BL-47 (Hun Men) Hun Gate

What does BL-47 Hun Men do?

BL-47 is the outer-line point for the LIVER’s spirit — the hun, usually translated as the ethereal soul. It sits on the second Bladder line at T9, level with BL-18 Gan Shu, the Back-Shu point of the Liver, and its name says what that pairing is for: Hun Gate.

• Spreads Liver qi and relaxes the sinews — the Liver’s two classical domains, qi movement and the sinews
• Harmonises the middle burner — the digestive action at this level of the back

Of the five spirits, the hun is the one most worth explaining carefully. It is associated with the Liver, with dreaming, with the sense of direction and purpose in life, and — in the classical texts — with what continues after death, in contrast to the po (BL-42, Lung), which is tied to the body and does not. That is a genuine piece of classical cosmology and this record presents it as such: as the tradition’s account, not as a claim about the world.

The five spirit points, verified against our own data. Each sits three cun from the midline, level with the inner-line Back-Shu point of a yin organ:

• BL-42 Po Hu — Po Door, level with BL-13 (Lungs)
• BL-44 Shen Tang — Spirit Hall, level with BL-15 (Heart)
• BL-47 Hun Men — Hun Gate, level with BL-18 (Liver) — this point
• BL-49 Yi She — Reflection Abode, level with BL-20 (Spleen)
• BL-52 Zhi Shi — Will Chamber, level with BL-23 (Kidneys)

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action and location records; the five spirit points and their inner-line Back-Shu levels queried and verified against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is BL-47 Hun Men used for?

BL-47 is used for pain in the chest and flank, back pain, vomiting and diarrhoea. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Pain in the chest and side (hypochondriac region)
• Back pain
• Vomiting
• Diarrhoea

Flank pain is the Liver’s signature. The Liver channel reaches the ribs and flank, and hypochondriac pain is the classical marker of Liver qi failing to spread — which is exactly the action our record gives this point. Vomiting and diarrhoea follow from the middle-burner action, and back pain is local.

The same honest limit stated on BL-44 and BL-49 applies here. This indication list carries no mental-emotional entry — no dream disturbance, no lack of direction, nothing touching the hun — despite the point being named for the ethereal soul. The spirit association is carried by the name and the classical system; our recorded indications are physical. Both are reported, and neither substitutes for the other.

That pattern now holds across all three of the outer-line spirit points written in this library, which makes it a consistent feature of our source record rather than an oddity of one entry — and worth a reader knowing before they go looking for spirit indications that are not there.

How it is combined. With BL-18 Gan Shu at the same level on the inner line — the inner-and-outer pairing. With LIV-14 Qi Men, the Front-Mu point of the Liver, in the front-and-back pairing. With LIV-03 Tai Chong, the Yuan-Source point, distally. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; BL-18, LIV-03 and LIV-14 classifications queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is BL-47 Hun Men located?

BL-47 is on the back, three cun out from the midline, level with the lower edge of the ninth thoracic spinous process — the same level as BL-18 Gan Shu.

• 3 cun lateral to the midline, level with T9
• Level with BL-18 Gan Shu on the inner line at 1.5 cun
• Level with DU-08 Jin Suo on the midline — the three-line arrangement that repeats down the back

Counted, not felt. The outer Bladder line has no palpable landmark of its own, so every point on it is located by counting vertebrae and measuring laterally. Miscounting a level moves the point to a different organ’s territory while the lateral distance stays correct — the commonest error on the back, and the reason this library states the reference level on every one of these records.

On the name. “Hun Men” — Hun Gate. The five spirit points are named door, hall, gate, abode and chamber. Men (gate) is the same character as in HT-07 Shen Men, Spirit Gate — and our HT-07 record documents that its name collides both with a famous auricular point and, in translation, with REN-08 Shen Que. BL-47 has no such collision, but the shared character is worth noticing.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; BL-18, DU-08 and HT-07 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 306): 3 cun lateral to the midline, level with the lower border of the spinous process of the ninth thoracic vertebra (T9) and level with Ganshu BL- 18.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 186): 3 cun lateral to Jinsuo (DU-8), at the level of the lower border of the Spinous process of the ninth thoracic vertebra.

How is BL-47 Hun Men needled?

The standard texts record oblique insertion to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents, not instruction for a reader.

• Angle and depth as recorded: oblique, 0.3–0.5 inch — the shallow oblique angle characteristic of the thoracic back points.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: latissimus dorsi and the erector spinae group overlie the point; the ninth rib and intercostal space lie deep, with the pleural recess beyond, and the liver’s upper margin in the region on the right.

What is NOT claimed here. The paediatric chest-CT study that this library uses for measured safe depths covers 23 named points, and its outer-line coverage runs BL-41 to BL-46 — it stops before BL-47. Verified. No figure from it is borrowed. The kidney-region MRI study measured BL-21, BL-22, BL-23, BL-50, BL-51 and BL-52; it does not cover this point either.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a thoracic paravertebral point and the general considerations of that region apply — but no study has measured them at BL-47, and this record says so rather than substituting a neighbour’s number. Our BL-18 Gan Shu record, at the same level on the inner line, makes the same statement and attributes each figure it cites to the point that study actually measured. No case report naming BL-47 was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged); the point lists of PMID 26922245 / PMC4769822 and the kidney-region MRI study queried from our own data and confirmed NOT to include BL-47.

Is there research on BL-47, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates BL-47. Where the point appears it is one component of a back or digestive protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page is for. The outer-line spirit system, and BL-47’s place in it. Five points, five spirits, each beside its organ’s Back-Shu point and named for what it houses — and every element of that verified against our own records. The hun is the Liver’s spirit, associated with dreaming and with direction in life, and paired in classical thought against the po at BL-42.

Read the three outer-line records together and a consistent finding emerges: BL-44, BL-47 and BL-49 all carry names for an organ’s spirit, and all three have indication lists that are entirely physical. Whatever the tradition says about these points, our source record documents them as thoracic, digestive and musculoskeletal. That is a real feature of the material and this library reports it rather than filling the gap from theory.

A note on searching for it. “BL 47” and “Hunmen” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material matched on the code or on a surname. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification, indication and location records; the five spirit points and the BL-44 and BL-49 indication records queried from our own data).