KI-04 (Da Zhong) Large Goblet

What does KI-04 Da Zhong do?

KI-04 is the Luo-Connecting point of the Kidney channel — the link across to the Bladder channel — and its recorded actions run from the Kidneys up to the Lung and out to the will. Our own record gives four, and the last of them is unusual.

• Reinforces the Kidneys — the organ action
• Anchors the qi and benefits the Lung — the Kidney’s classical role in grasping the breath
• Strengthens the will and dispels fear — the zhi, the Kidney’s spirit

What a Luo-Connecting point is for. Each channel has one, and it links that channel to its interior–exterior partner — here the Kidney (yin) to the Bladder (yang). The classical pairing uses the Luo point of one channel with the Yuan-Source point of its partner: KI-04 with BL-64 Jing Gu, or the reverse, BL-58 Fei Yang with KI-03 Tai Xi. Both partners are held here.

The fifteen collaterals, verified complete in our own data. The classical system counts fifteen, not twelve: one Luo point on each of the twelve channels, plus REN-15 Jiu Wei, DU-01 Chang Qiang, and SP-21 Da Bao, the great luo of the Spleen. Querying our records returns exactly those fifteen — LU-07, LI-06, ST-40, SP-04, HT-05, SI-07, BL-58, KI-04, P-06, SJ-05, GB-37, LIV-05, plus the three extras. A complete classical set with no gap and no surplus.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, category and action records; all fifteen Luo-Connecting points and the Kidney–Bladder Yuan/Luo pairing queried and verified against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is KI-04 Da Zhong used for?

KI-04 is used for coughing of blood and asthma, for stiffness and pain of the lower back, for difficult urination and constipation, and for pain in the heel. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Spitting of blood
• Asthma
• Stiffness and pain of the lower back
• Dysuria (difficult or painful urination)
• Constipation
• Pain in the heel
• Dementia

The list reads as the Kidney’s whole territory. Breathing (the Kidney grasping qi), the lower back (the Kidney’s residence), urination (the organ’s own function), and the heel — which is simply where the point is. That last one is the local indication, and it is the practical everyday use.

Two entries need honest framing, and they are the most important lines here. Spitting or coughing of blood is a medical emergency requiring immediate assessment. Asthma is a condition that can be fatal and requires medical management; nothing in this record should displace prescribed treatment or delay emergency care in an attack. And dementia requires medical diagnosis — the term here reflects a classical category of clouded or diminished mental faculty, not a modern diagnostic entity, and no claim is made that acupuncture treats dementia. This record describes classical use only.

Where this differs from the outer-line spirit points. Our BL-44, BL-47 and BL-49 records each note that a point named for an organ’s spirit carries an indication list that is entirely physical. KI-04 is the opposite case: its recorded actions name the will and fear, and its indication list does carry a mental entry. Where our source record holds spirit content this library reports it; where it does not, it says so.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the BL-44, BL-47 and BL-49 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is KI-04 Da Zhong located?

KI-04 is on the inner side of the heel, about half a cun behind the midpoint of the line from KI-03 Tai Xi to KI-05 Shui Quan, on the front edge of the Achilles tendon.

• Roughly 0.5 cun posterior to the midpoint between KI-03 and KI-05
• On the anterior border of the Achilles tendon, where it attaches towards the heel bone
• KI-03 Tai Xi is the Yuan-Source and Shu-Stream point, between the inner ankle bone and the tendon; KI-05 Shui Quan is the Xi-Cleft point, below it

Located from two other points rather than from bone. That is worth naming: KI-04’s position is defined by a line drawn between KI-03 and KI-05, so an error in either propagates. The Achilles tendon is the one firm landmark, and its anterior border — the edge nearest the ankle bone, not the back of the heel — is what the record specifies.

Three classifications in a small area. KI-03 Yuan-Source and Shu-Stream, KI-04 Luo-Connecting, KI-05 Xi-Cleft — three of the classical categories within a couple of centimetres on the inner heel. This is the same crowding our ST-42/43/44 and Pericardium wrist records describe, and the same consequence follows: mistaking one for a neighbour substitutes a category.

On the name. “Da Zhong” means Large Goblet, also rendered Large Bell — the same character covers both a bell and a stemmed cup, and the reading usually offered is the shape of the heel bone the point sits against. Positional rather than functional.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; KI-03 and KI-05 positions and classifications queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 342): Approximately 0.5 cun posterior to the midpoint of the line drawn between Taixi KID-3 and Shuiquan KID-5, on the anterior border of the Achilles tendon.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 192): Posterior and inferior to the medial malleolus, in the depression anterior to the medial side of the attachment of Achilles' tendon.

How is KI-04 Da Zhong needled?

The standard texts record perpendicular insertion to roughly 0.3–0.5 inch, with moxibustion applicable. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents, not instruction for a reader.

• Angle and depth as recorded: perpendicular, 0.3–0.5 inch.
• Moxibustion: recorded as applicable.
• Regional anatomy: the Achilles tendon lies immediately posterior; the posterior tibial artery, vein and tibial nerve pass through the tarsal tunnel anterior to the point, behind the medial malleolus; the calcaneus lies deep.

Hazard, stated proportionately. There is no body cavity here and no large vessel at the point itself — the neurovascular bundle runs in front of this position, closer to the KI-03 location between the malleolus and the tendon. The relevant local structure is the tendon, and the skin over the heel is thin. Our ST-42 and LU-08 records carry explicit arterial cautions of their own; our KI-04 record carries none, and none is imported here.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at KI-04 could be located, and none is borrowed. No case report naming KI-04 was located, and none is asserted.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged; the ST-42 and LU-08 arterial cautions queried from our own data and attributed to those points), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on KI-04, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates KI-04. Where the point appears it is one component of a protocol — heel pain, low back pain or a Kidney-pattern prescription — and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

Heel pain is the one area where a reader may find claims attached. Plantar heel pain has an acupuncture literature, but the protocols in it typically combine several points, and our own record gives heel pain as a local indication rather than as a researched application. Nothing here is presented as evidence of effect.

What this page can state with confidence. Two checkable things. KI-04 is the Luo-Connecting point of the Kidney channel, pairing with BL-64, the Yuan-Source point of the Bladder — and the full set of fifteen classical collaterals is present and complete in our own records, twelve channel points plus REN-15, DU-01 and SP-21. And its recorded actions genuinely include the zhi, the will, which several comparably-named points in this library do not.

A note on searching for it. “KI 4”, “KID 4” and “Dazhong” searches return protocol trials and a large volume of unrelated material — Dazhong is a common Chinese given name and also a word meaning “the masses”, appearing in company and publication names. Note also that our library codes this channel KI- while some sources use KID-. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (classification, action and indication records; the fifteen collaterals and the BL-64 pairing queried and verified against our own data).