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Channel: TB, hand lesser yáng (shào yáng) triple burner channel

Modern location: An acupoint located on the lateral aspect of the neck, level with the angle of the mandible, on the posterior border of the sternocleidomastoid (scm) muscle.

Classical location: At the outer border of the major sinew of the neck, behind Celestial Countenance (SI-17) and in front of Celestial Pillar (BL-10), below the completion bone [i.e., the mastoid process]. From The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (针灸大成 zhēn jiǔ dà chéng)

Local anatomy: The posterior auricular artery. The lesser occipital nerve.

Action: Clears heat and drains fire; dispels wind and eliminates dampness; reduces swelling and relieves pain; frees the channels and quickens the network vessels.

Modern indications: Headache; eye pain; deafness; scrofula; stiff nape.

Classical indications: Scrofula; eye pain and tearing; sniveling nose with nosebleed; throat impediment (hóu bì); loss of smell; dreaming in deranged sequence; mammary welling-abscess (rǔ yōng); swelling of supraclavicular fossa; submandibular swelling.

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

Point name meaning:

• 天 tiān: celestial, of the heavens, sky; Nature; heaven
• 牖 yǒu: window; to enlighten, to teach

This point is located on the head, which is the anatomical parallel of cosmological heaven (天 tiān). The eyes and ears are known as the windows of the head. The location of this point, along with its employment for unblocking qì and opening the orifices (the eyes, ears and nose), accounts for the name Celestial Window. Note that TB-16 is located in a region with many other points that share the honorific celestial. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.

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