The real and accurate location of LI 4

LI 4: Your acupuncture atlas is most probably wrong



The 4th point on the Large Intestine channel, or LI 4 point (Ro Kou / He Gu) is one of the most commonly used in acupuncture. Locating it correctly is therefore an absolute necessity, yet the international nomenclature* provides an unclear and, unfortunately, wrong location:
- Either in the middle of the outer edge of the 2nd metacarp,
- Or, with the thumb and index finger tight, at the top of the eminence formed by the soft parts.

(*) International nomenclature established from documents of
the People's Republic of China.

These contradictory descriptions are a problem: in acupuncture, there is no place for approximations. Every point is effective under the very necessary condition that the practitioner needles in exactly the right place.

Below are photos from the works of George Soulié de Morant, J. A. Lavier by Nguyen Van Nghi and Charles Laville-Mery / Dr. Jean Borsarello. These men brought invaluable and precise knowledge from their travels in Asia (pre-Communist China for G. Soulié de Morant and the teachings of Hong Kong and Taiwan for Charles Laville-Mery, J. A. Lavier and Dr. J. Borsarello).





These illustrations show that the traditional location of the LI 4 point is in front of the base of the 2nd metatarsal, almost a proximal cun compared to the localisation of the international nomenclature!

You will also note that the traditional location of LI 4 is similar to that of Ling Gu (22.05) of Master Tung's acupuncture teaching, which is one of the major points taught by this master.

The reason is simple, this point is one of the great points of traditional acupuncture. His functions are numerous, because it acts on the whole body to produce Yang.
Its traditional functions are:
- to send the Yang to the face
- to initiate the Yang descent movement
In this way, it acts on immunity, spine, spinal cord, sexual organs, digestion.

If you have been trained in TCM acupuncture, I invite you to test this traditional location and compare the results on, for example, on all the pathologies touching the ENT sphere.

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