DU-10 (Ling Tai) Spirit Tower

What does DU-10 Ling Tai do?

Ling Tai DU-10 sits on the midline of the upper back, in the hollow below the sixth thoracic vertebra, and its recorded work divides in two: it alleviates cough and wheezing, and it clears heat and resolves toxicity — which is the classical language for treating boils, carbuncles and furuncles. Sacred Lotus sources & references record both actions directly. The second is the one that makes this point distinctive: among the whole run of Governing Vessel points on the thoracic spine, DU-10 is the point the tradition names for skin sores of the deep, hot, painful kind, and that association is old and specific enough to be the first thing a reader should learn about it.

• Clears heat and resolves toxicity — the action DU-10 is best known for. "Toxicity" (du) in this literature is the term for a localised, hot, suppurating process, and the classical indication attached to this point is ding chuang — the deep-rooted boil or carbuncle. Our own use record for DU-10 carries exactly that: carbuncles, furuncles and boils. This is one of the few points in the repertoire whose principal classical use is dermatological.
• Alleviates cough and calms wheezing — the second recorded action, and the one that follows from position. DU-10 lies on the midline in the middle of the band of the back the tradition assigns to the Lung, level with the lower angle of the shoulder blades' region and directly between the two Lung-related Bladder lines. Cough, asthma and breathlessness are recorded among its indications for that reason.
• Releases the exterior and reduces fever — the general Governing Vessel action, shared with its neighbours. The Du Mai is described as the "sea of the yang channels", and its thoracic points are used at the onset of an external invasion with fever and chills.
• Relaxes the spine and alleviates back and neck pain — the local action, and the reason the point appears in our indication record for back pain and neck rigidity as well.

DU-10 carries no five-shu, yuan, luo, xi-cleft, back-shu, front-mu or meeting-point classification in Sacred Lotus sources & references, and none is invented here. What it has instead is a position and a reputation: the midline point at T6, and the tradition's boil point.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel and existing action and use records; absence of any point category confirmed by direct query); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 541); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 230); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is DU-10 Ling Tai used for?

Ling Tai DU-10 is used for two quite different things: boils, carbuncles and furuncles — the classical use that gave the point its reputation — and cough and wheezing. After those come back pain and neck stiffness. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are cough, asthma, furuncles, back pain and neck rigidity, with carbuncles, furuncles and boils recorded separately in the use record; the standard reference literature sets them out more fully below. They describe traditional use, not proven treatment, and this point carries the reference facts about the thoracic midline set out under needling.

• Boils, carbuncles and furuncles — the classical ding chuang indication
• Recurrent skin infections and hot, painful, deep-rooted sores
• Cough
• Wheezing, asthma and shortness of breath
• Fullness or oppression of the chest
• Fever with chills at the onset of an illness
• Pain and stiffness of the upper and middle back
• Rigidity of the neck with difficulty turning the head
• Pain along the spine at the level of the shoulder blades
• Malarial disorders with alternating chills and fever
• Jaundice recorded in the classical texts
• Nausea and vomiting, where the Governing Vessel points of this band are used together

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication and use records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 541); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 230).

Where is DU-10 Ling Tai, and how is it used in practice?

Ling Tai lies on the midline of the back, in the depression immediately below the tip of the spinous process of the sixth thoracic vertebra. Sacred Lotus sources & references give it that way in both location records. The practical landmark chain in this region runs from the lower angle of the shoulder blade, which sits at about the level of the seventh thoracic spinous process — the level of Zhi Yang DU-09, one point below — so DU-10 is found one vertebra up from there, or by counting down from the prominent seventh cervical vertebra at Da Zhui DU-14.

In practice DU-10 is used in three registers. As the classical boil point it is treated for skin sores, often by moxibustion or by pricking to bleed rather than by retained needling — this is the use that is oldest and most specific to it. As a midline point of the Lung band it is used for cough and wheezing alongside the Bladder-channel points to either side. And as a Governing Vessel point of the thoracic spine it is used with its neighbours in the linear "along the Du Mai" arrangements that the modern trial literature favours. Sacred Lotus sources & references record moxibustion as applicable at this point.

Which points is DU-10 combined with?

• With Du Shu BL-16 — the Bladder-channel point one and a half cun to each side at exactly the same T6 level. Sacred Lotus sources & references define BL-16 by reference to Lingtai: "1.5 cun lateral to Lingtai (DU-10)". Its name, "Governing Shu", makes the relationship explicit — it is the Bladder line's point for the Governing Vessel itself, sitting beside the Governing Vessel point. The three of them form a transverse row across the back at T6.
• With Shen Zhu DU-12 and Da Zhui DU-14 — the Governing Vessel points above, for cough, wheezing and fever. DU-14 at the base of the neck is the meeting point of the Governing Vessel with all six yang channels of the hand and foot, and is the point most often added when the presentation is febrile.
• With Fei Shu BL-13 and Feng Men BL-12 — the Lung's Back-Shu point and the "Wind Gate", higher on the inner Bladder line. Midline plus paravertebral is the standard structure for the upper back in respiratory complaints.
• With Wei Zhong BL-40 and Qu Chi LI-11 — the classical distal partners for boils and heat toxicity, BL-40 traditionally bled for hot skin lesions and LI-11 the general heat-clearing point of the arm. This is the combination the classical texts attach to DU-10's dermatological use.
• With He Gu LI-04 and Xue Hai SP-10 — added for recurrent skin sores where the treatment is aimed at the blood as well as the surface.
• As part of a continuous Governing Vessel row. The modern trial literature tends to use DU-10 not as a single point but as one link in a chain along the thoracic spine. A randomised controlled trial in 70 patients with gastroparesis after gastrointestinal tumour surgery needled Shen Dao DU-11, Ling Tai DU-10, Zhi Yang DU-09, Jin Suo DU-08, Zhong Shu DU-07 and Ji Zhong DU-06 together with Zhong Wan REN-12 and bilateral Liang Men ST-21, Tian Shu ST-25 and Zu San Li ST-36, reporting shorter gastric-tube removal and diet-recovery times than conventional care alone (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2026;46(2):188–192, PMID 41741980). Every point in that list except REN-12 and the Stomach-channel points is held here.

Where does DU-10 sit among the thoracic Governing Vessel points?

The Governing Vessel runs up the midline of the back, with a point in the hollow below most thoracic spinous processes. Sacred Lotus sources & references hold the whole run, and the levels are what distinguish them: DU-14 Da Zhui below C7, DU-13 Tao Dao below T1, DU-12 Shen Zhu below T3, DU-11 Shen Dao below T5, DU-10 Ling Tai below T6, DU-09 Zhi Yang below T7, DU-08 Jin Suo below T9, DU-07 Zhong Shu and DU-06 Ji Zhong below that. DU-10 and DU-11 are the only adjacent pair in the thoracic run with no vertebra skipped between them, which makes them easy to confuse; the distinction is that Shen Dao DU-11 at T5 is the "Spirit Path", weighted toward the Heart — poor memory, anxiety, palpitations — while Ling Tai DU-10 at T6 is the "Spirit Tower", weighted toward the Lung and toward heat and sores. The two spirit-named points sit one vertebra apart and do different work.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (both location records, channel, and the complete Governing Vessel thoracic run and the BL-12, BL-13, BL-16, BL-40, LI-04, LI-11 and SP-10 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 541); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 230); PMID 41741980; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is DU-10 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 541): On the midline of the back, in the depression below the spinous process of the sixth thoracic vertebra.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 230): Below the spinous process of the sixth thoracic vertebra.

How is DU-10 Ling Tai needled, and why is the angle specified?

Stated plainly: DU-10 is a midline point on the thoracic spine, and the standard references do not record a perpendicular insertion here. Our own record specifies oblique, angled upward, 0.5 to 1.0 inch, with moxibustion applicable — and the angle is the safety fact, not a stylistic detail. Directly deep to the midline at this level lies the spinal canal; the lungs lie to either side. Unlike most points on the thoracic midline, DU-10 has been measured: the paediatric upper-back CT study described below measured this point specifically — at the Governing Vessel points it measured the distance from the skin to the epidural layer, which is the structure the oblique angle exists for — and its figure is given here with its limits. Everything below is neutral reference data describing what the textbooks and the published imaging studies state. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique. Needling is carried out only by a qualified, licensed practitioner.

The angle and depth the texts record

• Sacred Lotus sources & references record oblique insertion angled upward, 0.5 to 1.0 inch, with moxibustion applicable — the same figure our records carry for Shen Zhu DU-12 above it, Shen Dao DU-11 immediately above, Zhi Yang DU-09 immediately below and Jin Suo DU-08 lower down. The whole thoracic run of the Governing Vessel is recorded identically, which is itself informative: the constraint is the region, not the individual point.
• Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 541) and Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 230) record oblique superior insertion in a comparable range at the thoracic Governing Vessel points and attach a caution against deep insertion, because of the spinal canal beneath the midline at these levels.
• Why upward. The reason given in the reference literature is the shape of the thoracic vertebrae. In the mid-thoracic spine the spinous processes are long and slope steeply downward, overlapping one another like roof tiles. A needle inserted below a spinous process and angled upward travels underneath that process, along the bone; the same needle held perpendicular, or angled downward, points into the interlaminar gap and toward the canal behind it. The angle is what turns bone into a shield rather than a landmark. Our DU-12 and DU-08 records set out the same reasoning from their own levels.
• Moxibustion is recorded as applicable and matters here more than at most points, because the technique classically associated with DU-10's principal use — boils and carbuncles — is moxa or bleeding rather than retained needling. Neither carries the depth considerations that needling does.

The measured anatomy — and this point was measured

• A CT study that measured DU-10 itself. A retrospective study measured, directly from chest CT images, the safe needling depth at 23 upper-back acupoints in 319 patients aged 4 to 18 (205 boys, 114 girls) at a single Taiwanese hospital. The definition differs by point, and the difference matters here: for the Governing Vessel points on the midline, including this one, safe depth was defined as the distance from the skin surface to the epidural layer; only for the points off the midline was it the distance to the pleura. The 23 points were DU-09 to DU-14, BL-11 to BL-17, BL-41 to BL-46, SI-14, SI-15, GB-21 and SP-21. The abstract does not list them; the full text does, in Tables 2 to 6. The measured depth at Ling Tai DU-10 was 28.54 ± 8.47 mm in boys and 26.02 ± 7.67 mm in girls, a difference that was statistically significant at this point (P = 0.009). Across the five age bands the depth at DU-10 rose from 20.70 ± 3.62 mm at ages 4 to 6, through 23.64 ± 4.93 mm at 7 to 9, 28.86 ± 6.12 mm at 10 to 12 and 29.88 ± 7.74 mm at 13 to 15, to 32.84 ± 8.31 mm at ages 16 to 18 (P < 0.001). It rose with body size as well — from 25.88 ± 5.85 mm in the lightest weight-percentile group to 34.18 ± 13.32 mm in the heaviest (P < 0.001), and from 25.27 ± 5.47 mm in the underweight body-mass-index group to 33.58 ± 12.14 mm in the obese one (P < 0.001). Multiple regression identified weight as the single most important determinant at all 23 points (Ma YC et al., BMC Complement Altern Med 2016;16:85, PMID 26922245, PMC4769822, DOI 10.1186/s12906-016-1060-x).
• State the limits precisely. These are children and adolescents drawn from a single Taiwanese hospital population, all of them patients rather than healthy children; the figure is the distance at which the pleura is reached, which is a measurement, not a recommended needling depth; and it is a paediatric figure that says nothing directly about adults. Read the spread rather than the mean: a standard deviation of eight and a half millimetres in boys means individual children differed from one another by more than the entire span of the textbook insertion range, and the youngest band's average of twenty millimetres is under two centimetres of margin.
• The point beside it was measured too. Du Shu BL-16, one and a half cun lateral at the same T6 level — the point our own records define by reference to Lingtai — measured 24.15 ± 7.19 mm in boys and 21.89 ± 6.24 mm in girls (P = 0.004) in the same study. It is shallower than the midline point beside it, which is the anatomically expected result and the reason the paravertebral points rather than the midline ones are the ones that carry the pneumothorax caution.
• Adult figures, and the honest limit. No imaging study measuring a safe needling depth at DU-10 in adults could be located, and none is quoted. For adults, what is recorded here is the bounded depth and specified angle the reference texts give, together with the paediatric measurement above, clearly labelled. A CT study of 120 adults measured chest-point depths as a region without naming DU-10 (Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi (Taipei) 1992;50(5):388–399, PMID 1338010), and a companion paediatric study measured chest points in children aged 4 to 18 (Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2015;2015:126028, PMID 26457105, PMC4592721) — neither names this point.
• No single agreed safe depth exists for any point. Two systematic reviews of the safe-depth literature — 33 studies in the first, 47 in the second, by MRI, CT, ultrasound and cadaveric dissection — both concluded that measured depths for the same point differ greatly between subject groups and methods, and that "safe depth" has never been standardised (J Altern Complement Med 2011;17(3):199–206, PMID 21417806; Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2013;2013:740508, PMID 23935678). A textbook depth figure describes an average body, not a constant.
• What is beneath the midline here. Below the sixth thoracic spinous process, deep to the interspinous ligament and the ligamentum flavum, lies the epidural space and then the dural sac containing the spinal cord. That is the structure the recorded angle and bounded depth exist for. DU-10 is on the midline and therefore not itself over lung — but it sits in the middle of the band in which the lungs lie to either side, and the points one and a half and three cun lateral at this level are among those for which pneumothorax is the documented complication.

What the adverse-event literature documents for this region

• Spinal injury. Acute spinal epidural haematoma following acupuncture is documented in the neurosurgical literature with a review of previous cases (World Neurosurg 2017;102:695.e11–695.e14, PMID 28377250). The systematic reviews of the Chinese-language literature place traumatic central-nervous-system injury among the small number of genuinely serious recorded events and attribute them chiefly to improper technique (Bull World Health Organ 2010;88(12):915–921C, PMID 21124716, PMC2995190; J Altern Complement Med 2012;18(10):892–901, PMID 22967282).
• Pneumothorax, for the region rather than the point. A punctured lung is the second most frequently reported serious adverse event in acupuncture — 307 of 1,038 cases in the systematic review of the Chinese case literature from 1956 to 2010, behind only fainting (PMID 22967282). Fatal cases exist: an autopsy report describes bilateral pneumothoraces after electroacupuncture, the authors noting that electrical pulses and the muscle contraction they cause may draw needles deeper than the depth at which they were inserted (J Forensic Sci 2022;67(1):377–383, PMID 34435369). A case in the emergency-medicine literature describes pneumothorax presenting the day after needling for back pain, diagnosed on point-of-care ultrasound (Cureus 2021;13(3):e14207, PMID 33948398, PMC8086747) — a reminder, carried in the reference texts too, that a pneumothorax after needling over the back may declare itself hours later with sudden chest pain, breathlessness or a persistent dry cough, and is a medical emergency.

Risk in proportion

A meta-analysis of prospective clinical studies estimated serious adverse events from acupuncture at approximately 1 per 10,000 patients and around 8 per million treatments, with about half of all recorded events being bleeding, pain or flare at the needle site (Bäumler P et al., BMJ Open 2021;11:e045961, PMID 34489268). DU-10 does not itself feature in the adverse-event literature. It carries a specified angle and a bounded depth because of what lies under the midline of the thoracic spine — and, unusually for a midline point, there is now a measurement of its own to put beside them.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record, including its specification of oblique upward insertion; the DU-08, DU-09, DU-11, DU-12 and BL-16 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 541); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 230); PMID 26922245 (PMC4769822, full text Tables 2–4 — DU-10's own figures); PMID 1338010; PMID 26457105 (PMC4592721); PMID 21417806; PMID 23935678; PMID 28377250; PMID 21124716 (PMC2995190); PMID 22967282; PMID 34435369; PMID 33948398 (PMC8086747); PMID 34489268 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation.

What does the name Ling Tai mean?

Ling Tai means "Spirit Tower" — ling, spirit or numinous, and tai, a tower, terrace or raised platform. Sacred Lotus sources & references translate it exactly that way. The name is one of the older and more resonant in the repertoire: ling tai is a classical Chinese expression for the seat of consciousness or the heart-mind, borrowed from the name of a ritual terrace, and it appears in philosophical texts long before it appears as a point name. Applied to a place on the spine below the sixth thoracic vertebra, it marks the point as belonging to the region the tradition associates with the Heart and the spirit, one vertebra below the Heart's own Back-Shu level.

Its neighbour above uses the same vocabulary. Shen Dao DU-11 at T5 is the "Spirit Path"; Ling Tai DU-10 at T6 is the "Spirit Tower". Two spirit-named points, one vertebra apart, both sitting in the band of the back where the Heart's Back-Shu point Xin Shu BL-15 lies to either side at T5. The names record where the classical anatomy placed the spirit long before they record what the points are used for — which is worth knowing, because DU-10's actual documented uses are respiratory and dermatological rather than psychological, and a reader who arrives from the name alone would otherwise be misled.

Why is DU-10 the classical point for boils and carbuncles?

This is DU-10's real distinction, and it is worth stating properly. Sacred Lotus sources & references carry "carbuncles, furuncles, boils" as this point's recorded use, and "clears heat and resolves toxicity" as its action. In the classical scheme a boil of the deep, hot, hard, painful kind — ding chuang, sometimes translated "clove sore" — is understood as heat and toxicity concentrated at one place in the flesh, and the treatment principle is to clear that heat and disperse the concentration rather than to treat the skin locally. DU-10 became the point named for that principle. The reason offered in the reference literature is its position on the Governing Vessel, described as the sea of the yang channels: a point on the great yang midline is where the tradition reaches to drain yang heat from the whole surface of the body.

The technique that goes with the indication is worth knowing too, because it is not ordinary needling: the classical approach at this point for sores is moxibustion or pricking to bleed. Both are recorded, and moxibustion is carried as applicable in our own record. Very few points in this library have a dermatological indication as their leading classical use; DU-10 is the clearest case of one.

Is there research on DU-10 Ling Tai?

DU-10 has no trial of its own, and this must be said plainly. What it does have is a measurement taken at the point itself — which is rarer than a trial in this literature — and a place in a family of studies that needle the thoracic Governing Vessel as a continuous row.

• A measurement at this point. The paediatric upper-back CT study described in full under needling measured the skin-to-epidural-layer distance at DU-10 itself, in 319 patients aged 4 to 18, and reported its own figures by sex, age band, weight percentile and body-mass-index category, with weight the leading determinant (PMID 26922245, PMC4769822). It is the only study we could find in which DU-10 is the individually named object of measurement, and it is anatomical rather than clinical.
• Gastroparesis after tumour surgery. A randomised controlled trial in 70 patients needled six consecutive Governing Vessel points — DU-11, DU-10, DU-09, DU-08, DU-07, DU-06 — plus REN-12 and bilateral ST-21, ST-25 and ST-36, on top of conventional care. Gastroparesis severity scores fell further, gastric-tube removal and diet-recovery times were shorter, and the reported total effective rate was 91.4 per cent against 77.1 per cent (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2026;46(2):188–192, PMID 41741980). Ten points, unblinded, single-centre; the result belongs to the protocol.
• Gastro-oesophageal reflux cough, twice. A trial randomised 60 patients to needling of the dorsal segment of the Governing Vessel — the depressions below the spinous processes from T3 to T12, including Shen Zhu DU-12, Shen Dao DU-11, Ling Tai DU-10, Zhi Yang DU-09 and Jin Suo DU-08 together with three non-acupoint locations — or to omeprazole for eight weeks (Zhen Ci Yan Jiu 2019;44(2):140–143, PMID 30945492). A later randomised controlled trial used acupoint thread-embedding along the same Governing Vessel region for the same condition (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2025;45(8):1047–1052, PMID 40825686). Both treat a segment of spine rather than a point, which is exactly how DU-10 tends to appear in the modern literature.
• Smaller reports. DU-10 also appears in a case series of 34 patients treated for melasma with a Governing-Vessel-regulating protocol plus local surrounding needling (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2026;46(3):367–371, PMID 41839596) and in a published case report of adolescent psychogenic vomiting with Mallory-Weiss syndrome (Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2026;46(4):619–622, PMID 41987450). A case series and a single case are recorded for completeness, not as evidence.

What is missing should be said plainly: we could locate no randomised trial of DU-10 alone, no sham-controlled study of it, and no clinical study in which it is the point under test — and, notably, none at all testing its principal classical use, boils and carbuncles. Where it appears in modern protocols it is one link in a chain of spinal points, and nothing in those studies is attributable to it. Rather than cite whole-protocol trials as though they concerned this point, the accurate statement is that DU-10's standing rests on the classical record and on the reference literature.

How does DU-10 compare with the points around it?

Shen Dao DU-11, immediately above at T5, is the "Spirit Path" and is the Heart-weighted point of the pair — poor memory, anxiety, palpitations and cardiac pain — where DU-10 is Lung-weighted and heat-weighted. The two are one vertebra apart and are the pair most easily confused on this stretch. Zhi Yang DU-09, immediately below at T7 and level with the lower angle of the shoulder blade, is the "Extremity of Yang" and is the jaundice and damp-heat point of the run. Jin Suo DU-08 at T9 is the "Sinew Contraction", for spasm and rigidity. Shen Zhu DU-12 at T3 is the "Body Pillar", the great paediatric and moxibustion point of the upper back. Da Zhui DU-14 at the base of the neck is the meeting point of the Governing Vessel with the six yang channels and the region's principal fever point. Laterally, Du Shu BL-16 — "Governing Shu" — sits one and a half cun to each side at DU-10's own level and is defined in our records by reference to this point, with Yi Xi BL-45 three cun out on the outer Bladder line — also defined in our records as "3 cun lateral to Lingtai". And Xin Shu BL-15, the Heart's Back-Shu point, lies one level above at T5 beside DU-11. All are held in Sacred Lotus sources & references, and every point in this band shares the thoracic-midline reference facts recorded under needling.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name, translation, channel, absence of point categories, existing action and use records, and the DU-06 to DU-14 run and the BL-15, BL-16 and BL-45 records queried directly); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 541); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 230); PMID 26922245 (PMC4769822); PMID 41741980; PMID 30945492; PMID 40825686; PMID 41839596; PMID 41987450 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.