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SP-3 Supreme White

太白 〔太白〕 tài bái

Alternate names: 足太阴所注 zú tài yīn suǒ zhù, ; 足太阴之俞 zú tài yīn zhī shù,

Channel: SP, foot greater yīn (tài yīn) spleen channel

Modern location: An acupoint located on the medial aspect of the foot, proximal to the head and inferior to the shaft of the first metatarsal bone.

Classical location: Back along the inside of the toe from Great Metropolis (SP-2), in the depression under the ball bone. From The Golden Mirror of Medicine (医宗金鑑 yī zōng jīn jiàn)

Local anatomy: The dorsal venous network of the foot, the medial plantar artery and branches of the medial tarsal artery. Branches of the saphenous nerve and superficial peroneal nerve.

Action: Supplements spleen-earth; harmonizes the central burner; regulates qì dynamic; helps movement and transformation.

Modern indications: Stomach pain; abdominal distension; rumbling intestines; diarrhea; constipation; hemorrhoids; leg qì (jiǎo qì, beriberi); generalized heaviness and joint pain.

Classical indications: Febrile disease starting with pain in the head and face; fullness and oppression preventing the patient from assuming a reclining posture; nontransformation of food (undigested food in the stool); distension in the chest and rib-side; rumbling intestines and stabbing pain; pain the stomach and region of the heart; retching and vomiting; sudden turmoil (cholera) with counterflow cold; difficult defecation; diarrhea with pus and blood in the stool; hemorrhoids and fistulas; lumbar pain preventing movement; generalized heaviness; bone pain.

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

Needle sensation: Localized distension and pain.

Point groups: Stream (shù) (earth) and source (yuán) point.

Point name meaning:

This point name has several associative interpretations. First,the flesh at this point is especially white: Supreme White. Also, the planet Venus is called 太白 (tài bái) in Chinese. Venus is in the western sky; the west is related to metal and the color white. As the earth point of the spleen channel, SP-3 can fortify earth to engender metal. The point name, if rendered as Venus, is indicative of this function.

Additionally, there is a mountain in China called 太白. The point name is a reminder that the point is located next to the mountain of the ball of the foot. See acupoint names: origins, meanings, and translations.

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