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PC-1 Celestial Pool

天池 〔天池〕 tiān chí

Alternate names: 天会 tiān huì, Celestial Convergence

Channel: PC, hand reverting yīn (jué yīn) pericardium channel

Modern location: An acupoint located on the chest, 1 cùn lateral and slightly superior to the nipple, in the fourth intercostal space.

Classical location: Three cùn below the armpit, one or two cùn behind the nipple, between the protuberances of the ribs. From The Golden Mirror of Medicine (医宗金鑑 yī zōng jīn jiàn)

Local anatomy: The thoracoepigastric vein, branches of the lateral thoracic artery and vein. The muscular branch of the anterior thoracic nerve, the 4th intercostal nerve.

Action: Opens the chest and rectifies qì; suppresses cough and calms panting; diffuses the lung and clears heat.

Modern indications: Cough; panting; oppression in the chest; rib-side pain; scrofula; mammary welling-abscess (rǔ yōng).

Classical indications: Cough with copious phlegm; panting; saber and pearl-string lumps; malarial disease; headache; inability to move the limbs; throat rale.

Needle stimulus: Needling: 0.2 cùn outward oblique insertion; bleed with three-edged needle. Moxa: 1‒5 cones; pole 5‒19 min.

Point groups: Intersection point (jiāo huì xué) of the pericardium and gallbladder channels.

Point name meaning:

This point is located in a type of depression which is often labeled a pool because qì may collect there, just as water collects in low-lying areas to form pools. At the same time, it may also be considered as a mountain pool from which water flows to the sea, an image that reflects how qì flows down from PC-1 to PC-9. (PC-1 may well have been named after a mountain pool, since there are several in China named 天池 tiān chí) The honorific celestial is a reference to the point’s location high on the body or near the heart (which governs the body as heaven governs the earth).

It is interesting to note that the names for the first three points on the pericardium channel all relate to water, possibly in part because the channel originates in the often damp area of the armpit. Also, PC-1 is another point that shares its name with the name of a star. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.

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