GB-05 (Xuan Lu) Suspended Skull

What does GB-05 Xuan Lu do?

GB-05 expels wind and clears heat, and it activates the channel and alleviates pain — and it is a meeting point of FOUR channels, one of the fullest classifications in the library.

• Expels wind and clears heat
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain

Four channels meet here: the Gallbladder, Stomach, San Jiao and Large Intestine, as our category record states. Our GB-06 Xuan Li record carries the identical four-channel designation, and GB-04 Han Yan below carries three of them. The temple is where the yang channels of the head converge, and these classifications record it.

GB-05 and GB-06 have word-for-word identical action records. Comparing them directly: the same two actions, in the same order, in the same words. This library has documented the same identity at BL-31 and BL-34 on the sacrum, and a still stronger one at KI-23 and KI-24 on the chest, where the indication lists match too. Here the indications differ — GB-05 records facial swelling, GB-06 records tinnitus and frequent sneezing — so the identity is in the action field alone. Both pages state it rather than manufacturing a distinction.

On the name. “Xuan Lu” means Suspended Skull. Xuan is suspended or hanging — the same character as in DU-05 Xuan Shu (Suspended Pivot) on the lower back and GB-39 Xuan Zhong (Suspended Bell), the influential point for marrow. Lu is the skull, shared with SJ-19 Lu Xi behind the ear. The neighbouring GB-06 Xuan Li shares the xuan, which is why the two names are so easily confused — a single syllable apart, adjacent points, identical actions.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action and translation records; the GB-04, GB-06, GB-39, DU-05 and SJ-19 records queried and the GB-05 / GB-06 action records compared word for word, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is GB-05 Xuan Lu used for?

GB-05 is used for migraine, for pain at the outer corner of the eye, and for facial swelling. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — three entries.

• Migraine
• Pain in the outer canthus (the outer corner of the eye)
• Facial swelling

Migraine and outer-canthus pain are the temple run’s shared stock. Comparing our records, GB-04, GB-05 and GB-06 all three carry both — and what separates them is one entry each: GB-05 adds facial swelling, GB-06 adds tinnitus and sneezing, GB-04 adds vertigo, tinnitus, toothache, convulsion and epilepsy. GB-04 is much the longest list of the three.

Why the outer eye corner, from the temple. The Gallbladder channel begins at GB-01 Tong Zi Liao, at the outer canthus, and runs from there around the temple. A point recorded for pain at the outer corner of the eye, sitting a short distance from where the channel starts, is the channel’s own logic.

An honest note. Migraine deserves proper medical diagnosis and management — effective preventive and acute treatments exist. A sudden severe headache unlike any before, or one with fever, neck stiffness, weakness, confusion or visual loss, is a MEDICAL EMERGENCY. A red or painful eye requires assessment, since some causes are sight-threatening and urgent. Facial swelling with difficulty breathing or swallowing is an emergency, and swelling with fever or spreading redness needs prompt care. This record documents classical use only.

A caution particular to this region and this age group. Temporal pain and scalp tenderness in an adult over about fifty — especially with jaw ache on chewing, or any visual change — can indicate giant cell arteritis, which threatens sight and is a medical emergency. It is stated here because these points sit exactly over the temporal artery’s territory, not because our indication record mentions it.

How it is combined. With GB-04 below and GB-06 above on the same quartered line. With ST-08 Tou Wei and GB-07 Qu Bin, the two anchors of that line. With Tai Yang, the extra point at the temple, and GB-20 Feng Chi for the head. With LI-04 He Gu distally. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; the GB-01, GB-04, GB-06, GB-07, GB-20, LI-04, ST-08 and Tai Yang records queried and compared from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is GB-05 Xuan Lu located?

GB-05 is in the temple within the hairline, exactly halfway along the line from ST-08 Tou Wei to GB-07 Qu Bin.

• In the temporal region, within the hairline
• Half the distance between ST-08 Tou Wei and GB-07 Qu Bin
• GB-04 Han Yan sits at one quarter and GB-06 Xuan Li at three quarters of the same span

Three points quartering one line — the most systematic proportional arrangement in this library. Our records place GB-04, GB-05 and GB-06 at one quarter, one half and three quarters of the distance from ST-08 to GB-07. Nothing is measured in cun; the span is simply divided. It works because both ends are findable, and it is self-correcting in a way a chain of separate measurements is not — the middle point is a midpoint whatever the head’s size.

The same method, on another channel. Our SJ-18 and SJ-19 records place those points at one third and two thirds of a curved line behind the ear, from SJ-17 to SJ-20. Two channels, two regions of the head, one idea: fix the anchors, then divide the span.

And the two constructions are linked. Our GB-07 record — the lower anchor of this quartered line — locates that point level with and one finger-breadth in front of SJ-20 Jiao Sun. And SJ-20 is found by folding the ear forward. So a single ear-fold ultimately fixes SJ-18 and SJ-19 behind the ear and, through GB-07, the three quartered Gallbladder points in front of it. One landmark, six points. Which is also why an error there spreads: it is worth locating SJ-20 carefully.

A caution about hair. These points lie within the hairline, where landmarks are hidden and the temporal region is easily misjudged by eye. The proportional method is what makes them findable regardless.

On the name. “Xuan Lu” — Suspended Skull. Positional, and easily confused with its neighbour GB-06 Xuan Li.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged including the half-distance construction; the GB-04, GB-06, GB-07, ST-08, SJ-18, SJ-19 and SJ-20 records queried and their constructions compared against our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 425): In the temporal region, within the hairline, half the distance between Touwei ST-8 and Qubin GB-7.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 210): Within the hairline of the temporal region, midway of the border line connecting Touwei (ST-8) and Qubin (GB-7).

How is GB-05 Xuan Lu needled?

Our own record states SUBCUTANEOUS insertion — the needle laid along under the skin — to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Angle and depth as recorded: subcutaneous (transverse), 0.3–0.5 inch — the same insertion our records give at GB-04, GB-06 and GB-07, and across the scalp generally on the Governing Vessel and the Bladder channel’s BL-03 to BL-09 run.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the temporalis muscle and its fascia lie beneath thin scalp; the superficial temporal artery and vein and the auriculotemporal nerve ascend through the region; the temporal bone lies beneath, and it is the thinnest part of the skull.

Why subcutaneous, and why that is the safety story. There is muscle and then bone beneath the scalp, so a transverse needle is what the anatomy permits rather than a stylistic choice. This is a low-hazard point in that specific sense: no cavity within reach, no organ, no major vessel at the point itself. The scalp is richly vascular and bleeds readily, which is a nuisance rather than a danger.

The arterial caution in this region belongs to a different point. Our SJ-22 He Liao record, at the front edge of the temple, opens with “avoid puncturing the artery” and gives only 0.1–0.3 inch, because the superficial temporal artery is the structure its own location uses. GB-05’s record carries no arterial caution — nine points in this library do, counted by query, and GB-05 is not among them — and this page does not import one. The vessel’s presence in the region is stated because it is true.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at GB-05 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the head. No case report naming GB-05 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the GB-04, GB-06 and GB-07 recorded insertions compared; every needling record queried and the nine arterial cautions counted, with SJ-22's attributed to that point), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on GB-05, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates GB-05. Where the point appears it is one component of a headache protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Migraine has a substantial acupuncture literature, and a reader searching this point’s first indication will meet it — built on multi-point protocols around GB-20, Tai Yang, LI-04 and SJ-05. Evidence about a protocol is not evidence about a point within it, and none is claimed here. A caution specific to the region also applies: “scalp acupuncture” is a distinct modern system with its own zones and its own trials, and it is not the same thing as the classical channel points on the head.

What this page can state with confidence. GB-05 is the midpoint of a line divided into quarters by GB-04, GB-05 and GB-06 — the most systematic proportional arrangement in this library, and self-correcting whatever the size of the head. It is a meeting point of four channels. Its action record is word for word identical to GB-06’s, which both pages disclose. And the quartered line’s lower anchor, GB-07, is itself located from SJ-20 — found by folding the ear forward — so one ear-fold fixes six points across two channels.

A note on searching for it. “GB 5”, “G 5” and “Xuanlu” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — and the specific trap here is GB-06 Xuan Li, one syllable away and adjacent on the head, with an identical recorded action. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against which of the two a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (category, action, indication and location records; the GB-04 to GB-07 constructions and the SJ-18 to SJ-20 parallel confirmed, and the GB-05 / GB-06 action records compared word for word, against our own data).