GB-15 (Tou Lin Qi) Head Overlooking Tears

What does GB-15 Tou Lin Qi do?

GB-15 eliminates wind, benefits the head and alleviates pain, and it benefits the nose and eyes. It sits just inside the hairline, directly above the pupil.

• Eliminates wind, benefits the head and alleviates pain
• Benefits the nose and eyes — the action its tearing and nasal indications rest on

It is a Meeting Point of the Gallbladder and Bladder channels with the Yang Linking Vessel (Yang Wei Mai) — and that vessel runs through this whole scalp stretch: our GB-16, GB-17, GB-18 and GB-19 records all carry a Yang Wei designation too. Five consecutive points on one vessel is a strong showing, and it is what makes this run coherent as a group.

The second tou/zu pair on this channel, and it is a systematic feature rather than a coincidence. The Gallbladder channel runs from the head to the foot, so its names can repeat — and where they do, the disambiguator is built in. Querying our own records returns two such pairs on this channel:

• GB-15 Tou Lin Qi (head) and GB-41 Zu Lin Qi (foot) — this pair
• GB-11 Tou Qiao Yin (head) and GB-44 Zu Qiao Yin (foot)

Contrast what happens where the convention is missing. Our complete name audit found eight genuine collisions in which two points share a pinyin outright with no qualifier — including Tong Gu, held as the bare name for both BL-66 on the little toe and KI-20 on the abdomen. The wider literature distinguishes those as Zu and Fu Tong Gu, exactly as this channel does for its own pairs. The Gallbladder channel shows the convention working; the collisions show what is lost without it.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category, action and translation records; every tou- and zu-prefixed name and every pinyin duplicate queried and counted, and the GB-16 to GB-20, GB-41, GB-44, BL-66 and KI-20 records checked, against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is GB-15 Tou Lin Qi used for?

GB-15 is used for headache and vertigo, for watering eyes and pain at the outer corner of the eye, and for runny or blocked nose. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Headache
• Vertigo
• Lacrimation (watering of the eye)
• Pain in the outer canthus
• Rhinorrhoea (runny nose)
• Nasal obstruction

Its name is its indication, which is unusual. “Lin Qi” means overlooking tears — and lacrimation sits in the indication list. Most point names in this library describe a position or a landscape image; a name that states a symptom, and is then borne out by the record, is worth pointing to. Our BL-63 record notes a comparable case where the recorded action states the point’s own classification outright.

Six entries covering head, eye and nose — it is the fullest list on this scalp run. Comparing our records: GB-16 carries four, GB-17 only two, GB-18 four and GB-19 six. GB-17 is the sparest by a clear margin.

An honest note. Vertigo requires medical assessment — sudden vertigo with headache, double vision, weakness, slurred speech or unsteadiness is a medical emergency, since those can indicate a stroke affecting the balance centres. A red or painful eye requires assessment; some causes are sight-threatening and urgent. Persistent watering of one eye needs assessment, as does persistent or one-sided nasal obstruction. Sudden severe headache, or headache with fever and neck stiffness, requires urgent assessment. This record documents classical use only.

How it is combined. With GB-14 Yang Bai directly below on the forehead, and GB-16 behind it on the curve. With DU-24 Shen Ting and ST-08 Tou Wei, the two points our record measures it between. With BL-01, BL-02 and Yu Yao around the eye, and LI-20 Ying Xiang for the nose. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and translation records, with the indication lists of GB-15 to GB-19 counted and compared; the BL-01, BL-02, BL-63, DU-24, GB-14, GB-16, LI-20, ST-08 and Yu Yao records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is GB-15 Tou Lin Qi located?

GB-15 is on the forehead half a cun inside the hairline, directly above GB-14 — and midway between DU-24 on the midline and ST-08 at the corner of the forehead.

• 0.5 cun within the anterior hairline, directly above GB-14 Yang Bai
• Midway between DU-24 Shen Ting and ST-08 Tou Wei
• GB-16 Mu Chuang lies 1.5 cun behind it, on a curved line running back to GB-20 Feng Chi

Three independent references for one point, which is unusually generous. Our record gives GB-15 by hairline depth, by a vertical from GB-14, and as a midpoint between two named points. Most locations in this library rest on one or two. Where three agree, the point can be placed confidently and each reference checks the others — the same advantage our BL-05 and SJ-12 records note for their own doubly-given positions.

And it anchors a chain of its own. Our GB-16, GB-17 and GB-18 records place those points at 1.5 cun intervals along a curved line from GB-15 back to GB-20, following the contour of the cranium. That is a fourth kind of construction on the head, distinct from the fraction-of-a-span methods this library has documented elsewhere: equal steps along a defined curve. An error at GB-15 shifts all three.

The hairline problem, and why it matters less here. Our BL-03 record sets out the difficulty: a receded or asymmetrical hairline removes the reference, and the classical answer is proportional. GB-15 is protected by its other two references — the pupil line through GB-14, and the DU-24-to-ST-08 midpoint — neither of which depends on hair.

On the name. “Tou Lin Qi” — Head Overlooking Tears. Tou is head, distinguishing it from GB-41 Zu Lin Qi on the foot; lin qi is to look down on, or overlook, tears.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged including all three references; the BL-03, BL-05, DU-24, GB-14, GB-16, GB-17, GB-18, GB-20, GB-41, SJ-12 and ST-08 records queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 432): On the forehead, directly above Yangbai GB-14, 0.5 cun within the anterior hairline, midway between Shenting DU-24 and Touwei ST-8.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 212): On the head, directly above the pupil and 0.5 cun above the anterior hairline, at the midpoint of the line connecting Shenting (GV 24) and Touwei (ST 8).

How is GB-15 Tou Lin Qi needled?

Our own record states SUBCUTANEOUS insertion — the needle laid along under the skin — to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. 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: subcutaneous (transverse), 0.3–0.5 inch — the same insertion our records give at GB-16, GB-17, GB-18 and GB-19. All five points of this scalp run are recorded identically, and identically again to the Bladder channel’s BL-03 to BL-09 run and the Governing Vessel’s head points.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable at all five.
• Regional anatomy: the frontalis muscle and the epicranial aponeurosis lie beneath thin skin; the supraorbital and supratrochlear nerves and vessels ascend from the orbital rim into this region; the frontal bone lies directly beneath.

Why subcutaneous, and why that is the whole safety story. There is bone immediately under the scalp, so the transverse angle is what the anatomy permits rather than a stylistic choice. This is a low-hazard point in that specific sense: no cavity, no organ, no major vessel. The scalp is richly vascular and bleeds readily — a nuisance rather than a danger.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at GB-15 could be located, and none is borrowed. Neither measured-depth study this library uses reaches the head: the paediatric CT covers 23 points on the trunk and shoulder, the MRI six on the lower back. No case report naming GB-15 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged, and the recorded insertions across GB-15 to GB-19 compared; the point lists of PMID 26922245 and PMID 36075596 confirmed not to include GB-15), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on GB-15, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates GB-15. Where the point appears it is one component of a headache, eye or rhinitis protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point. A caution specific to the region also applies: “scalp acupuncture” is a distinct modern system with its own zones and its own trials, and it is not the same thing as the classical channel points on the head.

What this page can state with confidence. GB-15 is given three independent references in our own record — hairline depth, a vertical from GB-14, and the DU-24-to-ST-08 midpoint — which is unusually generous and means the hairline problem matters less here than at most scalp points. It anchors an equal-step chain: GB-16, GB-17 and GB-18 sit at 1.5 cun intervals along a curve from GB-15 to GB-20. It carries the fullest indication list of the five points on that run. And its name states a symptom that its own indication list bears out — overlooking tears, and lacrimation is recorded.

The naming convention is the wider point. GB-15 Tou Lin Qi and GB-41 Zu Lin Qi — head and foot — are one of two such pairs on this channel, with GB-11 and GB-44. The Gallbladder channel runs head to foot, its names repeat, and the disambiguator is built in. Eight points elsewhere in this library share names with no qualifier; this channel shows what the convention is for.

A note on searching for it. “GB 15”, “G 15” and “Linqi” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — and “Linqi” alone will return GB-41 on the foot as readily as this point. Search on Tou Lin Qi, or on the code. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (category, action, indication, location and translation records; every tou/zu pair and every pinyin duplicate counted by query, and the GB-16 to GB-20 records compared, against our own data).