Conception Vessel 16: Ren-16 – Central Hall

Conception Vessel 16, Ren-16, is the 16th acupuncture point along the Conception Vessel. It’s got a great name ‘Central Hall’, but I’ve hardly ever used the point, and I don’t think other acupuncturists use it much.

Still, it does have its uses, and its name suggests that it may have a consolidating effect on character, (though I speculate).

Location of Ren-16

On the mid-line, at the sterno-costal notch. The point is usually level with the fifth inter-costal space where it intersects the vertical line through the nipples.

Needling Zhongting

Transverely either superiorly or inferiorly along the midline. Up to 0.5 cun. Vertical insertion quickly touches the underlying bone and may be painful. It could also bend the tip of the needle making it harder to manipulate and remove.

Needle Sensation

I haven’t used this often enough to be clear about the usual needle sensation.

Moxa

Up to 5 cones.

I’ve only used it a few times, each of them for narrowing of the oesophagus with difficulty swallowing, and food returning because it couldn’t descend. I used it because it overlay where the pain was. It seemed to work fast and the food went down just fine. I haven’t used it for fullness in the chest, mainly because it didn’t occur to me, unlike  other points.

In some ways it works like Conception Vessel 13 which also assists the descending of food. But other points further up the Conception Vessel have similar local properties so perhaps this is really just a local point.

And, having written my book “Qi Stagnation – Signs of Stress” (also see below) I am re-considering Ren 16 because one of the signs of stress in Stomach Qi is not being able to descend Qi properly.

If you cannot descend food, you cannot digest it which leads inevitably to Blood Deficiency and/or Qi Deficiency. These are both potential progenitors of Qi Stagnation. Since the Shen, the Spirit, lives in the Blood, or at least is considered in Chinese medicine to ‘rest’ there, a point named Central Hall begins to take on new resonance.

Having only used the point, as mentioned above, to descend food, I haven’t tried to discover whether Conception-Vessel-16 has more ambitious claims to fame.

So if you are a budding acupuncturist, I suggest you do not try to base an entire treatment around this point in the hope thereby of instilling enormous confidence and joie de vivre (which one might say are signs of an ebullient Shen) in your patient!

To access other points on the Conception Vessel, click below: