DU-05 (Xuan Shu) Suspended Pivot

What does DU-05 Xuan Shu do?

DU-05 benefits the lumbar spine and benefits the lower jiao — a short, purely regional action list, and the shortest of any point on this stretch of the Governing Vessel.

• Benefits the lumbar spine
• Benefits the lower jiao

Its name describes the spine as a machine. “Xuan Shu” means Suspended Pivot — xuan is suspended or hanging, shu here in its sense of a pivot or hinge. The reading usually offered is that the point sits at the waist, where the trunk turns and bends: the pivot on which the upper body is suspended. It is a description of function in a mechanical sense rather than a classification.

Three “-shu” names on this stretch, and none of them is a Back-Shu point. DU-02 Yao Shu, DU-05 Xuan Shu and DU-07 Zhong Shu all carry shu, and all three sit on the midline. The Back-Shu points are a different set entirely, every one of them on the inner Bladder line 1.5 cun lateral. Shu in these three names carries its more general sense of a pivot or transporting place. Our records carry the same kind of trap at BL-07 (tian, not a Window of Heaven point) and BL-08 (luo, not a Luo-Connecting point).

Where the lower jiao action comes from. L1 is the upper boundary of the lumbar spine, and the classical lower burner is the region below it. DU-05’s digestive indications — diarrhoea and indigestion — sit on that action.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (vessel, action, location and translation records; the DU-02 and DU-07 names and the BL-07 and BL-08 name-trap records queried against our own data; no Back-Shu category is stored in our category fields, confirmed by query), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is DU-05 Xuan Shu used for?

DU-05 is used for pain and stiffness in the lower back, and for diarrhoea and indigestion. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full — three entries.

• Pain and stiffness in the lower back
• Diarrhoea
• Indigestion

Back and gut, and nothing else. The back entry is local; the digestive entries follow the lower-jiao action and the segmental level — L1 is where the nerve supply to the upper abdomen leaves the spine. It is a short, coherent list with no outlier, which is unusual on the Governing Vessel: DU-01, DU-02 and DU-06 all record epilepsy, and DU-05 does not. Where a neighbouring pattern does not extend to a point, this library says so rather than letting the reader assume continuity.

An honest note. Persistent diarrhoea, or diarrhoea with blood, weight loss, fever or night waking, requires medical assessment, and prolonged diarrhoea causes dehydration that itself needs attention. Indigestion that is new, persistent, or accompanied by weight loss, swallowing difficulty or vomiting needs assessment rather than repeated self-treatment. Back pain with leg weakness, saddle numbness or any change in bladder or bowel control is a medical emergency. This record documents classical use and should not delay any of that.

How it is combined. With DU-04 Ming Men below at L2 and DU-06 Ji Zhong above at T11. With BL-20 Pi Shu and BL-21 Wei Shu laterally — those are Back-Shu points, for the Spleen and Stomach. With ST-36 Zu San Li and SP-06 San Yin Jiao distally for the digestive indications. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the DU-01, DU-02, DU-04, DU-06, BL-20, BL-21, ST-36 and SP-06 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is DU-05 Xuan Shu located?

DU-05 is on the midline of the lower back, in the depression below the spinous process of the FIRST LUMBAR vertebra.

• On the midline, below the L1 spinous process
• DU-04 Ming Men lies below at L2; DU-06 Ji Zhong lies above at T11

Note the gaps in the numbering again. This stretch of the Governing Vessel is not one point per vertebra. DU-06 is at T11, DU-05 at L1, DU-04 at L2, DU-03 at L4 — which means T12 and L3 carry no Governing Vessel point, both confirmed by querying our own location records. A reader stepping mechanically down the spine will misplace every point below the first error, and the gaps are where that error starts.

How the count is established. The lumbar Du points are located by counting spinous processes, and the reliable check on the lower back is the intercristal line — the line between the tops of the hip bones, which crosses the spine at about L4, where DU-03 sits. Counting up three vertebral levels from there reaches L1. Our DU-03 record sets that landmark out in full.

On the name. “Xuan Shu” — Suspended Pivot. Mechanical and positional: the waist as the hinge of the trunk.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the DU-03, DU-04 and DU-06 levels queried and the absence of T12 and L3 points confirmed against our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 538): On the midline of the lower back, in the depression below the spinous process of the first lumbar vertebra.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 229): Below the spinous process of the first lumbar vertebra.

How is DU-05 Xuan Shu needled?

Our own record states perpendicular insertion of 0.5–1.0 inch, with moxibustion applicable — and DU-05 is the point in this run where the anatomy changes, because at L1 the spinal cord has NOT yet ended. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.5–1.0 inch.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the supraspinous and interspinous ligaments lie in the midline, with the lumbar erector spinae either side; the vertebral arch lies beneath, and within the canal at this level lies the lower end of the spinal cord itself together with the origin of the cauda equina.

The boundary this point sits on. The spinal cord ends at approximately the first or second lumbar vertebra in adults. Checked against the levels in our own records, that makes DU-05 the lowest point of this run at cord level:

• Below the cord terminus: DU-03 at L4, DU-04 at L2
• At or above it: DU-05 at L1 (this point), DU-06 at T11, DU-07 at T10, and every Governing Vessel point above

The exact level varies between individuals, and it is lower in infants and young children, so the boundary is not fixed. Our DU-03 record sets the same distinction out from the other side of it.

Hazard, stated proportionately. With the needle perpendicular in the midline the vertebral arch lies beneath it, and the recorded depth of half to one inch keeps it in ligament and muscle. This is not a high-hazard point. The reason the level is worth naming is not that the recorded technique reaches the cord — it does not — but that the margin above the arch is what the recorded depth respects.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at DU-05 could be located, and none is borrowed. The paediatric CT study this library uses measures the Governing Vessel points DU-09 to DU-14, skin to the epidural layer — and it does not include DU-05. No figure from it is carried across, and no case report naming DU-05 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; the recorded vertebral levels of DU-03 to DU-07 queried and compared; the point list of PMID 26922245 / PMC4769822 confirmed not to include DU-05), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on DU-05, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates DU-05. Where the point appears it is one component of a low-back or digestive protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence. DU-05 sits below the L1 spinous process, which places it at the lowest point of this run still at spinal-cord level — DU-04 and DU-03 below it are past the cord terminus. Its indication list is three entries, back and gut, with no epilepsy entry despite DU-01, DU-02 and DU-06 all carrying one. And T12 and L3 carry no Governing Vessel point at all, confirmed by query, which is where mechanical counting down the spine goes wrong.

A note on the name for anyone comparing sources. Three points on this short stretch end in -shu — DU-02 Yao Shu, DU-05 Xuan Shu and DU-07 Zhong Shu — and none of them is a Back-Shu point. Several Bladder-channel points ending in -shu are. The two groups are easy to conflate from a point list alone.

A note on searching for it. “GV 5”, “DU 5” and “Xuanshu” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material matched on transliteration. Our library codes this vessel DU- while much of the literature uses GV-. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location and translation records; the DU-01 to DU-07 levels and indication lists queried and compared against our own data).