Conception Vessel 23, Ren-23 Lianquan

Conception Vessel 23, Ren-23 Lianquan, Pure (or Clear) Spring, is the 23rd point on the Conception Vessel, one of the so-called ‘Extraordinary’ acupuncture channels. (Click here for information on TCM theory and here for a list of the acupuncture meridians.)

It is right up there under the root of your tongue, but don’t worry, you get at it from outside, not inside, your mouth! Good for when you lose your voice.

Another way of locating it is that it usually lies midway between the tip of the cricoid cartilage and the border of the mandible (ie the chin bone) – but you’ve still got to locate the cricoid cartilage which is the cartilage inferior to the laryngeal prominence, the Adam’s Apple.

Needling and Moxa Ren 23

Point the needle directly upwards towards the vertex. Up to 1 cun. Tell the patient not to talk or swallow as the needle is being inserted, and preferably not while the needle is in place. (Which is easier said than done, and rather like telling somebody not to think of a pink elephant.)

ACTIONS of Pure Spring

• Eases the throat, tongue and voice
• Helps to descend qi
• Yin Wei point

Point of the Yin Wei channel

• The Yin Wei (Linking) channel runs up through a number of very important points on the leg yin channels, starting in the region of Spleen 6 (though officially commencing at Kidney 9) but this is its first and last point on the Conception Vessel.
• The Yin Wei channel is said to link all the Yin channels, so is yin promoting. In other words it nourishes, calms and moistens, and descends qi.
• For these purposes, this point might be used with Kidney 9, or other points like Spleen 6.

• For swelling under the tongue, Conception Vessel 23 was traditionally used with Pericardium 9 but for calming and grounding someone a more powerful point is Kidney 1.