LIV-06 (Zhong Du) Central Metropolis

What does LIV-06 Zhong Du do?

LIV-06 is the Xi-Cleft point of the Liver channel — and because the Liver is a YIN channel, it carries the bleeding indication that yin Xi-Cleft points classically hold. Xi-Cleft points are where a channel’s qi gathers deeply and are the classical choice for acute and severe conditions.

• Spreads Liver qi and regulates the lower burner — the channel’s signature action, applied to the abdomen and genitals
• Regulates blood — the Liver’s classical role in storing blood
• Drains damp

The yin-channel rule, verified against our own data. This library holds sixteen Xi-Cleft points. The six on yin channels — LU-06 Kong Zui, HT-06 Yin Xi, P-04 Xi Men, SP-08 Di Ji, KI-05 Shui Quan and LIV-06 — carry a bleeding indication in the classical texts. The six on yang channels do not; our ST-34 record states that explicitly. The remaining four — KI-08, KI-09, BL-59, GB-35 — are Xi-Cleft points of extraordinary vessels rather than channels.

That rule predicts this point’s indication list before reading it. Uterine bleeding and prolonged post-partum discharge both appear in our own record, and both follow from “yin channel + Xi-Cleft” without any further information. When a classification predicts the clinical record, the system is doing real work.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category and action records; all sixteen Xi-Cleft points and their channels queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is LIV-06 Zhong Du used for?

LIV-06 is used for abdominal and flank pain, hernia disorders, diarrhoea, and for uterine bleeding and prolonged discharge after childbirth. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Abdominal pain
• Pain in the side (hypochondriac region)
• Diarrhoea
• Hernia disorders (shan qi)
• Uterine bleeding
• Prolonged lochia — discharge continuing after childbirth

An honest note. Uterine bleeding and prolonged post-partum discharge both require medical assessment. This record describes classical use; it is not a suggestion that either be managed without diagnosis, and nothing here should delay care. The same framing is applied throughout this library wherever a classical indication names a red flag.

Why hernia and the flank appear together. The Liver channel is described as encircling the genitals and passing through the lower abdomen before reaching the flank and the ribs — so genital, lower-abdominal and hypochondriac complaints all sit on one channel. That course is also why LIV-06 shares its territory with LIV-05 Li Gou, the Luo-Connecting point, whose classic indication is genital itching.

How it is combined. With LIV-03 Tai Chong, the Yuan-Source point, and LIV-08 Qu Quan, the He-Sea and Water point — the channel’s two most-used points. With SP-08 Di Ji, the Spleen’s Xi-Cleft point, which carries the same yin-channel bleeding role on a neighbouring leg channel. With SP-06 San Yin Jiao, the crossing point of the three leg yin channels. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; LIV-03, LIV-05, LIV-08, SP-06 and SP-08 classifications queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is LIV-06 Zhong Du located?

LIV-06 is on the inner lower leg, seven cun above the inner ankle bone, just behind the back edge of the shin. It is located by measurement along the bone, with no landmark of its own.

• 7 cun above the prominence of the medial malleolus, immediately posterior to the medial border of the tibia
• LIV-05 Li Gou, the Luo-Connecting point, sits at 5 cun on the same border — two cun below
• SP-06 San Yin Jiao sits at 3 cun, on the same aspect of the leg but on the Spleen channel

A NAMING COLLISION worth closing. “Zhong Du” is also the name of GB-32, on the thigh — a different point on a different channel. This library holds both. It is the seventh such collision documented here, after Zi Gong, Shen Que/Shen Men, Da Zhu, Fu Tu, Ju Liao and Zhong Zhu. A reader working from a romanised prescription should confirm which channel is meant, since “Zhong Du” alone does not distinguish a lower-leg Xi-Cleft point from a mid-thigh Gall Bladder point.

On the name. “Zhong Du” is rendered Central Metropolis or Middle Capital — a gathering-place, which suits a Xi-Cleft point where the channel’s qi is described as collecting deeply.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; GB-32's name, LIV-05's position and the other documented collisions queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 483): 7 cun above the prominence of the medial malleolus, immediately posterior to the medial border of the tibia, in the depression between the medial border of the tibia and the gastrocnemius muscle.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 223): 7 cun above the tip of the medial malleolus, on the midline of the medial surface of the tibia.

How is LIV-06 Zhong Du needled?

The standard texts record subcutaneous (transverse) insertion to roughly 0.5–0.8 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: subcutaneous, 0.5–0.8 inch — transverse rather than perpendicular, because the point lies against the flat inner surface of the tibia with little tissue over it.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the medial surface of the tibia lies immediately beneath; the great saphenous vein and the saphenous nerve run up the inner leg in this region, superficial to the point.

Hazard, stated proportionately. This is a low-hazard point: bone lies directly beneath, there is no body cavity, and the recorded technique is transverse. The saphenous vein is superficial here, so bruising is the ordinary consideration rather than a specific danger. Saying so plainly is more useful than a generic caution — the points in this library that carry real hazards are documented with measured anatomy, and this is not one of them. No study measuring a safe depth at LIV-06 could be located, and none is borrowed. No case report naming LIV-06 as the site of an injury was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on LIV-06, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates LIV-06. Where the point appears it is one component of a gynaecological or digestive protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Where this channel’s attention has gone. Almost entirely to LIV-03 Tai Chong, which forms the classical “Four Gates” with LI-04 He Gu and has a large, uneven literature. Our LIV-03 record deflates it explicitly — the hypertension meta-analysis it cites carries very high heterogeneity and the rest is animal work. Evidence about LIV-03 is not evidence about LIV-06.

What this page can state with confidence. The classification, and what it predicts. LIV-06 is the Liver’s Xi-Cleft point on a yin channel — which means acute conditions and bleeding, and our own indication record contains exactly those. That is a checkable structural fact and it does more for a reader than a thin research section would.

Two search cautions. First, the name collides with GB-32. Second, point-code searches for “LR 6” and “LIV 6” return protocol trials and unrelated material; this library has documented a published abstract numbering Ququan as “LR 5” when LIV-05 is Li Gou, so even correctly-formatted codes in the literature cannot be taken at face value. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification and indication records; LIV-03's research findings and the LR-5 miscoding queried from our own data).