Tag Archives: Wood Element

WIND

The other morning, I was woken at 5 am by a strong gusting wind swirling round the corners of the house, probing and rattling the eaves. I had gone to bed thinking about writing this blog about wind, so it felt as if I’d summoned it up, like some ghost or jinn. Indeed, wind is a curious creature, mysterious and intangible. We see the effects of the wind, rather than the wind itself. Yet we also feel its effects in the body as a disturbance in our field. Some people find this exciting, others troubling, while some are so distressed by it that they cannot leave the house.

These effects of wind are more common in the spring when the Wood Element, of which wind is a resonance, is in its ascendency. Any imbalance in this Element is more likely to be revealed in springtime when the Wood ‘tide’ is at its highest. Last month in South Australia we had 4 or 5 consecutive days of very strong, gusty winds, and I had numerous clients who felt very disturbed in themselves, couldn’t settle, and felt unusually agitated and irritable.

The Chinese character for wind is Feng (sounds like tongue).  The outer part of the character represents breath while inside is an insect. Ancient China was an agrarian economy, and damaging insects were abundant in spring when gusty winds were prevalent.

Feng suggests movement or motion, and wind conditions include those that produce shaking or jerking movements. According to the Ling Shu, its adverse influence is so great that “the sages avoided the winds like avoiding arrows and stones.” The Chinese practice of Fengshui (literally wind and water), recommends not living in a place where winds are strong as they are considered a malevolent force.

Pathogenic wind conditions are among the most numerous of diagnoses in Chinese medicine. This is largely because wind can act as a spearhead for other external climatic factors to penetrate the body. Thus, there are wind-cold, wind-heat, wind-damp and wind-dryness patterns. Of these, wind with cold is the most common. A person can be thus afflicted by being exposed to cold winds and rain, sleeping in a draught, or sitting in the flow of air conditioning.

Symptoms of wind-cold invasion include pain and stiffness in the neck and shoulders, headache, running nose, cough, sneezing and fever, and an aversion to cold. The upper part of the Gall Bladder channel is particularly affected, as well as Bladder and Small Intestine channels where they pass through the neck and shoulders.

To complicate matters, there is also internal wind which is not caused by the external climatic factors. It is produced by blood or yin deficiency or internal heat, and primarily affects the Liver. Shaking or jerking conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s and restless leg syndrome are examples of internal wind. Conversely, paralysis and strokes are also thought to be the effects of internal wind. The 14th century physician Zhu Danxi coined the term windstroke, and in modern Chinese medicine, zhongfeng still means stroke.

If someone expresses an aversion to wind, or an unusual craving for it, this is considered to flag an imbalance in the Wood Element. While one would not diagnose a Wood imbalance solely on a person’s attitude to wind, if there are other Wood resonances present, this would be corroborating evidence. These might include issues with the organs of liver or gall bladder, the eyes, the tendons and ligaments, or signs and symptoms along the pathways of the Gall Bladder and Liver meridians. And certainly, a tendency to headaches and neck stiffness when in contact with wind, or a psychological disturbance when seeing the effects of wind outdoors, would lead one to a diagnosis of Wood imbalance.

Point names that include feng

Point names are very instructive as to their clinical uses, so anything with feng in the name is of interest here. There are six such points. All dispel wind from the body.

Gall Bladder 20FengchiWind Pool
Gall Bladder 31FengshiWind Market
Bladder 12FengmenWind Gate
Small Intestine 12BingfengGrasping the Wind
Triple Heater 17YifengWind Screen
Governor Vessel  16FengmenWind Palace

All these points are on yang channels, appropriate as wind is a yang pathogen. Most of them are in the neck and shoulder, in the yang half of the body, with only GB 31 in the leg as the exception. These points dispel wind, in particular from the part of the body where the pain or stiffness lodge: GB 20 and GV 16 at the occiput, TH 17 behind the ear, BL 12 and SI 12 in the shoulders.

GB 20 Wind Pool is located at the occiput, two fingers width lateral to the hollow at the base of the skull. Treats headaches and neck stiffness.

GB 31 Wind Market is located on the side of the leg where the tip of the middle finger lands when the arm is by the side. Treats pain the leg, sciatica, itching.

BL 12 Wind Gate is located in the upper back, two fingers width lateral to the midline at the level of the junction of the 2nd & 3rd thoracic vertebrae. Treats symptoms of common cold and fevers, neck and shoulder rigidity.

SI 12 Grasping the Wind is on the middle of the top of the scapula, in a depression found when the arm is raised. Benefits when there is difficulty raising the arm or turning the head. Treats pain and stiffness in the neck and shoulders.

TH 17 Wind Screen is in the hollow behind the earlobe. Treats ear disorders, lockjaw, pain and swelling in the cheeks, toothache of the lower jaw.

GV 16 Wind Palace is in the middle of the occipital hollow at the base of the skull. Treats pain the head and neck, visual disturbances, shivering, sweating, loss of voice, high blood pressure. This is a powerful spirit point, calms the mind and spirit, regulates the nervous system, activates the vagus nerve.

Other points known to dispel wind include LU 10, LU 11, LI 11, LI 15, ST 6, ST 36, SP 6, BL 40, KI 2, HP 8, GB 30, GB 34, GB 38, LV 1, LV 2, LV 7, GV 20, GV 22, GV 26. Most of these points clear wind anywhere in the body, and in particular treat symptoms of wind in the local area of the point.

One final tip: sweating helps to eliminate wind. As the pores of the skin are considered to be the portals via which the wind enters the body, so too they can be the point of exit of the wind. Thererfore sweating can aid in the expulsion of wind. Just be careful not to sweat profusely while being exposed to wind.

Take care during the remainder of the spring. I’ll be back in the summer with a look at Heat.

The Three Gates of Qimen

In 1988 I travelled to southern California to study Jin Shin Do® Bodymind Acupressure™ with Iona Teeguarden. While there I helped to type the JSD Foundation newsletter and was invited to reply to a letter from a reader enquiring about Iona’s non-standard location of Liver 14. In those early days of my studies and with internet research a thing of the future, I was unable to respond. Here then, 35 years late, is my reply.

Qimen ~ Cycle Gate/Gate of Hope ~ Liver 14

The last point of the Liver meridian is a significant one. Here the Qi completes the cycle of the 12 meridians before flowing through to Lung 1 whence it started. It is a place where Qi can become blocked, causing congestion in the chest, and reflecting stagnation in the Liver organ, or pent-up feelings of frustration and anger. Its location, however, is not straightforward, and I have encountered three different locations that derive from different traditions. What follows is something of a detective story as I try to unravel the historical origins of each location. Please forgive me, reader, for my attention to such arcane detail. It seems my Metal Element is showing through.

Standard Qimen

The standard location in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) of Qimen – Cycle Gate – Liver 14 is in the chest, in the 6th intercostal space and 4 cun lateral to the midline, on what is known as the mammillary line (in line with the nipple). This is the location that is most widely used and became the standard with the codification of acupuncture in China in the 1950s. Here is the location from Peter Deadman’s A Manual of Acupuncture.

Lower Qimen

A minority of practitioners locate Liver 14 much lower, on the border of the ribcage, also on the mammillary line. This location became standard for students of JR Worsley’s Five Element Acupuncture method which became especially widespread in England and the USA. Here is the location from Worsley’s Traditional Chinese Acupuncture Vol 1 which is known affectionately in his community as “the big red book”.

This alternative location has become widely enough known that it is acknowledged by Deadman, and by Jarmey in his Practical Guide to Acupoints, as “Lower Qimen”:

As a keen student of history and of lineage, I had always wondered about the origin of Worsley’s deviation. I found a possible answer earlier this year when I obtained a copy of the book Chinese Acupuncture by the Taiwanese acupuncturist Dr Wu Wei-Ping. Published in 1962, his work was translated into French by Jacques Lavier which was in turn translated into English by Philip Chancellor. It is known that Worsley studied with Wu Wei-Ping in Taiwan. Peter Eckman in his book, In the Footsteps of the Yellow Emperor, shows photos of Worsley with Wu in 1966. Wu’s location is clearly at “Lower Qimen”:

Where did Wu get his alternative location? One possible source is Japan which ruled Taiwan from 1895-1945 and had strong cultural influences over the island. In my searches I discovered at least one Japanese luminary who made use of the lower location. That is Dr Yoshio Manaka (1911-89).

Eckman describes Manaka as having good relationships with many of the Japanese schools of acupuncture but never became identified with any one. He also had numerous contacts among the French and German schools which were being established and he made several teaching trips to Europe. It’s possible that Worsley had direct contact with Manaka. Here is the location from Manaka’s book, Chasing the Dragon’s Tail. (Mislabelled as LV 4)

Acupuncturists of the Worsley lineage consider Lower Qimen to have greater psycho-emotional and spirit associations that are not ascribed to the standard location by TCM practitioners. Indeed, Worsley gave the name Gate of Hope to this lower point rather than the usual translation Cycle Gate. This suggests its power to support a person to face the future with clarity and enthusiasm, alleviating depression caused by stagnation of Liver Qi.

Several years ago, I received an email from Peter Borten, an acupuncturist in Portland, Oregon, in response to my original blog on this point. His comments made an impact on my view of of the two different locations. Peter said,

“As I went first to a TCM school and then a Five Element school under J.R. Worsley, I see the TCM and Five Element locations of this point as having distinctly different energetics. When I’m needling this point for its Five Element “spirit of the point” properties, or to clear an entry-exit block, I always go with the Five Element location at the bottom of the ribcage.”

I now follow this advice in clinic, using Lower Qimen as a “spirit” point and when I detect an entry-exit block between Liver 14 and Lung 1.

One other thing to note before we leave Gate of Hope, is that Worsley-trained acupuncturists often needle Liver 13 (Chapter Gate) and Liver 14 (Gate of Hope) together: a new chapter of life heralds the hope of moving forward.

Inner Qimen

Now we come to the third and most obscure of the three locations, the one that was subject of the letter to the Jin Shin Do Foundation. We might call this “Inner Qimen”. Iona Teeguarden located Liver 14 at the bottom of the ribcage but more medially to the Worsley location. (Number 5 in the JSD system.) In her 1978 book Acupressure Way of Health, she located it on the ribcage at the junction of the ninth rib cartilage to the eighth rib, in a little indentation inside the nipple line. This places it about 1 cun medial and superior to the Lower Qimen. In her later book Joy of Feeling, Teeguarden calls this point Gate of Hope, so clearly there was a Worsley connection.

I used this location for many years until I moved to the standard location in the 6th intercostal space. However, I do return to it from time to time. I find it very helpful in releasing points in the neck. When Small Intestine 16 is not releasing, I will hold it in combination with the opposite “Inner Qimen” and find that usually opens the neck wonderfully.

According to a biography on the Jin Shin Do Foundation website, Iona learned Jin Shin Jytsu with Mary Burmeister who was a student of the founder of that method, Jiro Murai. Iona travelled to Japan in 1976 and studied with Dr Haruki Kato, also a student of Jiro Murai.  She states that “some of the JSJ points were in different locations than I had learned from Mary.” One of Burmeister’s “safety energy locks” (SEL 14) was in the location of Lower Qimen; I infer that this was one of those points which varied and that Inner Qimen is from Kato. The following illustration is from Alice Burmeister’s book The Touch of Healing.

While researching for this blog. I stumbled upon a graphic produced by Shohaku Honma (1904-1962) which shows Liver 14 on the ribcage but clearly more medial to Lower Qimen. I have not seen this location anywhere else, but here it is being used by a famous Japanese acupuncturist with whom Worsley studied. What could be the connection between Teeguarden and Honma? Could it be Kato? As part of his studies, Kato became a licensed acupuncturist so he could have professional and legal standing. Perhaps here is a connection to Honma.

Clinical Implications

Well, dear reader, if you are still with me after this deep dive into history, congratulations! I salute your perseverance.

Let me finish by summarising the clinical implications of these three different locations of Qimen Liver 14, for it is the clinical outcomes that are of greatest importance.

Standard Qimen is the mu point of Liver and so treats acute conditions that relate to the Liver organ. It also treats local congestion in the chest and ribcage. It can have an effect on the emotion of anger which, when out of balance, is stored in the Liver.

Lower Qimen is the Worsley location. It is also a mu point and treats at the physical level. But more significantly it treats psycho-emotional disharmony in the Wood Element and at the level of spirit. It helps lift depression, enabling a person to see clearly the way forward and make plans with hope for the future. It also is useful when there is an entry-exit block between Liver and Lung.

Inner Qimen is a useful alternative for both physical and psycho-emotional issues, for suppressed anger and frustration, for releasing the diaphragm and the associated neck segment.

As in all cases, the point is not on the chart, it is where you feel the Qi.