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Alternate names: 兑骨 duì gǔ, Protuberant Bone

Channel: HT, hand lesser yīn (shào yīn) heart channel

Modern location: An acupoint located on the palm, between the fourth and fifth metacarpal bones, proximal to the metacarpophalangeal (mcp) joints.

Classical location: Behind the base joint of the little finger, in the gap between the bones, level with Palace of Toil (PC-8). From The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (针灸大成 zhēn jiǔ dà chéng)

Local anatomy: The common palmar digital artery and vein. The 4th common palmar digital nerve derived from the ulnar nerve.

Action: Quiets the heart and regulates the spirit.

Modern indications: Heart palpitation; chest pain; inhibited urination; enuresis; painful itchy genitals; hypertonicity of the fingers.

Classical indications: Genital itch; vexation and fullness; scantness of breath; sorrow, fear, and fearfulness of people.

Needle stimulus: Needling: 0.3‒0.5 cùn perpendicular insertion. Moxa: 3 cones; pole 5‒10 min.

Point groups: Spring (yíng) (fire) point.

Point name meaning:

• 少 shào: lesser, minor (also shǎo, few, little
• 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).

HT-8 is the fire point of the heart channel. The heart itself is associated with fire, so the fire point is its home or residence (府 fǔ). The character 少 (shào), meaning lesser, refers to the fact that this is the hand lesser yīn (shào yáng) channel.

Historically, 少府 (shào fǔ) was the title of an ancient Chinese official equivalent to a modern-day Secretary of Agriculture. The point name may thus refer to the heart’s responsibility of storing the spirit, just as the 少府 governed over the storage of grain. The 少府 was furthermore in charge of distributing produce among the people in much the same way that the heart commands the blood and thus distributes nourishment throughout the body. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.

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