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Alternate names: 天白 tiān bái, Celestial White; 天伯 tiān bó, Celestial Lord; 天臼 tiān jiù, Celestial Mortar; 天旧 tiān jiù, Old as the Heavens

Channel: BL, foot greater yáng (tài yáng) bladder channel

Modern location: An acupoint located on the superior aspect of the head, in a depression 4 cùn within the anterior hairline and 1.5 cùn lateral to the midline.

Classical location: One cùn and five fēn behind Light Guard (BL-6), one cùn and five fēn each side of Hundred Convergences on the governing vessel (GV-20). From The Golden Mirror of Medicine (医宗金鑑 yī zōng jīn jiàn)

Local anatomy: The anastomotic network of the superficial temporal artery and vein and the occipital artery and vein. The branch of the great occipital nerve.

Action: Dispels wind and resolves the exterior; frees and disinhibits the nose.

Modern indications: Headache; dizziness; nasal congestion; nosebleed; deep-source nasal congestion.

Classical indications: Nose sores; nasal polyps; hemilateral wind; deviated mouth; stiff nape; panting.

Needle stimulus: Needling: 0.2‒0.3 cùn transverse insertion. Moxa: 3 cones; pole 5‒15 min.

Point name meaning:

• 通 tōng: to free, unblock; to be freed, unblocked;
to connect, communicate
• 天 tiān: celestial, of the heavens; sky; Nature; heaven

The character 天 (tiān) can be considered as a reference to the vertex of the head, while the pictograph 通 (tōng) may be construed as indicating the network vessel that runs from BL-7 to Hundred Convergences (GV-20); hence the rendering Celestial Connection.

Rendered as Unblock Heaven, the name reflects this point’s function of clearing the nose. Heaven (天) here refers to the uppermost viscus, the lung, which opens at the nose. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.

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