea with undigested food and vomiting.

Restoring free flow to the liver and so enhancing the stability of the spleen, LIV 13 is also the hui meeting point of the five zang, a wonderful point to support all five zang, not only the liver and spleen, but also the kidneys, heart and lung, making it a point with great reach and depth. We see here the central importance of the all-nourishing earth. Cf REN 12 zhong wan 中 腕Central Cavity, the mu 募 collecting point of the stomach, which is also the hui 會meeting point of the fu organs. In just these two points, LIV 13 and REN 12, through their connections to the earth organs of spleen and stomach, we affect all the zang fu organs.

LIV 13 zhang men is my go-to point for chuntering resentment, where the anger is unexpressed, simmering below the surface and taking up a lot of space in ever-circling negative thoughts, undercutting the gall bladder’s breakthrough power, stagnating liver qi and even liver blood and weakening the transformative actions of the spleen. This is the dangerous background mental/emotional state for the classic symptom of this point, jia ju 瘕 聚, accumulations and knots, various growths, masses and hard swellings, often in the abdominal area or the breast. LIV 13 is an important point to transform accumulations and blockages hua ji zhi 化 積 滯 and to reorder the qi and disperse knots li qi san jie 理 氣 散 結.

The Jiayijing text talks of shi shui 石 水, stone and water, a swollen abdomen with hard masses, combining LIV 13 with KID 2 ran gu. Sun Simiao adds ST 30 qI chong and KID 14 si man. Such a frustrated and resentful state necessarily also upsets the serenity of the heart, restricts the even rhythm of respiration in the lungs and drains and exhausts the kidneys. Free flowing the liver qi with LIV 13 releases and supports the spleen, re-establishing the stable centre of earth that nourishes and connects all the zang. Interestingly the Zhenjiu Dacheng text talks of fear rather than anger, while Sun Simiao takes it one step further into the rage and fury of madness, indicating the wideranging emotions covered by this point.

For those with a knowledge of homeopathic remedies, LIV 13 seems to be an interesting blend of the frustrated liverishness of Staphysagria and the put-upon exhaustion of Sepia. I consider it in some ways as a bigger, beefier version of LIV 3 tai chong 太 衝 Great Rushing, which also involves a wood-earth relationship and which I

sometimes combine it with to increase the effect. I often use LIV 13 with P 6 nei guan 內 關 Inner Pass to calm and stabilise. This calm stability breaks the endless negative cycle of resentment and can be used to stand apart, readdress the situation and act more appropriately, which may well include an expression of the held-in anger, in time releasing everyone involved. I sometimes combine LIV 13 with P 5 jian shi 間 使 Intermediary Messenger, where there is more confusion and mental instability, using its ability to resolve phlegm, clarifying and restoring the connection to the heart.

LIV 13 is a deep-acting and powerful point with multiple uses of which only the main ones have been covered here. Its impressive use in blocked emotions can overshadow other uses. One such probably stems from its link as a point of the dai mai, which is itself rooted in the DU 4 ming men area of the lower back. From the earliest times LIV 13 was mentioned as a point for pain, stiffness and rigidity of the lumbar area, with a kind of chronic fatigue. Sun Simiao specifies this is especially in men, with coldness of the area and adds there is disturbed urination with white, cloudy urine.

In such a point, with its meticulous recording over hundreds, even thousands of years, we see the strength of Chinese medicine, always adding knowledge to knowledge, experience to experience, building and expanding to create something beautiful, wellordered and elegant, zhang 章 , a completionfulfilment of understanding to help hundreds of thousands of people back to health.