Back to search result Previous Next
Search in acupoints

PC-8 Palace of Toil

劳宫 〔勞宮〕 láo gōng

Alternate names: 鬼窟 guǐ kū, Ghost Cave; 鬼路 guǐ lù, Ghost Road; 五里 wǔ lǐ, Five Li; 营宫 yíng gōng, Provisioning Palace; 掌中 zhǎng zhōng, Center of the Palm

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

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

Classical location: At the pulsating vessel in the palm of the hand, located by bending the fourth finger. From The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (针灸大成 zhēn jiǔ dà chéng)

Local anatomy: The common palmar digital artery. The 2nd common palmar digital nerve of the median nerve.

Action: Clears heart fire; eliminates damp-heat; extinguishes wind and cools the blood; quiets the spirit and harmonizes the stomach.

Modern indications: Heart pain; retching and vomiting; mania and withdrawal; epilepsy; mouth sores; fetid mouth odor.

Classical indications: Wind stroke; irascibility; incessant joyfulness and laughing; apprehensiveness; vexation and thirst; inability to get food and drink down; nosebleed; bloody stool or urine; erosion of the gums in infants; smaller abdominal accumulations and concretions.

Needle stimulus: Needling: 0.3‒0.5 cùn perpendicular insertion. Moxa: 1‒3 cones; pole 5‒15 min.

Needle sensation: Distension or pain, and sometimes distension and numbness of the whole hand.

Point groups: Spring (yíng) (fire) point, one of the nine needles for returning yáng; one of the thirteen ghost point.

Point name meaning:

PC-8 is located in the center of the palm. The point may be named Palace of Toil in reference to its location on the hand, which is the actual Palace of Toil because of all the work that the hands do.

The word toil (劳 láo) in this point name recalls the task that the pericardium performs in protecting the heart. Palace (宫 gōng) may be taken as a reminder of the close relationship between the pericardium and the heart, the emperor (the heart) residing within the palace (the pericardium).

PC-8 is used in the treatment of taxation fatigue, lending meaning to its translation as Taxation Palace. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.

Back to search result Previous Next