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Alternate names: 肺募 fèi mù, Lung Alarm; 府中俞 fǔ zhōng shù, Treasury Center Transport; 膺俞 yīng shù, Breast Transport; 膺中俞 yīng zhōng shù, Breast Center Transport

Channel: LU, hand greater yīn (tài yīn) lung channel

Modern location: An acupoint located on the chest, at the level of the first intercostal space, inferior to the lateral extremity of the clavicle, 6 cùn lateral to the anterior midline (i.e., the controlling vessel).

Classical location: One cùn and six fēn below Cloud Gate (LU-2), above the breast in the third intercostal space, six body cùn lateral from Florid Canopy (CV-20), in a depression where a pulsating vessel can be felt. From The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (针灸大成 zhēn jiǔ dà chéng)

Local anatomy: Superolaterally, the axillary artery and vein, the thoracoacromial artery and vein. The intermediate supraclavicular nerve, the branches of the anterior thoracic nerve, and the lateral cutaneous branch of the 1st intercostal nerve.

Action: Clears and diffuses the upper burner and courses lung qì.

Modern indications: Cough; panting; distension and fullness in the chest; pain in the shoulder and back.

Needle stimulus: Needling: 0.3‒0.5 cùn perpendicular insertion. Moxa: 3‒5 cones; pole 5‒15 min.

Point groups: Alarm point (mù xué) of the lung; intersection point (jiāo huì xué) of the hand and foot greater yīn (tài yīn) channels (LU and SP).

Point name meaning:

• 中 zhōng: center, central, middle (also zhòng, to strike)
• 府 fǔ: house (as a residence or place where official business is conducted), especially collection house (a place where goods or money are collected) or dispatch house (a place incoming goods are dispatched to other places, the metaphor operant in the use of the term to denote six bowels, now written as 腑 fǔ).

This point is the intersection (jiāo huì) point of the lung and spleen channels, and its name reflects the lung’s relationship to the spleen and stomach as a treasury for center (i.e., spleen-stomach) qì. The Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (针灸甲乙经 zhēn jiǔ jiā yǐ jīng) asserts that central qì resides in the chest [i.e., the lung]. (中气舍于胸中 zhōng qì shè yú xiōng zhōng). This is traditionally explained as referring to the spleen’s function of extracting the essence of food in the digestive tract and sending it to the lung, where it is combined with celestial qì (air) to form channel qì, and to the fact that the lung channel originates in the stomach: two manifestations of earth (spleen) engendering metal (lung) in five-phase theory.

LU-1 is also the alarm (mù) point of the lung, alarm points being places where the qì of the associated organ gathers. Lung qì collects at this point just as taxes are collected at the central treasury. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.

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