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SP-21 Great Embracement
大包 〔大包〕 dà bāo
Alternate names: 大胞 dà bāo, Great Bladder
Channel: SP, foot greater yīn (tài yīn) spleen channel
Modern location: An acupoint located on the lateral aspect of the chest, 6 cùn inferior to the axilla on the midaxillary line.
Classical location: Downward and outward from All-Round Flourishing (SP-20), crossing the lesser yáng (shào yáng) gallbladder channel, three cùn below Armpit Abyss (
Local anatomy: The thoracodorsal artery and vein, the 7th intercostal artery and vein. The 7th intercostal nerve and the terminal branch of the long thoracic nerve.
Action: Regulates qì and blood; leashes sinew and bone.
Modern indications: Panting; chest and rib-side pain; generalized pain;
Classical indications: Network vessel repletion: generalized pain in the whole body; network vessel vacuity: slackness of the hundred joints.
Needle stimulus: Needling: 0.3‒0.5 cùn outward oblique insertion. Moxa: 3 cones; pole 10‒20 min.
Point groups: Great network (luò) point of the spleen.
Point name meaning:
embracing
(包 bāo`) the body in a net.
In another sense, we see the spleen as the central viscus, bordered by the lung and heart above and the liver and kidney below. In this view, it is contained by the other four viscera. The name Great Embracement illustrates this arrangement.
The alternate name 大胞 (dà bāo), Great Bladder, is most likely a mistranscription of the more common name, 大包 (dà bāo). The rendering of the former as Great Bladder is not meant to imply the urinary bladder, but is simply a way of indicating a flesh (月) bag (包). See