DU-24 (Shen Ting) Spirit Court

What does DU-24 Shen Ting do?

Shen Ting DU-24 is the Governing Vessel's forehead point and one of the tradition's principal points for calming the spirit — its name, "Spirit Court", states the function outright. It sits on the midline just inside the front hairline, where the Du Mai crosses the forehead on its way over the crown, and Sacred Lotus sources & references record it as a Meeting Point of the Governing Vessel with the Bladder and Stomach channels. That meeting is not decorative: the Bladder channel begins at the inner eye and runs up over the forehead, and the Stomach channel begins beside the nose, which is why a single midline point on the forehead carries indications for both the eyes and the nose as well as for the mind.

• Benefits the brain and calms the spirit — the primary action recorded in our sources, and the basis of the point's use for anxiety, palpitation, insomnia, agitation and the more severe disturbances the classics group under epilepsy and mania.
• Eliminates wind and benefits the head — for headache, heaviness of the head, dizziness and vertigo, the Du Mai being the channel the tradition holds to govern the yang of the whole back and head.
• Benefits the nose and the eyes — for nasal congestion, running nose, nosebleed, loss of smell, and for painful, watering or blurred eyes; this is the action carried by the meeting with the Bladder and Stomach channels.

The organising idea is that the Du Mai enters the brain, and DU-24 is the point on it that sits directly over the frontal lobe. Where DU-20 Bai Hui at the crown is used to raise and consolidate yang, DU-24 at the forehead is weighted toward settling — quieting an overactive mind rather than lifting a sunken one.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category and the recorded actions above); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 557; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 234; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is DU-24 Shen Ting used for?

Shen Ting DU-24 is used above all for insomnia, anxiety and palpitation, and for frontal headache and dizziness — the mental-emotional and head indications of a spirit-calming point on the forehead. The indications recorded in our sources fall into a spirit group, a head group and a nose-and-eye group. They describe traditional use, not proven treatment.

• Insomnia
• Anxiety and agitation
• Palpitation
• Epilepsy
• Headache, particularly frontal headache
• Dizziness and vertigo
• Rhinorrhoea and nasal discharge
• Nasal congestion and loss of smell
• Nosebleed
• Painful, red or watering eyes

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 234; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 557.

Where is DU-24 Shen Ting, and how is it used in practice?

Shen Ting sits on the midline of the forehead, half a cun back from the front hairline — about a fingertip's width inside the hairline, directly above the point midway between the eyebrows. DU-23 Shang Xing lies half a cun further back along the same midline, so the two are neighbours on the same short stretch of the Governing Vessel. In people whose hairline has receded the point is measured from where the hairline would ordinarily fall rather than from the present edge, which is the usual source of error in finding it.

Which points is DU-24 combined with?

• With DU-20 Bai Hui — much the most frequently recorded pairing, and the one that dominates the modern research literature described below. The two take the front and the top of the Governing Vessel between them, and are used together for mental-emotional complaints, poor memory and impaired concentration. In some styles a single long needle is laid transversely from DU-24 back toward DU-20.
• With GB-13 Ben Shen bilaterally — GB-13, "Root Spirit", lies on the same hairline level three cun to either side. The three points form a small transverse group across the front of the head that appears repeatedly in modern Chinese scalp-needling work on cognition; both points are held in this library, and their names — Spirit Court and Root Spirit — announce the shared intent.
• With the extra point Yin Tang — the pairing most often used for insomnia and anxiety, joining the point at the hairline to the point between the eyebrows. Our Yin Tang record notes that some modern Western teaching gives that point the informal half-number "DU-24.5" because it falls on the Governing Vessel line between Shen Ting DU-24 and Su Liao DU-25; that is a convenience label, not a formal designation, and Yin Tang remains classified here as an extra point.
• With HT-07 Shen Men and P-06 Nei Guan — the standard distal partners for insomnia, anxiety and palpitation, adding the arm points to the head point. Both are held here.
• With LI-20 Ying Xiang and DU-23 Shang Xing — for nasal congestion and running nose, joining the point beside the nostril to the two forehead points on the midline.
• With BL-02 Zan Zhu and the extra point Tai Yang — for frontal headache and for eye complaints, all three lying within the same region of the forehead and temple.

Where does DU-24 sit among the points around it?

The Governing Vessel points of the front and top of the head held in this library run DU-20 Bai Hui at the crown, DU-23 Shang Xing one cun inside the hairline, DU-24 Shen Ting half a cun inside it, DU-25 Su Liao at the tip of the nose and DU-26 Shui Gou below it. Of these, DU-20 and DU-24 are the two the tradition treats as spirit points; DU-26 is the revival point for collapse, a different order of use altogether. Off the midline at the same level lie GB-13 Ben Shen and the Bladder-channel points BL-03 Mei Chong and BL-04 Qu Cha, and further out at the corner of the hairline ST-08 Tou Wei. The extra point group Si Shen Chong, also held here, encircles DU-20 rather than DU-24 and belongs to the crown group.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location, categories and cross-referenced point records — the neighbouring Governing Vessel points, GB-13 and the Yin Tang note were confirmed by query, not from memory); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 557; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 234; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is DU-24 located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 557): At the top of the head on the midline, 0.5 cun posterior to the anterior hairline and 0.5 cun anterior to Shangxing DU-23.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 234): 0.5 cun directly above the midpoint of the anterior hairline.

How is DU-24 Shen Ting needled in the textbooks?

Reference record only — this documents what the standard texts state, not instruction for a reader. The single governing fact at DU-24 is that the frontal bone lies immediately beneath the skin, so the texts record transverse, subcutaneous insertion only; perpendicular insertion is not a documented option at this point. Sacred Lotus sources & references record subcutaneous puncture of 0.3-0.5 inch, or pricking to cause bleeding. Deadman & Al-Khafaji (p. 557) and Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 234) likewise record transverse insertion along the scalp, directed either backward toward DU-23 and DU-20 or forward toward the hairline according to the complaint.

• Angle documented: transverse (subcutaneous), threaded between the skin and the bone; the direction of threading is recorded as varying with the indication.
• Depth documented: approximately 0.3-0.5 inch in our record; the reference texts describe a comparable shallow transverse range, and longer transverse threading toward DU-20 is described in scalp-needling styles.
• Reason for the angle: anatomical, not cautionary. Over the frontal bone the scalp is a thin layer of skin, dense connective tissue and the galea directly on periosteum. There is no depth to insert into, and contact with periosteum is sharply painful, so a transverse plane is the only one the tissue allows.
• Bleeding technique: our record documents pricking to cause bleeding as a traditional alternative at this point. It is recorded here as a documented method, not described procedurally.
• Moxibustion: our record does not note moxibustion at DU-24.

Safety reference. DU-24 lies over solid bone at the front of the cranial vault, with no body cavity, organ or major vessel beneath the point, and it carries none of the depth-related hazard that attaches to the points of the nape or the thorax. The relevant characteristics are local and minor: the scalp and forehead are richly vascular, supplied here by the supratrochlear and supraorbital vessels, so bruising and brisk bleeding on withdrawal are the ordinarily documented occurrences, and are conspicuous because the site is on the face. Our sources record no pregnancy contraindication for DU-24. Standard clean-needle practice applies. Acupuncture is performed by qualified practitioners; this record documents the literature and is not a technique guide.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 234; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 557; standard descriptive anatomy of the scalp over the frontal bone.

What does the name Shen Ting mean?

Shen Ting means "Spirit Court" — shen, spirit or mind, and ting, a courtyard or forecourt, the open space in front of the main hall of a traditional Chinese building. The reading is architectural. If the head is the hall in which the spirit resides, then the forehead is the courtyard before its door, and DU-24 stands at the threshold. Commentators make the point that a courtyard is where a visitor is received and settled before entering — the image behind the point's use to quiet an agitated mind rather than to stimulate it. The name is also read against its neighbours: GB-13 Ben Shen, "Root Spirit", lies to either side at the same level, and DU-23 Shang Xing, "Upper Star", just behind. Few areas of the body carry so dense a cluster of spirit and celestial naming, and the naming itself is evidence of how the region was understood.

Why does the meeting-point classification matter at DU-24?

Sacred Lotus sources & references record DU-24 as a Meeting Point of the Governing Vessel with the Bladder and Stomach channels. A meeting point is one where more than one channel is held to pass, and it inherits indications from each. That is the technical explanation for an indication list that would otherwise look mixed: the spirit and head indications belong to the Governing Vessel, which the classics describe as entering the brain; the eye indications follow the Bladder channel, which begins at BL-01 at the inner canthus and runs up across the forehead; and the nose indications follow the Stomach channel, which begins at ST-01 below the eye and runs down beside the nose. Reading the classification tells you why one midline point on the forehead is recorded for insomnia, for watering eyes and for a blocked nose at the same time.

Is there research on DU-24 Shen Ting?

DU-24 is unusual among head points in having a real body of research attached to it — but almost all of it studies DU-24 in a fixed pair or trio with other points, chiefly DU-20 Bai Hui, and most of it is animal work. There is no adequately powered trial isolating DU-24, and the site does not claim otherwise.

• Post-stroke cognitive impairment, randomised controlled trial. Fifty patients were randomised to standard care with rehabilitation alone, or to the same plus acupuncture at DU-20 and DU-24 only, once daily, five days a week for four weeks. Both groups improved on the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, with significantly greater improvement in the acupuncture group (Zhan J et al., Zhongguo Zhen Jiu 2016;36(8):803-6, PMID 29231563). This is the most directly relevant clinical study located: the tested variable really is the two-point prescription rather than a large protocol. It is nonetheless small, single-centre and unblinded, with an open no-acupuncture comparator.
• Alzheimer's disease model, brain imaging in rats. Eighty rats were used to build an Alzheimer's model and then allocated to model, non-point and point groups, the point group receiving acupuncture at GV24 with GB-13 bilaterally, with positron emission tomography before and after. The model animals showed reduced glucose metabolism across olfactory, insular, orbital, prelimbic, striatal, parietal, visual and cingulate regions; the point group showed extensive increased metabolism in the thalamus, hypothalamus, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and brainstem compared with the non-point group (Cui S et al., Behav Neurol 2018;2018:8740284, PMID 29854022, PMC5952587). Animal mechanism work, and the comparison against a deliberate non-point is its strength.
• Alzheimer's disease model, biochemistry in rats. Sixty rats were divided into control, model, electroacupuncture and non-point groups, with electroacupuncture at GV24 and bilateral GB-13 daily for four weeks. The treated group performed better on cognitive behavioural testing and showed lower hippocampal levels of amyloid beta and of tau phosphorylated at serine 396 and serine 404 (Yang Y et al., Neuroreport 2020;31(15):1072-83, PMID 32881772, PMC7515480). Again animal work, and again with a non-point control.
• Vascular dementia, animal network meta-analysis. A systematic review and network meta-analysis of 29 randomised animal studies covering 659 rats found acupuncture significantly improved cognitive performance against the model condition, ranked manual acupuncture above electroacupuncture, and identified DU-20 with DU-14 as the best-performing two-point combination; DU-24 appears within the multi-point regimen the authors identify as most effective overall, alongside DU-04, DU-14, DU-16, DU-20, DU-26, P-06, P-07 and P-08 (Song Y et al., Syst Rev 2025;14(1):80, PMID 40186311, PMC11971794, PROSPERO CRD42024551402). Note carefully what this shows: it is a synthesis of animal trials, and DU-24 features as one point in a nine-point regimen rather than as the tested variable.

Trials of acupuncture for insomnia, anxiety or depression that include DU-24 among a dozen needles measure the protocol and not this point, and are not presented here as though they were about it.

How does DU-24 differ from the points near it?

DU-23 Shang Xing lies half a cun behind it on the same midline and shares much of its nose and head territory, but is weighted more toward the nose and less toward the spirit; it is also recorded here as one of Sun Si-miao's Ghost Points, which DU-24 is not. DU-20 Bai Hui, at the crown, is the other great Governing Vessel spirit point and is classified here as a Point of the Sea of Marrow and a meeting point of four channels with the Du Mai; where DU-20 raises and holds yang up, DU-24 is the settling point of the pair, and the two are more often used together than apart. The extra point Yin Tang, between the eyebrows, is DU-24's closest functional partner for calming and the point it is most often confused with in Western teaching for the reason given above — but it is an extra point, not a Governing Vessel point. GB-13 Ben Shen lies laterally at the same level and carries the spirit naming without the midline Du Mai status. DU-26 Shui Gou, below the nose, shares the spirit territory only in the sense that both concern consciousness; DU-26 is the acute revival point and belongs to a different kind of use entirely.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (name, categories and cross-referenced point records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, p. 557; Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, p. 234; PubMed PMID 29231563, 29854022, 32881772, 40186311, each checked as active and not retracted; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.