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Alternate names: 地冲 dì chōng, Earth Surge; 地冲 dì chōng, Earth Thoroughfare; 蹶心 jué xīn, Stumbling Heart; 阴谷 yīn gǔ, Yin Valley; 足少阴合 zú shào yīn hé, Foot Lesser Yin Union; 足少阴所出 zú shào yīn suǒ chū, ; 足下中央之脉 zú xià zhōng yāng zhī mài, Vessel in the Center of the Sole

Channel: KI, foot lesser yīn (shào yīn) kidney channel

Modern location: An acupoint located on the inferior aspect of the foot, on a line drawn along the length of the foot roughly midway between the big and little toes, slightly posterior to the ball of the foot (about one third of the distance from the base of the toes to the posterior aspect of the heel).

Classical location: In the depression in the heart of the sole, as felt when the leg is stretched, the foot bent and the toes curled. From The Golden Mirror of Medicine (医宗金鑑 yī zōng jīn jiàn)

Local anatomy: At the deep level, the plantar arch. The 2nd common plantar digital nerve.

Action: Supplements they kidney and regulates stool; calms the liver and extinguishes wind; rouses the brain.

Modern indications: Headache; clouded head; insomnia; dizzy vision; painful swollen throat; loss of voice; constipation; inhibited urination; child fright wind; mania and withdrawal; clouding reversal.

Classical indications: Black facial complexion; susceptibility to fear; forgetfulness; irascibility; throat impediment (hóu bì); swollen pharynx; dry tongue; nosebleed; cough and shortness of breath; water swelling; mounting qì (shàn qì, inguinal hernia); impotence; running piglet (bēn tún); heat in the heart of the soles; pain in the toes; lumbar pain; heart vexation; no pleasure in eating; cough and shortness of breath; cold stretching from the sole of the foot to the knee; female infertility; withdrawal disease; leg qì (jiǎo qì, beriberi) swelling; women's diseases; wind papules; child fright wind.

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

Needle sensation: Localized pain and distension.

Point groups: Well (jǐng) (wood) point; one of the nine needles for returning yáng.

Point name meaning:

• 涌 yǒng: to gush, well up, surge
• 泉 quán: spring (source of water); name of an ancient coin

The sole of the foot is the lowest part of the body, analogous to the earth in Chinese cosmology. A place where water gushes forth from the earth is, obviously, a spring. Because KI-1 is located at this earth position, and because it is the beginning point of the water (kidney) channel, it is the gushing spring of the body.

KI-1 is the well (jǐng) point of the kidney channel. The qì at the well (jǐng) points is said to come forth, and anyone who has felt the needle sensation at this point will understand the use of the word gushing. The origin of the kidney channel is thus fittingly called the Gushing Spring.

The alternate name Earth Surge is explained by combining the explanations above. In the alternate name Yīn Valley, yīn refers to both the shao yīn kidney channel and the bottom of the foot, while valley is a reference to the depression in which the point is found. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.

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