BL-44 (Shen Tang) Spirit Hall

What does BL-44 Shen Tang do?

BL-44 is the outer-line point for the HEART’s spirit — the shen. It sits on the second Bladder line at T5, level with BL-15 Xin Shu, the Back-Shu point of the Heart, and its name says what that pairing is for: Spirit Hall.

• Unbinds the chest and regulates qi — the local action, for oppression and tightness
• Activates the channel and alleviates pain — for the back itself

The five spirit points of the outer line. This library holds all five, and they are the clearest example in acupuncture of a system encoded in names. Each sits three cun from the midline, level with the inner-line Back-Shu point of a yin organ, and each is named for that organ’s spirit:

• BL-42 Po Hu — Po Door, at T3, level with BL-13 (Lung) — the po, corporeal soul
• BL-44 Shen Tang — Spirit Hall, at T5, level with BL-15 (Heart) — the shen, spirit — this point
• BL-47 Hun Men — Hun Gate, at T9, level with BL-18 (Liver) — the hun, ethereal soul
• BL-49 Yi She — Reflection Abode, at T11, level with BL-20 (Spleen) — the yi, intellect
• BL-52 Zhi Shi — Will Chamber, at L2, level with BL-23 (Kidney) — the zhi, will

Our BL-41 record confirms the set is exactly five, not six — BL-41 pairs with BL-12, which has no yin-organ spirit. The outer line runs the full length from BL-41 to BL-54, all fourteen held here, but only five carry a spirit.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action and location records; the five spirit points, their inner-line levels and the full outer line queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is BL-44 Shen Tang used for?

BL-44 is used for chest and heart complaints — wheezing, cardiac pain, palpitations, tightness, cough — and for stiffness and pain of the upper back. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Asthma and wheezing
• Cardiac pain
• Palpitations
• Stuffiness and oppression of the chest
• Cough
• Stiffness and pain of the back

A necessary framing note. Cardiac pain is a medical emergency. This record describes classical use; it is not a suggestion that chest pain be managed with acupuncture, and nothing here should delay emergency care.

Note what the list does and does not contain. It is thoracic and cardiac — consistent with the T5 level and with the Heart pairing — but it carries no explicit mental-emotional indication, despite the name. That is worth stating plainly: the spirit association comes from the name and the classical system, while our recorded indications are physical. A reader should know which is which rather than have them blended.

How it is combined. With BL-15 Xin Shu at the same level on the inner line — the classical inner-and-outer pairing. With REN-14 Ju Que, the Front-Mu point of the Heart, in the front-and-back pairing. With HT-07 Shen Men for the spirit. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication record; BL-15, REN-14 and HT-07 classifications queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is BL-44 Shen Tang located?

BL-44 is on the upper back, three cun out from the midline, level with the lower edge of the fifth thoracic spinous process — the same level as BL-15 Xin Shu. The outer Bladder line runs parallel to the inner one, three cun from the midline rather than 1.5.

• 3 cun lateral to the midline, level with T5
• Level with BL-15 Xin Shu on the inner line, and with DU-11 Shen Dao on the midline
• The whole outer line is counted from the vertebrae — there is no palpable landmark of its own

Three lines, one level. At T5 this library holds three points across the back: DU-11 on the midline, BL-15 at 1.5 cun, BL-44 at 3 cun. That pattern repeats down the spine, and it is the reason miscounting a vertebral level is the commonest error on the back — it moves a point to a different organ’s territory while the lateral distance stays right.

On the name. “Shen Tang” — Spirit Hall. A hall is a room of consequence, and the naming convention across the five spirit points is consistent: door, hall, gate, abode, chamber. Each is a dwelling for the spirit of the organ whose Back-Shu point lies beside it.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; BL-15 and DU-11 levels queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 304): 3 cun lateral to the midline, level with the lower border of the spinous process of the fifth thoracic vertebra (T5) and level with Xinshu BL-15.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 185): 3 cun lateral to Shendao (DU-11), at the level of the lower border of the spinous process of the fifth thoracic vertebra, on the spinal border of the scapula.

How is BL-44 Shen Tang needled, and what is the pneumothorax risk?

The standard texts record oblique insertion to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable — and this is a thoracic paravertebral point, so pneumothorax is the documented hazard. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents, not instruction for a reader.

• Angle and depth as recorded: oblique, 0.3–0.5 inch. The oblique angle and the shallow depth are both features of thoracic back points, and both exist for the same reason.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: trapezius and rhomboid overlie the point, with the erector spinae group beneath; the ribs and intercostal spaces lie deep to those, and the pleura beneath them.

A measurement that describes this point directly. A study of 319 patients aged 4–18 at a single Taiwanese hospital measured skin-to-pleura safe depth at 23 named points on chest CT, and BL-44 is one of them: 20.31 ± 7.79 mm in boys and 19.19 ± 7.01 mm in girls. Notably, the sex difference at BL-44 was not statistically significant, unlike at most of the 23.

Read that figure carefully. It is paediatric, from a single centre, from patients rather than healthy children; weight was the strongest determinant at all 23 points. A measured distance to the pleura is not a recommended needling depth. No adult measurement at BL-44 was located. Note also that for the Governing Vessel points this same paper measures skin to the epidural layer instead — BL-44 is off-midline, so the skin-to-pleura figure is the applicable one here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged); measured depth from PMID 26922245 / PMC4769822 (Ma YC et al., BMC Complement Altern Med 2016;16:85).

Is there research on BL-44, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates BL-44. Where the point appears it is one component of a back or thoracic protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point. The one piece of genuinely point-specific data in this record is the anatomical measurement above — and that describes where a structure lies, not whether needling helps.

The outer line is where classical theory is at its most explicit, and that is the real reason to read this page. Five points, five organ spirits, each placed beside its organ’s Back-Shu point and named for what it houses. Whatever one makes of the theory, the structure is unusually legible and it is preserved intact in our own data — the levels, the names and the pairings all check out against the inner-line records.

An honest limit. Our recorded indications for BL-44 are physical rather than mental-emotional. The spirit association is carried by the name and the system, not by the indication list. This library’s standard is to report both and let a reader see the difference, rather than importing spirit indications from the theory into a record that does not hold them.

A note on searching for it. “BL 44” and “Shentang” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — shentang is also a common term in Chinese meaning a hall or shrine. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification, indication and location records; the inner-line pairings queried from our own data); PMID 26922245 / PMC4769822 for the measurement.