Back to search result Search again Previous Next ↑

Alternate names: 绝阳 jué yáng, Yang Extremity

Channel: LI, hand yáng brightness (yáng míng) large intestine channel

Modern location: An acupoint located a little more than 1 fēn below the base of the nail on the radial side of the index finger.

Classical location: On the inside of the index finger, the width of a garlic chive leaf from the corner of the nail. From The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (针灸大成 zhēn jiǔ dà chéng)

Local anatomy: The arterial and venous network formed by the dorsal and digital arteries and veins. The palmar digital proprial nerve derived from the median nerve.

Action: Resolves the exterior and abates heat; clears the lung and disinhibits the throat; courses and discharges yáng brightness (yáng míng) evil heat; opens the orifices and revives the spirit.

Modern indications: Deafness; toothache; painful swollen throat; clear-eye blindness; swelling of the submandibular region; numbness and tingling of the fingers; febrile disease; clouding reversal (loss of consciousness).

Classical indications: Febrile disease with sweating; blindness; deafness and tinnitus; throat impediment (hóu bì) preventing speech; shoulder and back pain reaching into the clavicle; cold and heat malaria; qì fullness in the chest.

Needle stimulus: Needling: 0.1 cùn upward oblique insertion; bleed as for LU-11 (shào shāng). Moxa: 1‒3 cones; pole 5 min.

Point groups: Well (jǐng) (metal) point.

Point name meaning:

• 商 shāng: 5th note of Chinese musical scale; merchant, trade
• 阳 yáng: yáng, the complement of yīn

The character 商 shāng represents the sound associated with metal in five-phase theory. LI-1 is the metal point of the yáng metal channel; hence it is called Shāng Yáng. It is not entirely clear why the shāng sound is represented at LI-1 and LU-11 and not at other points of the metal channels. It may be because these two points are effective in treating disorders of the throat, the organ that produces the five sounds. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.

Back to search result Search again Previous Next