Just my point: TH 4
Everyday favourites come instantly to mind – and note how many of them are designated as tai 太 great points in their actual names:
- LU 9 tai yuan 太 淵 Great Abyss, classic reinvigorator of the lungs
- P 7 da ling 大 陵 Great Mound, chief protector of the heart mind
- HT 7 shen men 神 門 Spirit Gate, restorer of peace and tranquillity
- KID 3 tai xi 太 溪 Great Stream, potent recharger of the kidneys
- SP 3 tai bai 太 白 Great White, strengthener and regulator of the spleen
- LIV 3 tai chong 太 衝 Great Rushing, liberator of the constrained liver
- LI 4 he gu 合 谷 Union Valley, the ubiquitous and multifaceted heavenly star point
And finally our subject in this article – TH 4 yang chi 陽 池 Yang Pool, yuan qi distributor and catalytic qi converter.
These yuan 原 source points are stable staples in our clinics – dependable, reliable, astonishing resources to restore and renew the organs, even when they are in poor condition or the problem has been ongoing for some years. That is the secret of the source, 原 yuan – a nexus, a focus point for regeneration and repair, a marker, a turning point for the transition from ill health back to good health again.
Instant access to the source, what patient would not want that? For the Chinese, the concept of the source and origin was a crucial one, both in their philosophy and their medicine. Isabelle Robinet writing in her History of Daoism says, ‘the universe perpetually creates itself in a constant evolution in perpetual genesis and becoming from a unique material, the yuan qi, primordial qi which is neither matter nor spirit.’
The great 13th century Daoist master Li Daochun writes that, ‘the sage incorporates the origin and returns to the root, comes back to his destiny and returns to the beginning of his deep nature.’ This potent concept of returning to the origin is a return to authenticity and one’s true nature, a reinvigoration of who one really is.
Yuan 元 is the origin, the beginning, the first, the eldest, the greatest. It is the primary origin, what is absolutely above 一 in relation to what is already high 兀. Yuan 元 is also the monetary unit of China and Japan (the yen), indicating its intrinsic value.
In Chinese medicine we find it in yuan qi 元 氣, the original qi that gives us all life – and in the lower abdominal point REN 4 guan yuan 關 元 Origin Pass, also called dan tian 丹 田 Cinnabar Field, which consolidates the yuan qi and is a crucial point for fertility issues. Interestingly the Japanese combination of REN 4 guan yuan 關 元 Origin Pass with TH 4 yang chi 陽 池 Yang Pool is an important combination for gynaecological problems and modern sources say that TH 4 regulates the ren mai 任 脈 and chong mai 衝 脈.
To understand this we need to understand why the triple heater san jiao 三 焦 is intimately related to the source, yuan 原. The medical Classic of Difficulties Nan jing chapter 66 is direct and clear in its explanation and shows the important link between the source points and the triple heater:
The points where the three heaters circulate are the sources, yuan 原. How is this? The qi that moves between the kidneys and under the navel – this is the life received by man. It is the root and foundation of the 12 meridians. It is for this reason that its name is source, yuan 原. The three heaters are the agents for the distribution of original qi, yuan qi zhi bie shi 原 氣 之 別 使. Source, yuan 原, is the honoured title of the three heaters. When the five zang and six fu have illnesses, one needles the source, yuan 原.
Yuan 原, an image of 白 pure 水 water bursting out from deep underground, is the source, and like the other yuan 元 is also the origin, the beginning, the first. Yuan 原 is used in Chinese medicine as an abbreviation of yuan xue 原 穴, the source points.
TH 4 is the yuan source point of the triple heater meridian, that connects it to the source. In some Japanese schools it is used as a catalyst point in every treatment, to activate the system. This is an interesting and very particular use of the point as the source point of the triple heater, whose honoured title is itself the source. No wonder then with its direct link to the source and yuan qi, it is also used to regulate the ren 任 and chong mai 衝 脈 and help in fertility problems – sourcing the source.
We also find it used in combination with BL 43 gao huang shu 膏 肓 兪, ST 36 zu san li 足 三 里 Leg Three Miles and REN 4 guan yuan 關 元 Origin Pass for exhaustion and depletion. This is a wonderful point to remember and use in such cases. Add it to your list of deeply supportive points in low times or when you are making no progress with what seem like the right set of points. Something deeper may be needed and TH 4 is the point for that.
TH 4 yang chi 陽 池 Yang Pool
TH 4 was one of the key points I used to treat a woman in her sixties with a long history of severe migraines since she was eight years old. They had improved initially after menopause, but then returned. The attacks came suddenly with nausea and vomiting, with pain over the left eye at BL 2 area. When coming for treatment she was having them all day or even for two days as they were lasting longer than before. She was very tight in the upper back area and neck and felt soreness there before the migraine. Her sister and mother also had migraines and her sons too, though less severe than her. She told me her health otherwise was good and sleep fine, but she looked very tired from the migraine and had a phlegmy cough.
One-sided head pain I generally treat on the shao yang, so chose TH 4 yang chi 陽 池 Yang Pool for her underlying exhaustion and GB 21 jian jing 肩 井 Shoulder Well for the local upper back and neck tension. GB 34 yang ling quan 陽 陵 泉 Yang Mound Spring I added to move the liver and gall bladder stagnation with LU 9 tai yuan 太 淵 Great Abyss for her lungs and ST 36 zu san li 足 三 里 Leg Three Miles to strengthen and tonify her stomach qi. I added leg points such as KID 3 tai xi 太 溪 Great Stream, LIV 3 tai chong 太 衝 Great Rushing and SP 6 san yin jiao 三 陰 交 Three Yin Crossing as the treatment unfolded.
The treatment was remarkably and immediately successful. Her migraines stopped straightaway and she had none for the next four months – then one migraine returned and occasional mild headaches without nausea or vomiting for two weeks. Following this, there were no further migraines or headaches at all. It was finished. I am certain that TH 4’s ability to resource and renew was as important as the GB points’ ability to free the stuck qi in this case.
Apart from its tonic properties for underlying exhaustion, TH 4 is an excellent point to free up stagnation, stiffness and pain in the hands. It is one of three local points with yang in their names: the source point TH 4 yang chi 陽 池 Yang Pool, the heat-clearing fire point SI 5 yang gu 陽 谷 Yang Valley and the heat-clearing fire point LI 5 yang xi 陽 溪 Yang Stream. These are all excellent for local pains, inflammation, stiffness, cramps, repetitive strain injury and wrist problems, with TH 4 also treating the debility that comes with continual pain. As a pool chi 池 in this hollow on the back of the wrist, it is full of the fluids the triple heater needs on its pathway up the arm to the shoulder and the head itself. It is also an important point in xiao ke 消 渴 diabetes with dry mouth and thirst.
An excellent point for stiffness and pain, both locally and along the meridian pathway, TH 4 needs to be especially remembered for its resourcing power, its wonderful ability to reconnect to the healing source itself. The philosophers talk about it – this source of all things, life’s primal beginning that ripples out in endless rings. They call it the single yuan, the original qi, the ancestral root of life’s multimillion leaf tree. It permeates heaven and earth from beginning to end, in perpetual genesis and becoming – a primordial eternal blend. Returning to this, you keep connection to it all, no limitations, no obstructions, no barriers, no walls. This inexhaustible source of life itself is the very root of our own. Follow the thread of the weaver’s web and you’ll find your own deep nature home.
