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GV-10 Spirit Tower
灵台 〔靈台〕 líng tái
Channel: GV, governing (dū) vessel
Modern location: An acupoint located on the upper back, inferior to the spinous process of the sixth thoracic vertebra.
Classical location: Below the sixth vertebra. From
Local anatomy: The posterior branch of the sixth intercostal artery. The medial branch of the posterior ramus of the sixth thoracic nerve.
Action: Diffuses the lung and suppresses cough; frees the channels and quickens the network vessels.
Modern indications: Cough; panting; clove sores (dīng chuāng);
Classical indications: Wheezing and panting and enduring cough; spleen heat.
Needle stimulus: Needling: 0.3‒0.5 cùn sideways and upward oblique insertion. Moxa: 3‒5 cones; pole 10‒20 min.
Warning: Needling of this point is contraindicated in many texts.
Point name meaning:
Wen Wang, an emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, built a tower he called 灵台 (líng tái), the Spirit Tower, from which he could look out over all his territory. The term 灵台 has by extension come to mean the faculties of reason, or the mind. In Chinese thought the heart and mind are nearly synonymous, thus 灵台 is also representative of the heart. The Jìn Classic (晉經 by房玄齡 Fáng Xuánlíng) confirms this interpretation in a passage that states: Daoist texts consider the heart to be the Spirit Tower
(道经则以心为灵台). This point is located just below the Heart Transport (xīn shù) point; the heart stores the spirit. It is the association of this point with the heart that results in its name Spirit Tower. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.