LU-07 (Lie Que) Broken Sequence

What does LU-07 Lie Que do?

Lie Que LU-07 carries three classifications at once — Luo (Connecting) point of the Lung channel, Confluent point of the Conception Vessel, and one of the Four Command Points, the one commanding the head and nape. Sacred Lotus sources & references record all three, and no other point on the arm holds that combination. It also appears on Ma Dan-yang's Heavenly Star list. Each classification adds a separate body of use, which is why a point one and a half cun above the wrist is reached for in a common cold, in a headache, in a stiff neck, in a chronic sore throat and in urinary complaints alike.

• Releases the exterior and expels wind — the defining action, recorded first in our own action record. LU-07 is the classical first-choice point for an invasion of external wind, whether wind-cold or wind-heat: the aversion to cold, the fever, the headache, the stiff neck and the sneezing that open a common cold.
• Promotes the descending and dispersing function of the Lung — the Lungs are described as governing the downward movement and the outward diffusion of qi and fluids, and LU-07 restores both. This is the basis for its use in cough, wheezing and a blocked or running nose.
• Pacifies wind and phlegm — the recorded action behind its use in the wind-and-phlegm presentations affecting the head and face: facial paralysis, deviation of the mouth, and the heavy, fogged head of a cold that will not clear.
• Benefits the head and nape — the Command Point action. Where LI-04 He Gu commands the face and mouth, LU-07 commands the head and the back of the neck, and it is chosen from a distance for occipital headache, migraine and neck rigidity.
• Opens and regulates the Conception Vessel — the Confluent-point action. The Conception Vessel runs the whole length of the front midline, and opening it from LU-07 brings the throat, the chest, the diaphragm, the lower abdomen and the genitourinary region within the point's reach.
• Regulates the water passages and promotes urination — the Lungs are called the upper source of water in classical theory, and LU-07 is the point through which that role is used, for oedema and for difficult or frequent urination.
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain — the local action along the Lung channel, for pain and weakness of the wrist and forearm.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, Luo Connecting, Conception Vessel Confluent, Gao Wu Command and Ma Dan-yang classifications, existing action record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 83); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 137); Luo-point scheme per Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), Chapter 10; Confluent-point system per Zhen Jing Zhi Nan (Dou Hanqing, Yuan dynasty); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is LU-07 Lie Que used for?

Lie Que LU-07 is used above all for the common cold and for headache and neck stiffness — the exterior invasion and the head-and-nape command — and, through the Conception Vessel, for the throat, the chest and the urinary system. The indications below are those carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references together with those set out in the standard reference literature. They describe traditional use, not proven treatment.

• Common cold, with aversion to cold, fever and sneezing
• Headache, including occipital headache and migraine
• Rigidity and pain of the neck and nape
• Cough and wheezing
• Sore throat, including chronic sore throat and a dry, scratchy throat
• Nasal congestion and runny nose
• Facial paralysis and deviation of the mouth and eyes
• Toothache
• Pain, weakness and stiffness of the wrist and forearm
• Difficult, frequent or painful urination
• Oedema and puffiness of the face
• Chest oppression and a sense of obstruction in the throat

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication and use records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 83); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 137).

Where is LU-07 Lie Que, and how is it used in practice?

Lie Que lies on the thumb side of the forearm, about one and a half cun above the wrist crease, just above the bony prominence at the lower end of the radius, in the cleft between two tendons. Sacred Lotus sources & references also record the finding method that made the point famous: cross the thumbs and index fingers of both hands so that the index finger of one hand rests along the radial styloid of the other, and the point falls in the small depression right beneath the fingertip. It is one of the few points in the repertoire with a self-locating trick attached to it, and it is the reason LU-07 is among the first points a student learns to find reliably.

In practice LU-07 is the point of the acute onset. It is reached for at the beginning of a cold rather than at its end, and it is reached for when a headache or a stiff neck is being treated from a distance rather than locally. It is also one of the small number of arm points that a practitioner will use for a complaint far below the waist, because of the Conception Vessel connection.

Which points is LU-07 combined with?

• With KI-06 Zhao Hai — the Confluent pair, and the most important combination this point has. LU-07 opens the Conception Vessel from the arm, KI-06 opens the Yin Motility Vessel from the ankle, and the two are needled together as a matched upper-and-lower unit governing the throat, the chest, the lung and the diaphragm. This is the standard pairing for a chronic dry or sore throat, for a sense of something stuck in the throat, and for hoarseness. The pair is in current clinical use as a pair: a randomised trial of sixty patients with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnoea used bilateral Lieque LU-07 and Zhaohai KI-06 in both study arms alongside a small number of other points, reporting improvement in polysomnography indices and sleep-quality scores (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(7):911–917, PMID 40670167).
• With LI-04 He Gu — the interior–exterior pairing of the two Metal channels, and the classical opening move against a wind invasion. Both are Command Points, and between them they cover the head, the nape, the face and the mouth.
• With BL-12 Feng Men and BL-13 Fei Shu — for wind-cold with cough, adding the Lung's Back-Shu point and the "wind gate" behind it.
• With GB-20 Feng Chi and DU-16 Feng Fu — for occipital headache and neck rigidity, the distal Command Point with the local wind points at the base of the skull.
• With LU-09 Tai Yuan — its immediate neighbour on the same channel, one and a half cun distal at the wrist crease. The two are usually chosen against each other rather than together: LU-09, the Yuan-Source point, supplements a weak Lung, while LU-07 releases and disperses an obstructed one.
• With REN-22 Tian Tu and REN-23 Lian Quan — for throat complaints, adding local points on the Conception Vessel that LU-07 opens from a distance.

Which classification sets does LU-07 belong to, and which of them does this site hold in full?

LU-07 sits on four separate classical lists, and Sacred Lotus sources & references hold every one of them complete.

• The fifteen Connecting (Luo) points. Held here in full: the twelve channel Luo points LU-07, LI-06, ST-40, SP-04, HT-05, SI-07, BL-58, KI-04, P-06, SJ-05, GB-37 and LIV-05, together with REN-15 Jiu Wei, DU-01 Chang Qiang and SP-21 Da Bao, the Great Connecting point of the Spleen. Each channel Luo point is the place where a branch departs to the paired channel; LU-07's branch runs to the Large Intestine channel, and its Yuan-Luo partner on that side is LI-04 He Gu.
• The eight Confluent points of the extraordinary vessels, in their four traditional pairs, all held here: LU-07 Lie Que (Conception Vessel) with KI-06 Zhao Hai (Yin Motility Vessel) — the throat, chest, lung and diaphragm; P-06 Nei Guan (Yin Linking Vessel) with SP-04 Gong Sun (Penetrating Vessel); SJ-05 Wai Guan (Yang Linking Vessel) with GB-41 Zu Lin Qi (Girdling Vessel); and SI-03 Hou Xi (Governing Vessel) with BL-62 Shen Mai (Yang Motility Vessel). Four of the eight — LU-07, P-06, SJ-05 and SP-04 — are Connecting points as well, which is why those four appear on two lists at once.
• The Four Command Points. All four are held here: LU-07 Lie Que for the head and nape, LI-04 He Gu for the face and mouth, ST-36 Zu San Li for the abdomen, and BL-40 Wei Zhong for the lower back. The scheme is a mnemonic for distal treatment: a complaint in one of those four regions is approached from a point far away on a limb.
• The Ma Dan-yang Heavenly Star points. Sacred Lotus sources & references carry the classification on twelve points — LU-07, LI-04, LI-11, ST-36, ST-44, HT-05, BL-40, BL-57, BL-60, GB-30, GB-34 and LIV-03. The set is classically given as Ma Dan-yang's eleven Heavenly Star points and was later expanded to twelve by the addition of Tai Chong LIV-03; both counts appear in the literature and describe the same list.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location records; Luo, Confluent, Command and Heavenly Star classifications; the full fifteen Connecting points, eight Confluent points, four Command Points and twelve Heavenly Star points queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 83); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 137); PMID 40670167; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is LU-07 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 83): On the radial aspect of the forearm, approximately 1.5 cun proximal to Yangxi L.I.-5, in the cleft between the tendons of brachioradialis and abductor pollicis longus. <br /><br /> If the forefinger is placed at Yangxi L.I.-5, in the anatomical snuffbox, and moved directly proximally over the full extent of the styloid process of the radius, the finger falls into the cleft between the two tendons.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 137): Superior to the styloid process of the radius, 1.5 cun above the transverse crease of the wrist between brachioradial muscle and the tendon of long abductor muscle of the thumb. <br /><br /> When the index fingers and thumbs of both hands are crossed with the index finger of one hand placed on the styloid process of the radius of the other, the point is in the depression right under the tip of the index finger.

How is LU-07 Lie Que needled?

Stated plainly: the reference texts record a shallow, obliquely angled insertion at LU-07 — Sacred Lotus sources & references give 0.3 to 0.5 inch, angled obliquely upward along the forearm, with moxibustion applicable. The angle is the substance of the record rather than a stylistic detail. LU-07 lies in a thin cleft between two tendons over the lower end of the radius, with the radial artery, the cephalic vein and the superficial branch of the radial nerve in the immediate neighbourhood, and an oblique needle runs along the forearm rather than toward any of them. Everything below is recorded as neutral reference data describing what the textbooks state. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique. Needling is carried out only by a qualified, licensed practitioner.

The angle and depth the texts record

• Sacred Lotus sources & references record oblique insertion of 0.3 to 0.5 inch, directed upward (that is, proximally along the forearm), with moxibustion applicable.
• Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 83) and Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 137) record a comparable shallow oblique insertion. Both note that the direction may be reversed — angled distally toward the hand — when the intention is to affect the thumb and wrist rather than the head and chest, which is a long-standing convention at this point.
• Moxibustion is recorded as applicable, and LU-07 is a point where warming techniques are commonly used, since its principal use is the wind-cold invasion.

Where LU-07 sits on the risk scale — the honest answer

• It is a low-hazard point, and it should be described as one. LU-07 is not over the thorax, not over an abdominal organ, and not near the eye or a great vessel. It carries none of the organ-injury cautions attached to points such as REN-15 below the breastbone, LIV-14 over the liver or GB-21 over the apex of the lung, and it is not among the points the classical texts restrict in pregnancy. The recorded depth is bounded because the point is shallow and tendinous, not because something dangerous lies beneath it.
• What is genuinely nearby. The radial artery lies a short distance to the palmar side of the point at the wrist, and the superficial branch of the radial nerve and the cephalic vein cross the region — which is why the reference literature records the point in a cleft between tendons and specifies an oblique angle along the limb. Needling in this area is occasionally reported to produce a transient electric sensation along the thumb when a superficial sensory nerve branch is contacted; local bruising is the commonest minor event at any forearm point.
• No point-specific measured-depth study exists. We searched for an imaging or cadaveric study measuring safe depth at LU-07 itself and did not find one. Rather than borrow a figure measured somewhere else, the honest statement is that the textbook range above is what the literature holds for this point. Two systematic reviews of the safe-depth literature — 33 studies in the first, 47 in the second, by MRI, CT, ultrasound and dissection — both concluded that measured depths for the same point differ greatly between subject groups and methods, and that "safe depth" has never been standardised (J Altern Complement Med 2011;17(3):199–206, PMID 21417806; Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2013;2013:740508, PMID 23935678). That caution applies to every point, including the safe ones.

The proportion of the risk

A meta-analysis of prospective clinical studies estimated serious adverse events in acupuncture at approximately 1 per 10,000 patients and around 8 per million treatments, placing it among the safer treatments in medicine (Bäumler P et al., BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268). That small residual risk is concentrated in the points over the chest, upper back and abdomen. LU-07 is not one of them.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 83); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 137); PMID 21417806; PMID 23935678; PMID 34489268 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation.

What does the name Lie Que mean?

Lie Que is usually translated "Broken Sequence", and the name is a description of the anatomy. Lie means to split, crack or break apart; que means a gap or a notch. Sacred Lotus sources & references translate the name as Broken Sequence. The point lies in a distinct cleft between two tendons, above a bony ridge — a break in an otherwise continuous line of tissue — and that is the most straightforward reading. The name also carries an older sense: lie que was a classical term for lightning, the crack that splits the sky, and commentators have connected that to the point's use in disorders of the head, which arrive suddenly and from above. Both readings are recorded in the reference literature; the anatomical one is the plainer.

Why does it matter that LU-07 is a Luo-Connecting point?

The Connecting points are where a branch leaves each channel to join its interior–exterior partner. LU-07's branch runs across to the Large Intestine channel, which is the theoretical reason a Lung point is used for toothache, facial paralysis and complaints of the face and mouth — territory that otherwise belongs to LI-04 He Gu. The classical Yuan-Luo pairing uses the Connecting point of the affected channel with the Yuan-Source point of its partner: for a Lung disorder, LU-07 with LI-04. The Ling Shu also records signs for each Luo point when its branch is in excess or in deficiency; for LU-07 these concern heat and pain in the palm and wrist on the one hand, and yawning, frequent urination and incontinence on the other — which is where the point's otherwise surprising urinary indications come from.

Why is LU-07 called the Confluent point of the Conception Vessel?

Because it is the point on an ordinary channel through which one of the eight extraordinary vessels is reached and opened. The Conception Vessel — Ren Mai — runs up the front midline from the perineum to below the lower lip and is described as the sea of the yin channels, governing the front of the body, the chest, the throat, the uterus and the genital region. LU-07 is the distal point from which it is opened, always in partnership with KI-06 Zhao Hai. That single classification transforms the point's range: without it LU-07 would be a Lung channel point for coughs and colds, and with it the same point is used for throat obstruction, chest complaints, urinary difficulty and gynaecological patterns. The Confluent-point system was set out in Dou Hanqing's Zhen Jing Zhi Nan in the Yuan dynasty and was later elaborated into the Ling Gui Ba Fa, the Mystical Turtle Eight Methods, in which the eight points are opened according to the day and hour of treatment. That method is still in use: a case report of oculomotor nerve palsy describes a treatment built on the Ling Gui Ba Fa opening of all eight Confluent points — Wai Guan, Zu Lin Qi, Gong Sun, Nei Guan, Zhao Hai, Lie Que, Shen Mai and Hou Xi — with local and distal points added (PMID 41558712). A single case report is an observation and nothing more, but it shows the framework in live clinical use.

Is there research on LU-07 Lie Que?

There is very little research on LU-07 in isolation, and the most instructive point-specific finding we located is a negative one. This should be said before anything else, because LU-07's clinical standing is high and the evidence base does not match it.

• The negative comparison, and it is worth reading carefully. An animal study induced myocardial ischaemia in rats and then compared electroacupuncture at Nei Guan P-06, at Lie Que LU-07, and at a non-acupuncture point, measuring the protein expression of the cardiac L-type calcium channel and its associated proteins. Stimulation at P-06 significantly reduced the raised protein expression; stimulation at LU-07 and at the non-acupuncture point produced no significant change, and the effect at P-06 was significantly greater than at either (Acupunct Electrother Res 2016;41(2):107–125, PMID 29897687). The study was designed to test P-06 and used LU-07 as a channel control — but that is exactly what makes it useful here. It is one of the few experiments in which LU-07 was tested head-to-head against another point, and on a cardiac outcome, in a rat model, it behaved like the control. Nothing in classical theory claims LU-07 for the heart, so the result is not a contradiction; it is a demonstration that point selection made a measurable difference.
• The Confluent pair, in a randomised trial. The obstructive sleep apnoea trial described above used bilateral Lieque LU-07 with Zhaohai KI-06 in both arms, so it tests a needling technique rather than the points (PMID 40670167). A separate randomised trial in 42 patients with chronic pharyngitis needled all eight Confluent points together — P-06, SJ-05, LU-07, SI-03, SP-04, BL-62, KI-06 and GB-41 — with one extra point, against an oral Chinese patent medicine, reporting better symptom scores in the acupuncture group (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2019;39(12):1285–8, PMID 31820603). Eight points at once cannot show what LU-07 contributed.
• Where LU-07 does appear consistently is in the historical record. A data-mining analysis of 106 articles and 158 acupuncture prescriptions for chronic cough, drawn from both ancient and modern sources, found Lieque LU-07 among the ten highest-frequency points, alongside Feishu BL-13, Zusanli ST-36, Dazhui DU-14, Pishu BL-20, Danzhong REN-17, Shenshu BL-23, Ding Chuan, Tiantu REN-22 and Fenglong ST-40 (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(9):1347–1359, PMID 40954069). This measures what practitioners have chosen, not whether it worked.
• A note on sensation. LU-07 was one of three points (with LI-04 and LIV-03) used in a placebo-controlled double-blind crossover trial of laser acupuncture in 34 healthy volunteers, which found that verum and sham laser produced indistinguishable de qi-type sensations in frequency, intensity and quality (BMC Complement Altern Med 2010;10:81, PMID 21189142). It is a study about expectation and sensation rather than about LU-07, and it is recorded here for completeness.

What is missing should be said plainly: there is no sham-controlled randomised trial isolating LU-07 for the common cold, for headache or for neck pain — its three principal traditional uses. The point's standing rests on the classical record and on continuous clinical use, not on trial evidence.

How does LU-07 compare with the points around it?

LU-09 Tai Yuan lies one and a half cun distal at the wrist crease and is the point LU-07 is most often weighed against: LU-09 is the Yuan-Source, Shu-Stream and Hui-Meeting point of the vessels and supplements a depleted Lung, where LU-07 releases, disperses and descends. Acute cough and cold go to LU-07; chronic weakness goes to LU-09. LU-08 Jing Qu sits between them and is used far less. LU-06 Kong Zui, the Xi-Cleft point of the channel higher up the forearm, is the choice for acute and severe Lung presentations, particularly coughing of blood. LI-04 He Gu on the back of the hand is LU-07's paired-channel partner and its companion Command Point — LI-04 for the face and mouth, LU-07 for the head and nape. KI-06 Zhao Hai at the inner ankle is its Confluent partner and belongs with it in every Conception Vessel treatment. And P-06 Nei Guan, SJ-05 Wai Guan and SP-04 Gong Sun are the three other points that, like LU-07, are Connecting and Confluent points at once.

Source: Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 83); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 137); Sacred Lotus sources & references (LU-07 record; Connecting, Confluent, Command and Heavenly Star point sets queried in full); Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot), Chapter 10, for the Luo-point signs; Zhen Jing Zhi Nan (Dou Hanqing, Yuan dynasty) for the Confluent-point system; PMID 29897687; PMID 40670167; PMID 31820603; PMID 40954069; PMID 21189142; PMID 41558712 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.